ROC, contemporary fantasy, April 2007
Connections to: second book in series

Clairvoyant and ghost sensitive Cassandra Palmer’s situation in Claimed by Shadow can best be summed up using this passage on page 8:

A legacy from an eccentric seer had recently left me Pythia, the title for the world’s chief clairvoyant. Agnes’ gift came with a whopping amount of power that everyone wanted to either monopolize or eradicate, but I was stuck with it for the moment since she’d thoughtlessly died before I could figure out how to give it back. I hoped to pass it on to someone else, assuming I lived so long, but in the meantime, Tony wanted to kill me, the Senate wanted to make me their stooge, and, oh, yeah, I’d also managed to piss off the mages. What can I say? I’m an overachiever.

As the book opens, Cassie is in one of Tony’s Vegas clubs, trying to coax his subordinate, the incubus vampire Casanova (yes, that Casanova), to tell her where Tony went to ground, since she found out he’s not only the one who killed her parents, but he’s also in league with Myra, the Pythia’s rejected heir apparent. Casanova won’t budge on Tony’s whereabouts, but his incubus nature detects a newly active geis, or spell, that has been laid on Cassie. The geis is basically a giant mystical hands off sign, guaranteeing that not just anyone can take Cassie’s virginity – the ritual that brings a Pythia into her full powers.

Cassie instantly guesses who placed the geis on her: Mircea, the deadly powerful and drop-dead sexy vampire she’s adored since childhood. But since he’s a member of the Senate, going anywhere near him at the moment is not an option. Then Casanova offers up the troubling information that this particular type of geis is tricky, and can backfire by engaging the caster (Mircea) and the recipient (Cassie) in an unhealthy obsession with each other – yet another reason to steer clear of Mircea in the present time. To make matters even worse, the geis is interfering with her powers and her protective wards.

On top of all that, Cassie finds out that Tony and Myra have taken refuge in Fairy, and that Myra is still using her innate talent of time-travel to screw up Cassie’s present. So Cassie and her ragtag team of allies, both willing and reluctant – Mage Pritkin, his friend Mac, Kit Marlowe, Cassie’s ghost companion Billy, and Tomas the vampire – have to take on Tony, Myra, and the Fae with the odds very much stacked against them. So what else is new? *g*

I don’t know if it’s because I was more familiar with Cassie’s world or what, but I enjoyed this book considerably more than I did Touch the Dark. Some of the elements I found confusing in the latter, particularly the time travel and body possession, are still present, but they’re much less confusing this time around – although I’m still a little puzzled over the ultimate fate of the famous and stark-raving mad Dracula.

But puzzlement is nothing compared with the breakneck pace of the action and the just plain fun romp Ms. Chance provides with this unique world. I love how she weaves her own complex plot lines with the various mythologies – here mages, vampires, ghosts, demons, the fae, and demigods all share the stage, and the ensemble is just so entertaining. In this entry, I was particularly amused by the Graeae and the way they tagged along after Cassie.

Ms. Chance also does an excellent job managing the sexual tension between Mircea and Cassie – I really like how they both resist as well as they are able, because neither wants to be ruled by something not under their control. If they ever lift the geis, I think they would be a match for each other. As for Tomas, it’s interesting how his character has changed. I was fully prepared to hate him, but Ms. Chance surprised me with this one, and I didn’t hate the turn the plot took in his direction.

Like Touch the Dark, Claimed by Shadow has an open ending – there are unanswered questions, but at the same time, there’s no gnash-your-teeth-in-frustration cliffhanger. I like that some of the questions have been answered, so that they’re not dragged out indefinitely, and that there are some new roads for Cassie to take in the next book. When is that coming out anyway? Now that I’m well and truly hooked on Cassie’s world, the new release can’t happen soon enough for me.

1/2

Review © 2007 by Riley Merrick

Samhain, romantic suspense, February 2007 (print edition)
Connections to: book #2 of the Chase Brothers series

Remember how Shane Chase made a royal dumbass of himself with Maggie in Giving Chase? Well, in this book, he trips over his own feet in his rush to commit, and it's soooo fun to watch.

Shane meets the woman of his dreams when his mother rear-ends her car and he is called to the scene. Cassie Gambol is new in town and she pushes all of Shane's buttons -- sexually, emotionally, and professionally. He's sure she's hiding something. And she is.

