Dell, paranormal romance, May 2009
Connections: book #6 in the Midnight Breed series

For this book, we step outside the Order (at least for the main characters): our hero is Andreas Reichen, leader of the Berlin Darkhaven that was destroyed by the bad guys in the prior book. Andreas was presumed dead along with the rest of his family and community, but no one realized the talent he inherited from his Breedmate mother saved him -- like a phoenix rising from the flames, he survived, and has been wreaking vengeance, one bad guy, one crooked Agency employee, at a time ever since.

Now, only one remains: Wilhelm Roth, the mastermind of the entire plot to destroy Andreas and his Darkhaven. Roth is also the Breed who stole the woman who should have been Andreas's thirty years before. Claire, Roth's Breedmate and Andreas's former lover, is the only link Andreas has to Roth -- her blood links her directly to Roth, but is Andreas still honorable enough not to exploit that link? Things get even more complicated when it becomes apparent that Roth is in league with Dragos, the Big Bad that the Order has been tracking over the entire series.

The pathos of Andreas's past plays out well alongside the action of chasing Roth and Dragos, though Andreas gets a little too self-pitying and self-sacrificial for my taste after a while. Claire elicits sympathy, though, especially for the degree to which she's willing to protect or chase down and stay with Andreas once she knows he's alive.

There is, however, one gaping plot hole that drove me batty from the moment I detected it (behind a cut for spoilers): ( Read more... )

Overall, this was a decent entry in the series -- good couple dynamics and a nice advancement of the overall Big Bad arc. I'm still committed to the series.

Review © 2009 by Riley's Reviews

Jove, paranormal romance, August 2009
Connections: set on Harmony, but stands alone nicely

Lyra Dore is an amber "tuner" and prospector with a grudge. Cruz Sweetwater and his family company, Amber Inc., stole her claim of a magnificent amethyst amber ruin in the underground rainforests of Harmony. That was three months and a very expensive lawsuit ago. Now Cruz is back, claiming that he not only needs her professional help, but also that on a personal level, they are meant to be together.

Honestly, Castle/Krentz/Quick books are comfort reads to me, and not much more. If I ever found something new and earthshattering in one, I'd really be shocked, but being classified as a comfort read isn't a bad thing, either. They're fairly interchangeable but nevertheless enjoyable and entertaining in general, not to mention re-readable years later (as proven in my recent Krentz marathon).

What stood out to me as fun in this book was Vincent, the painting dust bunny, and the running joke among the Sweetwaters that Lyra broke Cruz's heart. What bugged me is that all stones, no matter what color they are, are considered amber -- that's hard to wrap my head around, since here on Earth, amber is essentially petrified tree sap and amethyst is a form of quartz rock. But hey, I guess on Harmony, amber is similar to how all carbonated beverages in the southern US on Earth are "Coke" even when you order a 7-Up. Another thing that's a little confusing is the intertwining of the Arcane Society through the Quick historicals, Krentz contemporaries, and Castle futuristics -- with the publication schedules for paperbacks, one can get confused with all the references if one hasn't read the referenced books yet.

Still, I quite like the world of Harmony, and someday, I'll do a marathon re-read, and this book will be a part of that.

Review © 2009 by Riley's Reviews

HQN, paranormal romance, 2007
Connections: book #3 in the Atlantis series

In Gena Showalter's Atlantis, nymphs are a race who rely on sexuality to survive. If they go without sex for more than a few days, their strength wanes. As this story opens, Valerian, the nymph king, is in a bit of a pickle: he and his men have taken one of the dragon castles. They need their strength in order to hold it, but he had sent the female nymphs away for safety's sake during the battle, and now they're nowhere to be found. Finally, he weighs his men's needs against the warning he received from his ally, the vampire king, about how the surface world is fatal to Atlanteans, and decides to journey to the surface to obtain women. He never expected to find his destined mate on the surface.

Shaye Holling is a bitter, cynical woman, attending her mother's umpteenth wedding -- this one on a Florida beach, with her wearing a grass skirt and coconut bra. She's mortified and sulky and wants only to go home, but instead, gets dragged off into the ocean by Valerian and his men. She tells herself that no matter how attractive she finds Valerian or how fascinating Atlantis is, she won't give in.

In the meantime, another of the women taken by the nymphs, Brenna, has problems of her own. She wants nothing to do with men either, having a rather painful past, but finds herself torn between kind Shivawn, who claimed her, and dark, surly Joachim, who excites but intimidates her.

In truth, Brenna's story was more interesting to me. Shaye's and Valerian's story smacked a little too much of Stockholm Syndrome for my taste, which is a danger when it comes to fated mate stories. What bugged me a bit is Valerian going all caveman and "you're my woman" on Shaye, but never once explaining the concept of destined mates. About the only thing that makes this whole thing fair is that once a nymph finds his mate, he is unable to be with other women at all...so at least Valerian's man-whore days are over, and given that Shaye makes him really work for it, it soothes a bit of my unease about the forced situation.

Despite my misgivings, I still enjoyed my return trip to Atlantis, and I look forward to going back again.

Review © 2009 by Riley's Reviews

Jove, contemporary/paranormal romantic suspense, February 2009 (overpriced paperback edition)
Connections: part of the Arcane Society series

Raine Tallentyre hears voices in her head, but she's had to handle them mostly on her own -- when she was a child, her father was expelled from the Arcane Society, and she had only the help of her aunt Vella (also clairaudient) growing up. All that changes when she goes to sell her aunt's house after Vella's death, and the voices lead her to a woman being held captive in the basement. Apparently she has interrupted the work of a serial killer known as the Bonfire Killer. Vella's death also attracts the attention of the Society, and Zack Jones, whose talent is seeing visions when he touches an object, is dispatched to investigate Raine, Vella, and how they might tie into the disappearance of a Society researcher much like Raine's father.

