And we’re back! Last Monday Ebook Review Central took Memorial Day off to get the calendar back in sync just a little bit.
But this is Monday and not a holiday. And here we are. It’s time for another edition of Ebook Review Central, and it’s Samhain Publishing’s turn at the wheel. Let’s take a look at not just the titles Samhain published in April, but what sort of reviews those books generated.
Before we do that, a couple of brief comments. Most of Samhain’s books receive reviews, usually a lot of reviews. The exception is often the Retro Romance titles, but RT Book Reviews and All About Romance have put up a lot of their backfiles, so sometimes I get lucky. But I think this is the first time I’ve seen a book get an actual “F” review. I’ve seen plenty of DNF (Did Not Finish) reviews, but not “F” as in “I finished and it flunked”. If the book is that bad, or that much not to your taste, stop!
Unlike the last time I looked at Samhain, it was easy to pick the three featured titles. Three books jumped out at me for not just the number of reviews, but also the number of positive and “Top Pick” or “Recommended Read” reviews they received. No DNFs or Fs in this bunch!
(And because of some personal events, it’s almost fitting that two of the books are about cat-shifters, even if the little kitty I’m thinking of would have no clue at all what that meant.)
The third book featured this week is Beneath the Skin by Lauren Dane, the third entry in her De La Vega Cats series. The De La Vega Cats are cat shifters in Ms. Dane’s paranormal romance series, one that started with Trinity and continues with Revelation. In Beneath the Skin the focus is on the possible relationship between Gibson, the enforcer of the clan, and Mia, a woman who saves his life, but whose family was harmed by his long ago. And she is an Iraqi war veteran who has no need to be coddled by the kind of alpha male who winds up as a clan enforcer. The fact that if they let themselves, they’ll become mates doesn’t mean they aren’t both fighting the attraction with everything they have. Sounds pretty hot to me.
The book in the middle position is Cat Scratch Fever by Jodi Redford. And it’s another scorcher about two shapeshifters who should be totally wrong for each other, but instead are so, so right. But in the case of lynx-shifter Lilly and werewolf Dante, they fight like cats and dogs from the opening scenes because, well, they are. Except they also have a couple of problems they can help each other solve. Lilly is in heat, and Dante is, let’s just say, conveniently available. And extremely attractive. And willing. And his uber-alpha father is pressuring him to produce at least a fiance, and Dante wants to honk dad off really, really bad. So Lilly is perfect for that. Meanwhile, Lilly needs to negotiate with Dante to buy back some land from the werewolves for the werelynxes. They make a deal. Fake fiance in return for real land. Until it stops being fake.
And we go from heat to frost for the number one title. A Hint of Frost by Hailey Edwards not only received the most reviews, it was the Reviewer Top Pick for April at Gravetells. A Hint of Frost is a fantasy romance with a wonderfully tortured hero and a sweet couple with a ton of romantic tension. It’s also the start of a series in a beautiful and complex world, the Araneae Nation series. Lourdes becomes ruler of her nation when her parents are killed, and the first thing she has to do is marry a ruthless mercenary so she can get revenge. A dish that will be served very, very cold. By a mercenary she needs to get to warm up to her. Or he might eat her. Wow!
This week’s top picks went from very hot to extremely frosty. Please come back next week for the six-in-one issue covering Amber Quill, Astraea Press, Curiosity Quills, Liquid Silver, Red Sage and Riptide!