Cassie is really Carly Sunderland, a formerly successful surgeon who was forced to change her identity when her abusive scumbag of an ex-husband slipped through the system and escaped justice. She wants nothing to do with men, especially hugely masculine men like Shane Chase.

Watching these two get under each other's skin is truly entertaining. When Shane tells Cassie that he loves her as a person in his life and does not see her as a possession the way her ex did, well, my heart just dissolves into a puddle of goo. He truly gets her, and she changes him for the better, and that's just beautiful.

Kudos also go to Ms. Dane for spotlighting the name change program. It's a sad reality that such a program is needed, but the more awareness there is, the better.

The supporting cast is also fantastic. I love getting a glimpse of Kyle and Maggie's HEA while watching Shane get his comeuppance, and Polly Chase is an amazing whirlwind. Petal is a fun place to visit, and I'm glad Ms. Dane will be taking us back there twice more.

Review ©2007 by Riley Merrick

Warner, contemporary fantasy, April 2007
Connections to: third "Kitty" book

I've finally done it: I've found a book whose back blurb gives a totally accurate description of what's inside the book! Here's the quote that sold me on the book (as if I wasn't already panting to read it): she went looking for Walden but found Evil Dead. Love it -- catchy and accurate.

Basically, after being "outed" on national television (see Kitty Goes to Washington), our heroine Kitty Norville needs a sabbatical, so she retires to a secluded lake community to write a book. But she's got writer's block, someone is skinning the local wildlife and leaving the carcasses on her porch (most disturbingly, without her hearing or scenting them), a new DJ is stealing her target audience, and werewolf hunter Cormac shows up on her doorstep with a bitten Ben O'Farrell in tow.

Even weeks later, this book stands out in my mind, which is yet another reason why I love this series so damn much. Even more than the prior two books, this is an intricately layered story, with laughter, intrigue, hormones, and heartache woven together to make a fascinating tapestry. We learn much of Cormac and Ben's past, new mythos are explored, and Kitty gains a pack and a lover (with an interesting twist).

I already can't wait to read the next book, Kitty and the Silver Bullet, but now that I'm caught up on the series, I have to wait, just like everyone else. Dammit. I'm dying to see if Kitty can take her own advice, as well as find out where everything else that was left open at the end of this book leads.

I think this is the first series I've read in which every book has gotten a top rating. Here's hoping the trend continues.

Review ©2007 by Riley Merrick

Warner, contemporary/urban fantasy, July 2006
Connections to: book two of the Kitty series (or whatever CV is calling this series!)

Werewolf talk show host Kitty Norville is without a pack; living like a nomad, she does her weekly show, The Midnight Hour, from a different station each week. She is toying with the idea of heading to California for her next show, when her laywer, Ben O'Farrell, calls to tell her that she is being subpeonaed to a special Congressional committee hearing on the supernatural, so it's off to Washington.

Her trip does not get off to an auspicious start. DC cops pull her over and she is escorted to the local master vampire and offered hospitality -- the sort of offer you can't refuse, even if you want to. She is warned by the vampire that the local weres are "unruly" at best and her safety would be in question.

Then there's the committee hearings. An uber-conservative senator seems to have it in for her when he deliberately postpones her testimony until the day of the full moon. Yikes. While she's waiting for her day in the spotlight, she encounters some of the "unruly" weres in DC, many of whom are packless like she herself is. One of them in particular, a werejaguar called Luis, serves as her guide and holiday fling.

And waiting to testify doesn't mean sitting around twiddling her thumbs, either. Kitty manages to solve the mystery of "faith healer" Elijah Smith, but creates a near-catastrophe in foiling him. She also does some illegal sleuthing at the NIH with the help of her would-be slayer, Cormac, with disturbing results.

After her testimony goes off without her losing control of her Wolf, all hell breaks loose, and Kitty becomes even more of a poster girl than she ever imagined.

I love this series. There's so much going on, but Ms. Vaughn skillfully and seamlessly keeps all her balls in the air. Kitty is engaging and sympathetic as a protagonist, and her world is simply fascinating. I still can't believe I held off reading these books for so long!