A bazillion books in, it's hard to write a unique review for a JAK book. Other than the continuing plot of the Society trying to track down their nemesis, Nightshade, the characters are straight out of Krentz/Castle/Quick central casting. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but at the same time, there's not a lot to make the book memorable either.

A word to publishers in this economic climate: please, for the love of the gods, stop publishing in this ridiculous size and price! If it weren't for 25-30% discounts at some retail places, I wouldn't buy these books. But even then, after I get them home, I still have to fit them on my shelves, which can also be a PITA. So knock it off already!

Review © 2009 by Riley's Reviews

Dell, paranormal romance, January 2009
Connections: book #5 in the Midnight Breed series

Veil of Midnight has a fabulous hero, Breed warrior Nikolai, who actually doesn't seem to have a chip on his shoulder or something to prove. After four straight books of angsting vampire males, Nikolai is a refreshing change. It's a shame his heroine is Too Stupid to Live.

Nikolai is in Montreal, on the trail of Sergei Yakut, a notoriously reclusive and secretive Gen One Breed male. Nikolai is supposed to warn Sergei of a growing number of Gen Ones being assassinated, and hopefully, to ensure his help in tracking down the assassins. His method of entry into Sergei's stronghold is unexpected, even for him -- he gets psychically dropped by Renata, a Breedmate in Sergei's command. Sergei doesn't need the warning; just the week before, one of his coterie, a little girl named Mira with extraordinary powers, warned him of an intruder. Sergei also doesn't want to help; he'd rather rule in old-fashioned feudal brutality than join the cause.

But Sergei is killed, and the local Darkhaven leader sends the Breed Agency teams after Nikolai and Renata, leaving the two former antagonists no choice but to work together to save themselves and rescue Mira, who was kidnapped for her amazing gift of foresight.

Like I said, I liked Nikolai, but Renata drove me nuts. If her I-trust-you-no-wait-I-don't schtick wasn't enough, her blind pursuit of Mira's rescue makes her do the dumbest things. Then near the end, she really lets her emotions run wild as she disobeys one of the cardinal rules: when told to stay put and let the vampires take care of the bad guys b/c you're a mere human, you STAY PUT.

Renata aside, the overall story arc advanced nicely and took some nice twisty turns. I'll keep up with the series, but this was not my favorite book in it. I am quite looking forward to the next book, Ashes of Midnight, which is due out in May of this year.

Review © 2009 by Riley's Reviews

Avon Red, erotica, July 2007 (mass-market edition)
Connections: first book in the Pleasure Games series

This is the first of several stories set in the world of a libido research laboratory. Researcher Laura Manning and her lab partner Jay Cutler are working on a male libido suppressant, and the clock is ticking. The governing board of the lab will be deciding the fate of their work (and their funding) in just days' time, and they still need to make some crucial progress with their drug. Jay suggests they test the suppressant on him in addition to their lab rats. Laura's job will be to try to arouse Jay's supposedly suppressed libido. She figures that even though she's not his usual stick-figure woman, she'll do, and she might have some head-banging sex along the way.

OK, I'll admit it. The plot is completely, absolutely, and utterly ridiculous. If anyone in real life jumped testing protocol like this, especially to test it on themselves, the governing board, not to mention the FDA, would nail their asses to the wall, and if the company wasn't forced out of business, the scientists would only be able to get a job flipping burgers at McDonald's. Had I had expectations of realism, I would have hurled the book against the wall.

But if you can check reality at the door, this book is a red-hot, sexy romp. Deep it's not, but besides making readers need to fan their faces, it does strike some sweet emotional chords. Jay manages to boost Laura's confidence, and Laura convinces Jay that he's not a love 'em and leave 'em playboy like the other men in his family. Ridiculous premise or not, these two have palpable chemistry. And, of course, head-banging sex. But head-banging sex that's well written.

If you can't leave reality behind, skip this book, but if you want a sizzling read, check out Pleasure Control. It's a light, fun read that's a great escape.

Review © 2009 by Riley's Reviews

Berkley, mystery, 1997 (paperback reprint)
Connections: Book #1 in the Lily Bard series

After reading An Ice Cold Grave, I got the itch for more Charlaine Harris. I really like her stark prose and her straight-talking heroines. Lily Bard didn't disappoint me. Tough as nails, but also vulnerable, practical, private, and scarred, Lily is complex and interesting.

Lily is a one-woman cleaning service in the small town of Shakespeare, Arkansas. She's quiet and keeps to herself, but as the cleaning lady for a great deal of the town, she knows a lot of secrets. Her past haunts her and often she walks around the town at odd hours of the night, unable to sleep. On one of her jaunts, she's on her way back when she spots movement in her street. She sees a figure using her garbage cart to haul something in garbage bags to the park across the street. When the coast is clear, Lily checks it out and discovers the body of Pardon Albee, landlord to a great deal of property in town, in a garbage bag.

At this point, I was a bit yanked out of the story, and I'll tell you why. ( Read more... )

Qualms about the actual crime aside, I enjoyed reading about Lily and the denizens of Shakespeare – small-town charm with dark undercurrents. Lily's troubled past and the fact that she is clearly not able to put it behind her makes her sympathetic and extremely realistic. The characters, particularly Lily, made the book very readable, and I am definitely going to track down the other books in the series.