Review ©2007 by Riley Merrick

Berkley Sensation, paranormal romance, October 2006
Connections to: book four in the Mageverse series

I still can't believe I love this series. It's not quite on the guilty-dirty level of my love for the Black Dagger Brotherhood, but if my former Arthurian Lit professor ever found out how I devour these books, he'd probably try to retroactively fail me from my favorite course in college. How Ms. Knight takes so much that makes me scream "It's WRONG!" like Cartman on South Park and turn it into something that works so well for me, I have no idea, but I hope she keeps it up.

For those of you not in the know on this series, the basic idea is that Merlin and Nimue were aliens (for lack of a better word), who Gifted Arthur and his Court with the Mageverse -- a way for the Round Table to protect humanity and right wrongs for eternity. The men, or Magi, became vampires, and the women, or Majae, became witches. These vampires do not prey on humans, though; rather, they exist with the witches in a delicious sexual symbiosis: they must feed from the Majae or die, and the Majae must donate to a Magus every few days, or the buildup in her blood could be fatal. Avalon, their home base, is on an alternate Earth -- the Mageverse, where the Sidhe and the Dragonkind and the Dark Ones live.

And yes, I somehow can't get enough of it, pedant that I usually am!

Anyway, Master of Swords brings us new Maja Lark McGuin, a Latent of Tristan's (yes, that Tristan) line. She gets apprenticed to Gawain (yes, that Gawain) after an army of cultists-turned-evil-vampires (I cringe now, but as I was reading it, I was riveted) manages to infiltrate Avalon. Because of the aforementioned delicious sexual symbiosis, lots of hawt secks ensues (seriously, have a cold shower waiting). But there's a coherent plot as well. Lark and Gawain and his sword (not that sword, but an enchanted sword holding Gawain's dragon friend Kel prisoner) are trying to track down Richard Edge, one of the cultists. Edge was a Latent who was denied the Gift, and now he's out for revenge against the Magekind. He joins forces with the dragon who imprisoned Kel in the sword, and together the two plot to destroy Kel and the Magekind...by sacrificing King Arthur himself.

I keep trying to figure out what it is that Ms. Knight does with these books that keeps me from ripping my hair out over the changes to my beloved Arthurian legends. I mean, Arthur an Elvis fan who wears cowboy boots? Gack! I think part of the appeal is that though loosely based on Arthuriana, these stories take the tired old vampire-werewolf paranormal and turns it on its ear. The explanations of vampire and werewolf and Sidhe natures are so unique and clever that I can't help but stay interested. The dialogue is great (Kel magically drawing Gawain and Lark a COLD bath and Gawain calling Kel a gecko for it cracked me up), the fusion of modern pop culture with what we think of as Arthurian values is fantastically done, the chemistry between the characters is sizzling, and the plots are intricately drawn with not a loophole or dropped line in sight.

Kel's story is next, in June's release, Master of Dragons, and I'll be waiting.

1/2

Review ©2007 by Riley Merrick

Ace, contemporary fantasy (thank you, Jim Butcher, for that phrase!), April 2007 (mass-market edition)
Connections to: book #6 in the Southern Vampire series

A word of advice to anyone who hasn't yet read this book: make sure you read the short story "One Word Answer" in the Bite anthology BEFORE you read this one. Trust me, it will help a great deal, because I hadn't, and therefore was confused by all the cousin Hadley talk in the book until I backtracked and fixed the hole in my Sookie canon.

Oh, and also for those who haven't yet read this book: there will be spoilers here.

You'd think the life of a barmaid in a hick town like Bon Temps, Louisiana, would be boring, but not if the barmaid happens to be telepathic, with ties to both the vampire and Were communities in the area. At one point, Sookie jokes that she's considering moving to Wyoming, where there are only two vampires, because despite being telepathic, her life was calm and almost dull until the supernatural community discovered her. And the very reason for the supes' discovery is at the heart of this plot: Sookie's undead cousin Hadley, who was killed in "One Word Answer," is the one who told the Queen of Louisiana about Sookie's telepathy. The Queen responded by...sending Bill to ingratiate himself with Sookie by whatever means necessary.

Ouch.

Poor Sookie. Though this revelation is sort of just thrown in in the middle of the nonstop action, I think it's the most cutting blow of all. Bill, Sookie's first love, was a sham.