Review © 2008 by Riley's Reviews

Onyx, spy thriller, August 2008
Connections to: TV series Burn Notice

When this book came out, Burn Notice was about to go on hiatus until (hopefully only) January, so I snapped it up to act as a Michael Westen withdrawal patch, similar to how Doctor Who novelisations help me survive between series. And it mostly did its job.

In this story, Michael's juggling a lot of balls. A Russian woman sets up Fi to get his attention -- apparently she's in trouble with her country, supposedly b/c Michael ratted on her. But he didn't, so whoever's burned him is trying to keep him in trouble. Also, Sam brings him a client, a socialite named (I kid you not) Cricket O'Connor, whose new husband, supposedly a Special Forces guy, took her money and did a runner AND keeps sending men to intimidate her into giving up more cash.

I liked visiting with Michael and the gang. Tod Goldberg does an excellent job of keeping the characters in character, and I could almost hear Michael narrating just like he does on the show. The cases actually dovetail nicely as well.

What I didn't care for is, well, it's hard to explain, but I think the best way to put it is Burn Notice is best understood as a television show; in book form, you can get bogged down in too much detail, or not enough connecting of the dots for you to know exactly what is going on (which is the main reason I don't generally like spy novels in general). Another thing is that Mr. Goldberg seems to try to cram every character in the series into one book: we get Michael, Fi, and Sam, of course, but also Madeline and Nate, burn notice players, the client, the client's problem people, the client's problem people's problem people...it's an awful lot to take in.

Still, as a withdrawal patch, it mostly worked. And if you're a fan of the show, it might work for you too.

Review © 2008 by Riley's Reviews

Zebra, paranormal romance, September 2008
Connections: 5th and final book in the Nightwalkers series

When I first started reading Noah, I got spoiled for something and ranted about it. I read the book anyway, and though it wasn’t completely the fault of the spoiler, I think this book could have been much better than it actually was -- even though I did enjoy it.

Noah, the Demon King, is close to losing his control around the hallowed moon times, because he has not yet found his destined mate. But he dreams of her every night, so he finally goes to Druid “matchmaker” Corinne to find the mystery woman. The results are near-catastrophic: Noah ends up breaking the very laws of time and alienating his closest friends to save his mate, a dormant Druid hybrid named Kestra. He basically then spends the rest of the book talking Kestra into her new life and angsting about his anxiety over her stress. Oh, and he deals with some pesky rogue Vampires as well.

Spoilers ahead. I can’t talk about this book without discussing key points. So if you haven’t read it yet and don’t want to be spoiled, read no further.

I do have to say that as a person (well, Demon), Noah himself was a terrific hero: a great leader to his people, but still with his own quirks and faults and insecurities (and, of course, exceptional in the sack). The fact that he breaks the rules so thoroughly to get to Kestra provides incredible fodder for getting inside his head. You can feel real sympathy for a leader who loses control, especially when that’s the quality he most values, and especially when the cost to him is so high in terms of how it affects his family and friends.

So, Noah, yes, I loved him. Kestra wasn’t bad, but I also felt like we didn’t get to know her nearly as well as we did Noah -- or nearly as well as we should have. A horrible trauma in her past is related to us, then glossed over, as is how she went from being a peppy cheerleader to a Marine to a mercenary. Her angst over her entry into Noah’s life flips back and forth from “I want to run away from commitment” to blind acceptance, so her decision (which isn’t really a decision at all, given the fated mate structure of the Nightwalker world) doesn’t ring all that true to me.

The next thing I have a problem with is the rogue Vampire baddies. They’re really not all that relevant. In Damien it was revealed that the reason Vampires are forbidden to feed from other Nightwalkers is that they can absorb their powers. We already have Ruth doing that with Nico, so why do we need these rogues in this fleshed-out role? They’re destroyed at the end, so it’s not like they’re going to join forces with Ruth -- it all seemed rather pointless for them to be the focus, and such an incidental one at that.

Which brings me to the topic of my earlier rant: the complete lack of Ruth. I know my temper got away with me in that posting, but I stand by my point: Ruth is the Big Bad, and since this is the last of the Nightwalkers and she is one of Noah’s subjects, she really should have been dealt with once and for all in this book -- never mind that the series will somewhat continue with the Shadowdwellers. When all was said and done, even though Noah was the longest of the books in the series by far, I really don’t feel like I got anywhere with it -- no closure, no complete feeling, and that was a rather crushing disappointment after Damien gave me that “almost there” feeling. I enjoyed Noah while I was reading it, but I was left feeling incomplete and unsatisfied. I’ve already forgotten details of the book, but you know what stands out? No Ruth.

Review © 2008 by Riley's Reviews (and posted with my new MacBook ☺)

Jove, paranormal romance, September 2008
Connections: part of the Harmony series

OK, first thing, I have something to get off my chest: what is with the Jack Harkness look-alike in the bad wig on the cover?!

Moving along...

There's something comforting in knowing that when you pick up a Castle/Krentz/Quick book, you're going to get a spunky heroine and a brooding hero, both of whom are highly intelligent, and that they will form some sort of unconventional family by the end. Predictable, yes, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Harmony and all its alien weirdness is a fun place to visit.

Our heroine is Sierra McIntyre. Her family is considered aristocratic in Resonance, and as the "underachiever" in the family, she's moved to Crystal City for a new start as a reporter for the tabloid, the Curtain. Her main concern is the disappearance of retired Guild Hunters under mysterious circumstances, and how they might be linked to a new street drug call ghost juice. She has an interview with the new Crystal City Guild boss, John Fontana, to discuss her theories.