Anyway, Sookie finds this out when she is escorted to New Orleans to clean out Hadley's apartment. She's doesn't want to go, really, but things are heating up a bit in Bon Temps. First, after using her abilities to save a child, the police want to continue to exploit her. Then the family of Debbie Pelt, a Were she killed in self-defense and hid the body (see Dead as a Doornail), show up, asking questions about Debbie's disappearance. A new barmaid comes to town and appears to have designs on Sam, and Sookie's not sure what she thinks about that. Finally, when out on her first date with hunky weretiger Quinn, she's attacked by two made Weres.

In New Orleans, she meets Hadley's neighbor, Amelia, a witch who on the Queen's orders, put a stasis spell on Hadley's apartment until it could be cleaned out. Unfortunately, the stasis spell hid one of Hadley's secrets: a newly turned vampire, who awakens and attacks Sookie and Amelia. So there's more to her cousin's last days than meets the eye, and while trying to discover the truth, Sookie must also tread carefully through a political landmine between the Queen and her new consort, the King of Arkansas.

Like all the books in this series, there is a hell of a lot going on, but delivered in Sookie's straightforward, no-nonsense narrative, it's engaging and completely un-put-down-able. Ms. Harris deftly ties up loose ends from other books (Alcide, the Pelts, Calvin Norris's courtship) and unravels new ones (the upcoming vampire conference, vampire politics in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, and the idea that Sookie has fairy blood) with seamless ease. My only regret is that I have to wait another year before All Together Dead comes out in paperback.

Review ©2007 by Riley Merrick

Ballantine, historical romance, April 2006
Connections to: book 7 of the Knight Miscellany series

In this "last" entry into the Knight Miscellany, we meet second son Jack Knight. Jack's father is Sam O'Shea, a fighter known as "The Killarney Crusher." His illegitimacy is an open secret, as is the identity of his real father. Thus, no respectable lady of the ton will form an alliance with him -- though nominally the second son of a powerful duke, he's looked upon as no better than a gutter whelp. But now he's a powerful force in his own right -- the founder and head of Knight Shipping Enterprises, he lives like a king in Jamaica.

On a mission to Venzuela's Orinoco delta, he meets the lovely Eden Farraday, who is in the jungle with her naturalist father and his creepy assistant, Connor. Eden begs Jack to take her to London, because her father's latest mad scheme is to travel deep in the Amazon, despite the fact that he promised her they would be returning to London. Jack is going to London on a secret mission for the rebel leader Bolivar, and refuses, not wanting a woman underfoot. But Eden's headstrong, and she stows away. When Jack finds her, he is furious, and rightly so, but something about Eden gets to him, and a beautiful love story ensues.

Eden likens Jack to Aesop's lion with the sore paw, and she's right. She also observes that she loves Jack because he listens to her and treats her like an equal, unlike her father and Connor. The love that grows between them while on the ship is the best part of the book, filled with plenty of time to get to know each other and several scorching (and at least one rather daring) sex scenes. They marry once they meet up with Jack's Uncle Arthur's ship, so that Eden can enter the civilized world as a wife and not a ruined innocent. Plus, of course, they are in love.

Any openness they had seems to vanish once they get to shore, and that's where this book turns puzzling. Jack wants to leave Eden at his estate in Ireland, both for her safety and for the fact that he doesn't want the ton rejecting her like they did him years ago. Simply put, he's afraid he'll lose her. They fight, and he realizes he can't leave her, so he brings her.

Here's the bit that irks me: she gets what she wanted, and Jack bends over backwards to make things up to her, but she says she can't trust him and denies him her bed. Very frustrating for me as a reader, since Eden was a reasonably intelligent woman before this, and she should know that shutting Jack out like this isn't going to make things better. All is does is open doors for conniving servants to spread rumors, spur Jack to act even more outrageously, and leave an opening for both Eden and Jack to come to serious harm. The only thing that saved the ending of this book for me is Jack realizing he didn't have to sacrifice his happiness or his honor, and, rather than go back to Venezuela, he returns for Eden...and at the same time, she was trying to find him, not wanting to leave things the way they were. So by the end, they were finally back to the sensible beings they were before. I wish they had never left that part of themselves behind, because I would have rated this book a perfect 5 if they hadn't.

It's still a keeper for me for the shipboard romance. Wow, that was gorgeous, and smokin' hot. Ms. Foley has always been a bit avant-garde in her love scenes and this book is no exception, with a small hint of anal play and an allusion to the possibility of rough sex in the future. Jack and Eden are incendiary between the sheets and Ms. Foley gets kudos for that, but also for making them so compatible outside the physical realm. The rest of the book is so delicious, I can forgive their temporary lapse in judgment in London.