Fontana is a rarity for the upper echelons of Harmony: he's a bastard, literally. He has no family to speak of, and earned everything he had with his own effort -- in other words, a typical Castle heroine. He genuinely wants to clean up the Crystal City Guild, and he plans to propose to Sierra that they work together to fix things. Instead, on their first meeting, he ends up proposing marriage as a way of offering his protection and partnership.

Sierra is stunned, but agrees. It's only a Marriage of Convenience, after all. Just before their wedding, gang members try to kidnap Sierra. Then on their first night as husband and wife, someone tries to burn them out of Fontana's house, and they're only saved by escaping into the underground tunnels that permeate Harmony, and from there into the rainforest. Solving the mystery now becomes a matter of survival.

To be honest, I'm not entirely sure I buy Sierra and Fontana as a couple. Psychic link or not, they've known each other a few days. There were some elements to this story that seemed unnecessary, and others, like how Sierra's well-connected family deals with Fontana's lack of family, that weren't really touched on and I wish had been more deeply explored. There's mention of Sierra's grandmother being the only other family member to contract a Marriage of Convenience before committing to a Covenant Marriage -- I thought for sure we'd get more on that, but we didn't.

The standout character for me, however, was the dust bunny Elvis. He completely stole the show.

As I mentioned, a return to Harmony is a comfort read for me. I honestly don't know that I'm going to remember much about the plot or Sierra and John in a few weeks' time (Elvis, though, I will remember!), but it was certainly an enjoyable experience.

Review © 2008 by Riley Merrick

Zebra, paranormal romance, January 2008
Connections: book #3 in the Nightwalkers series

At the opening of this book, readers see Demon warrior Elijah in a very rare position: being vanquished by his enemies. He really is about to die, but before the human magic-users and necromancers led by the rogue Demons Ruth and Mary can guarantee his demise, they are scared off by the cry of a puma. The puma in question is really Siena, the Lycanthrope Queen, and she takes Elijah's bad wounded body to shelter.

"Shelter" happens to be a cave belonging to one of her retinue, since Siena can't move Elijah too far. A cave of extremely close quarters, where, naturally, attraction becomes a problem. Attraction leads to physical intimacy, which creates the even bigger problem that Destiny has selected Elijah and Siena for each other. Elijah is shocked, but not unwilling, whereas Siena flatly refuses to even acknowledge the possibility.

Though I absolutely loved the first two books in this series, Elijah fell a little flat for me in more ways than one. When playing with the concept of fated mates, an author has to be extremely careful. Ms. Frank came awfully close to crossing the line for me when it was implied that if Siena didn't comply with the whole concept of mating before Samhain, Elijah might just go moon-crazy and rape her. That bothered me. Siena's entire attitude towards men also bugged me. I can see her point, but she was so emphatic about it that it got irritating -- rather like the romance cliché of bad boy with a all-women-are-whores complex. And though in prior books I have liked Ms. Frank's lush prose, this time around, it just seemed too wordy.

The first half of the book really dragged for me, but it did pick up in the second half, doing much to redeem Siena in my eyes, and advancing the overall story arc. So though this book might have been a speed bump on an otherwise smooth road, it wasn't a pothole that ruined my entire trip...OK, so that was a weird metaphor, but I'm pretty sure you get my point.

Review © 2008 by Riley Merrick

HarperCollins, nonfiction, 2001
Connections: companion book to Food Network series of the same name

I know I did a quick 'n dirty commentary on this book several weeks ago, but I decided to go the full monty anyway, since more than one person has asked me why, as a dedicated vegetarian, I would even think of reading a book in which animal slaughter is a prevalent theme.

OK, first a quick summation: as indicated above, this is the companion book to Mr. Bourdain's Food Network show from almost a decade ago. In the show, he traveled to all these exotic locales in search of "the perfect meal," with mixed results, depending upon how bizarre the local definition of "delicacy" was. Among the places he goes are Portugal, Mexico, Scotland, France, Japan, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Russia, Morocco, and California. And while he doesn't eat anything as overtly disgusting as warthog rectum (which he ate not too long ago on his current Travel Channel show), there are some pretty out-there foods...if you can call them foods.

A little story about my history of owning this book: I bought it on a whim because I really heart Bourdain when he does his guest stints on Top Chef. The same day I bought it, we went to visit a family member in the hospital. Said family member is a bit of a foodie, so I loaned him the book, thinking it would keep him entertained in the hospital. Said family member is also not a vegetarian and not remotely squeamish. So imagine my surprise when the mister brought it back, saying said family member couldn't get through the first chapter. So I read it. The first chapter describes, in detail, the slaughter of a pig for a feast in Portugal. Considering my relative was in the hospital getting his guts opened up for surgery, I can see his inability to get past that first chapter. I think on any other day, he would have been fine with it.

Anyway, reading that chapter, as well as other slaughter incidents did disturb me. Even Bourdain said in the book that he felt a little guilty, but he also makes a very good point: you have to be able to handle where food comes from. I wouldn't be able to handle that, and that's why I'm a vegetarian.

Despite the fact that Bourdain never has two good words to put together about vegetarians, he's a pretty compelling personality, and he brings every stop on his tour into vivid life through the food, the people, and the atmosphere. His sojourn in Cambodia was downright scary. His occasional sidebars about why you don't want to be a TV star were amusing and provided a great little window on the production of the show. I was deeply amused to see his comments about driving in Asia, since they were almost a mirror of comments Douglas Adams makes in Last Chance to See. His meal at Thomas Keller's restaurant, French Laundry, in Napa, California, was a sublime experience even secondhand. I even felt for Bourdain when the show's producer's sent him to dine with vegans near San Francisco—it sounded like a miserable experience, and I'm a vegetarian!