This is the end of the "official" Knights Miscellany series, but Ms. Foley is treating us to Lord Arthur's three offspring in a spinoff called The Spice Trilogy. The first book, Her Only Desire, is out already. Her Secret Fantasy releases in September of this year, and Her Every Pleasure will release in Spring 2008.

Review ©2007 by Riley Merrick

Jove, historical romance, March 2007 (mass-market edition)
Connections to: book one of the Arcane Society series

Venetia Milton is a photographer who can sense auras. Gabriel Jones is a scholar who can "hunt" with his psychic senses. When Venetia is commissioned by Gabriel to photograph the Arcane Society's collection of psychic paraphenalia, the two engage in a satisfying mutual seduction that is cut off abruptly by intruders, prompting Gabriel to send Venetia away for safety's sake. When Venetia reads of Gabriel's death, she is shocked and upset, and decides to adopt his name as a fond tribute for her widow's guise when she and her maiden aunt and young siblings move to London to establish their photography business. But Gabriel isn't dead at all, and Venetia's appearance as his widow causes him consternation and attracts the attention of his would-be killer.

With an Amanda Quick book, you know what you're getting before you even open the book. You're getting a mysterious hero and a practical heroine, some dark secrets, and some interfering but well-meaning family. The fact that Ms. Quick can take this same premise and create something different over and over again is really a gift. Ms. Quick's books are comfort reads and are generally great fun. Second Sight was no exception.

Venetia and Gabriel had sparkling chemistry, which put me in mind of the wit you'd see in a Tracy-Hepburn film, or something out of Oscar Wilde. I was glad that they confided in each other about their particular talents -- I would have been quite unhappy if Gabriel continued to be secretive about his ability and his insecurities about the implications. So well-done there.

As usual, the mystery is secondary to the idea of belonging, and I'm just fine with that.

1/2

Review ©2007 by Riley Merrick

Warner Books, urban fantasy, November 2005
Connections to: book one of the Kitty series

Whoa. I can't believe I held out on reading this book for so long. Several friends of mine who share similar taste expressed dislike for the book, and I guess that's what stopped me from reading it sooner. But wow, it just blew me away.

Kitty Norville is a werewolf -- gotta love a werewolf named Kitty. She's also a late-night DJ who inadvertantly turns her music show into a talk show, because a throwaway comment she made set the airwaves on fire. Now she's the hottest thing on late-night radio, with all sorts of preternatural beings calling in and coming out of the closet on the air.

In her pack, she's the Omega female, the lowest of the low. Both human and wolf Kitty act subservient to the pack -- human Kitty doesn't even feel wrong in doing it, either, even though the pack Alpha male, Carl, can demand sex from her at any time. Both Carl and the vampire chief Arturo demand that she quit her radio show.

Goodbye subservient Kitty. The radio show actually means something to her, and she doesn't want to let it go. She buys Carl off with half her pay when the Midnight Hour goes into syndication. Then Arturo sends a hit man after her. Instead of running scared, Kitty stands tall. And her growing pains, her change from submissive to dominant, cause all sorts of trouble in the pack.

I loved this book. If Kitty had stayed subservient, it would have been a wallbanger, and I can tell that those elements are the ones that put off my friends. But she grows, both her human self and her wolf counterpart learn to assert themselves and not just lean on the nearest strongest force. I love that. I love that Ms. Vaughn doesn't pull any punches. The dialogue and Kitty's inner monologue were fantastic. The power struggles within the pack and between the wolves and the vampires were gripping and realistically described (heh, vampires and werewolves realistic, I can't believe I just typed that). The ongoing story arc with the government agencies and Kitty's own Deep Throat as well as the "faith healer" caravan are very involved and absorbing. There's no romance, though a hint of a possibility that was very nicely done, with, of all people, the werewolf hunter.

I tore through this book and immediately ordered Kitty Goes to Washington and Kitty Takes a Holiday -- that's how much I liked this world. If you like Lilith Saintcrow, Kelley Armstrong, or Jim Butcher, welcome to the world of Carrie Vaughn.

Review ©2007 by Riley Merrick