Basically, if you like food, travel, philosophy, and Bourdain, A Cook's Tour is definitely worth a look-see—even if you are a vegetarian (but an open-minded one)!

Review © 2008 by Riley Merrick

Berkley Sensation, paranormal romance, March 2008
Connections to: follows Witch Fire

I absolutely loved Witch Fire, and I was so sure I was going to adore Witch Blood. Maybe my expectations were too high, maybe if I read it again some other day I would like it more, but honestly, and I really hate to say it, this book missed the mark for me.

Witch Blood starts off with some high-octane emotions and action, as water witch Isabelle Novak attempts to kill Stefan, the head of the warlock cabal whose demon-summoning activities resulted in the death of her sister. As Isabelle wars with her conscience between avenging her sister and breaking the most important precept of magick, harm none, the decision is taken out of her hands -- Thomas Monaghan, the head of the Coven, and his team intervene to arrest Stefan instead, hoping his knowledge will help them track down the demon that has been killing witches.

Isabelle joins forces with the Coven to track down the demon, who is living in this dimension under the name Erasmus Boyle. What they don't realize is that while they're investigating him, Boyle is hunting them. He needs a precise "recipe" of witch death magick to open a portal between realms and go home...and Isabelle is his ultimate ingredient.

While I found myself thoroughly caught up in the demon hunt and witchdom history aspects of the plot, the romance aspect between Isabelle and Thomas just didn't work for me. Unlike in Witch Fire, where there was a simmering chemistry between Mira and Jack and a slow and convincing build to consummation, Isabelle and Thomas went from passing acquaintances (if that) to shagging each other left and right, and then suddenly, whole-hearted forever love, all in the blink of an eye.

Ms. Bast tries to give the characters depth. Isabelle has a contentious relationship with her mother, who was more interested in her next conquest than her kids, and because of that, Isabelle herself is commitment-phobic and waffles between wanting to stay with Thomas and wanting to leave. I get it -- she's just using Thomas for the hawt secks, but the experience gives her a reason to want to stay and learn more. Thomas, on the other hand, despite hints of a mysterious past, remains a complete cypher. It's like Ms. Bast tried to drag her characters out into the light, but they didn't want to go. By the time the story was over, I didn't feel like I knew Isabelle or Thomas very well, and I wondered how well they really knew each other.

Finally, the plot that interested me so much completely derailed at the end. (behind a cut since it's spoiler-ish) ( Read more... )

If this series continues to a third book, I will keep up with it, because as I said, I do like the world Ms. Bast has built, and her prose is beautiful (there's one scene where Boyle says, "I can be nice to my dog, but I'd still kill it to get home," that gave me chills), but I just hope the next couple gets a more solid treatment and the plot doesn't go poof at the climax.

Sidebar: actually, the excerpt in the back for her next book (not a related book) was quite tantalizing, and I plan to check it out (even though it's a trade paperback, dammit).

Review © 2008 by Riley Merrick

Jove, paranormal romantic suspense, May 2008
Connections: Book #2 of the Sign of Seven trilogy

I can't remember now if I actually posted my thoughts on Blood Brothers after I read it, but in case I didn't, here's a quick summation:

Three boyhood friends in the small town of Hawkins Hollow spend the night of their 10th birthdays (they were all born on the same day) camping in the woods. When they make a vow to be blood brothers over a stone formation known locally as the Pagan Stone, they unleash some kind of demonic force, which wreaks havoc on the town through infecting the townspeople every seven years. Having lived through three "Sevens," as they call it, the men are now facing another round.

But this time they have help in the form of three women who are drawn to the town. The first, Quinn, writes books on the supernatural. She pairs up with Cal in book #1. Their romance was perfunctory at best, and I could already see that Fox and Layla would pair up, as would Cybil and Gage. The demonic aspect of the storyline was interesting, but the romance was bland and just...blah.

And you know what? I feel pretty much the same way about The Hollow. Fox, the town lawyer, and Layla, the NY-based shop assistant, share an affinity for empathic powers -- basically, reading minds. Fox wants Layla to hone her power for their upcoming fight with the Big Evil Bastard, as the group calls the demon. Layla is at first afraid, because their research has shown that the women all descend from a village girl who was raped by the demon in human form back in the day. But with little fanfare, Layla agrees, and mayhem and romance ensue. The mayhem's decent; the romance lacks oomph.

I'll finish out the trilogy to satisfy my curiosity about the demon plot, but if you're looking for a traditional focus on romance, these books aren't going to satisfy you. If you like La Nora's writing style, you'll still like them.

Another gripe I have about this trilogy is its release dates. By the time this one came out, I had already forgotten a lot of the finer points about the plot setup from the last one. And now I have to wait until December to read the conclusion -- a conclusion that, plotwise, takes place in July? That sucks big-time! This trilogy would have better served its audience with back-to-back releases, like some of La Nora's other trilogies.

Review © 2008 by Riley Merrick

Ballantine, historical romance, January 2008
Connections to: first in Courtship Wars trilogy

I have enjoyed Nicole Jordan's books in the past, but goddess help me, I couldn't help but be leery when I saw the outline for this trilogy: three beautiful, impoverished, and scandal-tainted sisters wanting to live independent lives without a guardian and/or marriage. And of course their new guardian is young, handsome, and rich, and comes with two ready-made equally young, handsome, and rich friends. Setup and clichés, anyone?

But like I said, I decided to trust Ms. Jordan, and I'm glad that I did. True, she's working with heavily used (OK, overused) historical romance standards, but it's what she does with the characters that makes this book worth reading.

Arabella Loring is the eldest of the three sisters, so she takes it upon herself to inform Marcus Pierce, the new Earl of Danvers, that she and her sisters have no desire to have him as a guardian or to have him settle generous dowries on them to marry them off. Instead, they would rather continue to run their deportment school for the daughters of the nouveau riche without his interference. Marcus is, of course, intrigued by this gorgeous spitfire and thinks since he has to marry anyway, he may as well marry Arabella, because at least she holds his interest for more than five minutes. So they make a wager: if he can woo her in two weeks, she'll marry him; if he can't, she wins independence for herself and her sisters.

Pretty standard stuff so far, but now is where the fun kicks in, when Ms. Jordan gives both main characters depths beyond the cookie-cutter standards of spinster and rake. Arabella is attracted to Marcus, but she refuses to let him into her heart – her only experience of marriage was her parents' constant arguing, which culminated in her mother running off with her lover and her father dying in a duel shortly afterward, resulting in the defection of Arabella's own fiancé due to the scandal. Her only models of manhood were her profligate father, her fickle fiancé, and the prior Earl of Danvers, who took out her parents' sins on her and her sisters.

Marcus realizes this and is up to the challenge of breaking through Arabella's walls, but in the process he finds his own depth of feelings – and insecurities. I like how his motives change – I rolled my eyes when he pretty much instantaneously decided to marry Arabella, but I really admire the emotional journey he took. When he originally thought he wanted a hot bedmate and an incubator for heirs, he discovered that there's more to women than bedding and breeding. But now that he knows that, can he ever convince Arabella that he's not like her father, her former fiancé, or her previous guardian? It's lovely and sweet (and hot) watching Marcus first seduce Arabella's body, and then try to entice her mind and heart as well, because while he is an expert with the former, he's at sea with the latter. And what makes him even more special in my eyes is that he's discovering all this on his own; no one, and especially not Arabella, is pushing him to see things in a new light -- his transformation is entirely his own, and therefore more credible.

I do have a few issues with this story: the clichés, as I mentioned, but then there is also the fact that Arabella and Marcus are pretty much unchaperoned much of the time. Scandal-tainted or not, it really wasn't that simple for single women to have affairs in this period of time. But if you can set all this aside, it's very easy to enjoy the chemistry and emotion that Arabella and Marcus have to share with readers.

Review © 2008 by Riley Merrick

BBC Books, science fiction/TV tie-in, September 2006
Connections to: part of Doctor Who New Adventures series, ties in to TV series

In this story, we join The Doctor and Rose as they land in 22nd-century Africa, where something bizarre is happening even before they land. There are a lot of complicated threads in this tale, so I'll see if I can sum them up:

1. Africa is still a third-world country in which genetically engineered crops are grown, but grown to feed the rest of the world, not Africa.
2. The Director of the agri-program The Doctor and Rose land in is conducting weird experiments with growing fungus he hopes will be edible (right now, it's poisonous) and solve world hunger. The fungus is grown in bat guano in Mount Tarsus.
3. Rebel and activist activities are rampant around the agri-unit, each with their own group and personal agendas -- the rebels wanting to steal the food and the activists wanting to take down the rebels.
4. Strange golden globules are turning people and wildlife into golems to protect something deep in the volcano.

So then The Doctor and Rose arrive at it gets even weirder. There's a bizarre alien excavating Mount Tarsus for his mysterious "sponsors," but he swears he has nothing to do with the golems -- he's just there to steal the artwork buried in the volcano. His sponsors turn out to be the Wurms, a gross and yes, wormlike, alien race who are so destructive that they have hunted the remnants of their enemies' civilization across the universe to destroy it.

So now The Doctor has to stop the Wurms from completely destroying what's left of the other race (forgive me, their name escapes me), stop the other race from converting humanity into an army to fight the Wurms, and basically keep these two warring factions from destroying the Earth. Oh, and save Rose, who was turned into a golem. Simple right? Of course, he's The Doctor.

Of the books in the series I've read so far, this is probably my least favorite. Stephen Cole relies heavily on description, yet still doesn't manage to paint a good picture in my head. For instance, the alien art thief seems to have six tongues, multiple arms with scorpion-like pincers, and five eyes. But he's also wearing a suit. And somehow looks like a cactus. And the Wurms are huge, white, and part mechanical. Their spaceship is apparently made of dirt. I got so hung up in trying to picture these things that I lost the multiple threads of the plot for a while, which were difficult enough to keep track of without adding over-description into the mix.

However, I ultimately still enjoyed the book because, well, The Doctor. No matter who writes him, reading a book with him in it is like visiting an old friend, and is a terrific hold-me-over until the next TV series airs.He's quirky, fun, rude, and just altogether fantastic.

Review © 2007 by Riley Merrick

SMP, paranormal romance, October 2007
Connections to: fourth novel of the Others series

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

This entry in the series about the Others focuses on Noah Baker, the completely human brother of Abby from The Demon You Know, and pack member Samantha Carstairs. Sam's best friend, Annie, is a brilliant pack scientist who's working on some top-secret genetic project. Sam urges Annie to tell Graham Winters, the Alpha, what she's up to, but Annie begs for more time, to which Sam reluctantly agrees, which isn't going to be easy, since she herself works closely with the Alpha as his secretary.

In the meantime, she has to share her office with Noah, who is staying at the Others' Vircolac Club to recruit middle-of-the-hierarchy ranking weres for possible employment by his Army unit, which deals with policing Others. Or so he says. He's really there, very much against his better judgment, as a spy for a top brass who wants him to steal Annie's research. He views his assignment as separate from his attraction to Sam. Sure, the fact that Sam is Annie's best friend looks really bad, but he wants Sam for who she is and not who she's friends with.

I enjoyed reading this book, but I really have a problem with Noah. He's doing something he KNOWS IS WRONG, and only when he is caught being sneaky does he 'fess up and apologize. On top of that, Sam lets him off entirely too easily. After showing the entire pack that he was up to no good, humiliating and betraying Sam, he goes to her and is all, "I'm sorry, you have to trust me," and though she cries a lot about it, she very quickly transitions to, "Okies, I forgive you, now let's have sex!"

Another point that jarred is the ending. Sam gets SLIGHTLY injured and Noah absolutely wigs out and won't get freaky with her, even though she heals right in front of him and he's acknowledged at several points during the book that as a were, she's so strong and could rip his throat out without breaking a sweat. I guess this bit's supposed to show how love changes a man, but like the easy forgiveness, this easy forgetfulness of Sam's strength seems insulting. A lot about these two characters just doesn't ring true.

Nonetheless, it was nice to be among the Others again. It was an interesting addition to the canon, if a far from perfect one.

Review © 2007 by Riley Merrick

Dell, paranormal/contemporary fantasy, August 2007 (mass-market edition)
Connections to: first book in the Fever series

MacKayla "Mac" Lane had a normal life -- she's 22, tends bar, and has a happy family life -- until her older sister was murdered in Dublin. After she finds a voicemail from her sister that came to her defunct cell phone hours before she was killed, Mac is determined to discover the truth. Against her parents' wishes, she goes to Dublin to do her own investigating, since the police seem to be stonewalling the family.

When she gets there, her entire world is turned upside-down as she finds out that she and her sister were not as close as she thought. Friends and teachers in Dublin describe a different girl than the one Mac knows -- withdrawn and secretive, her behavior indicating a drug addiction, and in thrall to a mysterious lover no one can describe. Then Mac finds out that she and her sister are Sidhe-Seers, humans with the ability to see through Fae glamor. Not only that, but Mac herself is a Null -- if she touches a Fae, she can freeze it. Mac's sister's message urges her to find the Sinsar Dubh, a Dark Fae Hallow that, when properly translated, can give its user power over all the realms.

In Mac's stumbling attempts to get answers, she meets the Fae, who are far thicker on the ground in Dublin than they were in her small town in Georgia. There's the Grey Man, who sucks youth and beauty from his victims, the Many-Mouthed creature, the Shades, and a seemingly endless host of nasties she has to learn to pretend not to see so she can survive -- if the Fae realize she is a Seer, they will kill her. Help and added pressure arrive in the form of Jericho Barrons, a mysterious bookstore owner who offers to train Mac -- but only because he's after the Sinsar Dubh himself and Mac's abilities include being able to detect the Hallows. A Fae Prince named V'Lane also wants Mac to find the book for him, ostensibly so he can turn it over to its "rightful" owner, his Queen. But who knows if anyone Mac meets can be trusted?

That's basically this book -- it's all the discovery and the setup, with very little payoff. No questions are answered, and almost no progress is made. I really wish Ms. Moning had given us something as a reward, but even so, I like the setup and will stick with the series for now. I should warn fans of Ms. Moning's earlier works that although "romance" is stamped on the spine, there's none here. There's the potential for romance, but anyone looking for a traditional romance with a definitive HEA will not be happy. But for others who are more open-minded and have liked Ms. Moning's style in the past, give Darkfever a shot.

Review © 2007 by Jennifer Minnick

Signet, paranormal romance/urban fantasy, September 2007
Connections to: book 5 of the Black Dagger Brotherhood series

Why am I so addicted to this series? Honestly, I’ll read one book, and it’ll drive me insane with all its faux hip-hop culture, name-dropping, and bizarre vocabulary, and yet, when the next book comes out, there I am all over again. Lover Unbound was no different. I read the excerpt in the back of the last book, and thought "Ye gods, I’m going to skip this one." And I did hold out – for all of a month. I couched it as an experiment. This time, I was going to keep track of all those words whose usage drives me nuts – and I justified doing it with a new book because I wasn’t sure I could bring myself to re-read an older one. Yeah, right – that was just my addiction doing a little rationalizing.

Anyway, center stage in this book belongs to Vishous, the Brother who’s an IT genius, has visions of the future, a freaky glowing hand that somehow helps Butch vaporize lessers without sending them back to the Omega to fight another day, and, oh yeah, is a Dom who’s been harboring fantasies about his best friend Butch. One night, V gets shot after wasting a lesser, and because he was on his own, gets taken to a human hospital before any of the Brothers can find him. He fixates on his doctor, trauma surgeon Jane Whitcomb, and when the team arrives to extract him and wipe his existence from the hospital’s files and the memories of its workers, he insists that Jane be brought back to the compound. She’s his destined mate, you see. As for Jane, no matter how many times she mutters "Stockholm syndrome" to herself, she still falls for V in the course of a couple of days. But how can a human and a Brother make it work, especially when V is slated to become the Primale, the warrior who spiritually marries all of the Scribe Virgin's handmaidens for the sole purpose of procreation? Of course, the Scribe Virgin will go all deus ex machina on their asses, but the form it takes is unusual.

V’s backstory is an interesting one, and Ms. Ward finally clears up (or tries to) all the homoerotic elements about his relationship with Butch. On the surface, the argument makes sense to someone who really, really, really wants to deny the homoeroticism in this series, but frankly, that still doesn’t explain the scene in Lover Awakened when V, Butch, and Phury get freaky solo but together in the same bed. What makes even less sense is the sudden change in his Dom/Sub preferences. I’m not saying that a person can’t switch orientation or roles, but especially in the latter, if said person has been consistently one, for them to change to the other with all the ease of a light switch being flipped? Maybe it’s happened, but it doesn’t ring true for me.

This book is more than just V and Jane. Also on deck is John, the mute pretransition vampire who’s probably the reincarnation of Darius, or at the very least, the son of Darius. John goes through his transition (finally) to the tune of a ton of angst over missing Tohrment and Wellsie. Phury gets a great deal of attention in this book too – he’s angsting about loving his twin’s wife, resenting his virginity, and gaining an understanding of why Zsadist used to crave physical pain so much. I have to say that sometimes, I was happier to be reading about these two than about V and Jane, especially after the tepid and anticlimactic ending they were handed.

Now, back to my little test. I took some of the commonly used terms in this series and counted how many times they were used in this book, just for shits and giggles. I only took the terms that are actual words in the real world – though I must say that there was a marked (and welcome) decrease in the made-up words this time around. Here are my figures:

*MALE: 106 times
*FEMALE: 89 times
*TRUE (as in "true dat"): 12 times
*FEEL (as in “feel me?”): 10 times
*MY BROTHER: 9 times
*BRAND NAMES (of any sort): 36 times

So some words weren’t used as much as I thought they would be, and some I suppose are necessary (calling a vampire a male instead of a man to show the difference, yeah, I get it), but they can still get old. And I have to say this: I find it extremely odd that EVERYONE talks the same. OK, I can see the Brothers having the same speech/thought patterns, and I can see the pretrans/new vampires sharing that language, but Jane and her boss, Manny (about which there was some incredibly clunky hints as to sequel fodder) also talk and think the same way. Is Caldwell, NY, some kind of weird bespelled town, where everyone there is a hip-hop wannabe, just like everyone in Eureka is a certified genius of some sort? Oh yeah, except for the Chosen. They talk like Yoda, for some weird reason.

I nitpicked a lot in Lover Unbound, but thanks to all the tidbits about Phury, I’ll still read the next book. Dammit.

Review © 2007 by Riley Merrick

Avon, historical & contemporary romance, August 2007
Connections to: part of the Rick & Sam series

Remember when Nora Roberts did Remember When? This book is sort of like that, featuring two stories, generations apart, about the same piece of jewelry.

In "Diamonds or Forever," we meet Evangeline Munroe, a marriageable girl whose eccentric aunt has just given her a family heirloom: a diamond necklace that brings bad luck unless the possessor can set it aside and not attempt to "own" it. Evangeline's model for marriage is her overbearing beeyotch of a mother and her meek father, so her plan for marriage is to find a man who's amenable to being bossed around. That man is definitely not Connoll Addison, the Marquis of Rawley, but the cursed diamond keeps throwing them together so much that she can't resist his attractions. Now it's up to Connoll (who is, refreshingly, a cheerful rake with no baggage, who understands how to create a happy marriage) to convince Evangeline that a marriage of equals is really what she wants.

This story is what I would term a "wallpaper historical" -- there's no depth to the historical aspects, just your basic obligatory mention of phaetons and Almack's -- but it's still fun in its own way. I was definitely glad to see Evangeline out from under her mother's thumb, and I thoroughly enjoyed making Connoll's aquaintance. The way everyone kept "experimenting" with cursing various other cast members with the diamond was quite amusing, as was Connoll's ultimate solution of burying the diamond in the stable walls.

In "Diamonds Are NOT a Girl's Best Friend," we're in more familiar territory: modern-day England with Rick Addison, the current Marquis of Rawley, and Samantha Jellicoe, reformed cat burgler turned security specialist. Rick has agreed to host a travelling show of jewels from the Victoria & Albert Museum at his ancestral estate. In converting the old stables into the display gallery, Sam finds the cursed diamond. Rick is fascinated with the thing, but puts no stock whatsoever in his ancestor's note, which warns of the curse. Sam, on the other hand, is extremely superstitious by nature, and she does all she can to make Rick see that the curse is real.

Amid a multimillion-dollar jewel exhibit, with ex-lovers coming out of the woodwork and professional reputations on the line, readers are treated to yet another delightful game of emotional cat and mouse between the millionaire and the cat burglar. I laughed myself silly over Rick and Sam's attempts to prove their respective points by planting the cursed gem on each other, and was thrilled as the two passed another emotional milestone in their relationship.

Of the two stories, I definitely preferred the latter, and wished that the whole book's focus could have been on Rick & Sam. I think the book could have worked very well as a contemporary with integrated flashbacks of the diamond's origins, rather than as two separate stories. I think it could have been richer and more satisfying -- even though I did enjoy it as it is, I kept thinking it could have been better. I was thrilled to see that Enoch's next full-length Rick & Sam book will be out later this fall, so I will happily view Twice the Temptation as a sweet little bonus.

"Diamonds or Forever"

"Diamonds Are NOT a Girl's Best Friend" 1/2

Review © 2007 by Riley Merrick