North of Need

Posted on April 10, 2012May 27, 2013 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | A Reviews> book reviews

Humans have personified the great forces of nature since mankind (and womankind) first created fire. The winds howling outside of those early cave-dwellings must have seemed like gods…and so some of the world’s most fascinating and enduring myths were born.

Zephyrus, the west wind, Eurus the East Wind and Notus, the South Wind are three of these, but the greatest and most feared is Boreas, the North Wind. Boreas is feared because the North Wind brings Winter.

In North of Need, the first of Laura Kaye’s Hearts of the Anemoi series, Megan Snow has gone north to face the heart of winter alone. Megan believes that she needs to face Christmas, and the second anniversary of her young husband’s death, alone. Alone in the isolated cabin where they shared their love, and their all too few Christmases.

Out of a need to escape the confines of the cabin, the walls that are closing in, Megan goes out into the snow and builds a snow man, and a snow woman, and last, a snow child. Finished, she stares at her handiwork, and realizes what she has unconsciously done. She’s built a vision in snow of what she can never have in real life–the Snow Family. Her husband is dead and she is alone.

Megan breaks down and sobs, wrapping her arms around the snowman, her tears fusing her to its solid snow body. Tearing herself away leaves a snow burn on her cheek.

Stumbling into the cabin after her emotional storm, Megan crashes into sleep as a blizzard descends on the isolated area. She wakes to find a man on her doorstep. She doesn’t want to give up her grief-stricken isolation, but the man will freeze to death before he reaches the next cabin, if he can even find another shelter in the white-out. She must take the stranger in, and hope for the best.

What she finds even more strange is that the man on her doorstep has no shoes, but is wearing the clothes that she used to “dress” the snowman.

Owen Winters is the snowman. And he will be again, if Megan doesn’t grab this chance at love. Owen is one of the Anemoi, one of those primal forces, an agent of the North Wind. And he has one precious chance, a few brief days, to convince Megan to fall in love with him.

The West Wind is coming, bringing the thaw. When the snow thaws, Owen will be gone, unless Megan can commit to him first. But love in the face of death is the one thing that Megan fears above all. She’s loved and lost before, and she’s not in the least bit sure it’s better than never having loved at all.

Will Megan’s heart thaw first, or will the snow?

Escape Rating A: Now I understand what all the fuss was about! Besides the fact that the use of Greek mythology was awesome (Boreas hasn’t been this much fun since he was used as Bigby Wolf’s father in Fables) the metaphor of winter for grief was done just right. It’s a trope that can easily be overplayed, but Kaye went just far enough, and then turned it on its head by having Owen and Megan have so much fun in their winter sports. For Owen, wintertime equals playtime, and he makes Megan see it too.

Owen has a much harder time getting Megan to trust him, especially when he starts by understandably not revealing his true nature. But his courtship, and the building of their frienship, is what makes the story so incredibly good. It helps that the romance part of this paranormal romance is both sweet and hot.

West of Want, book 2 of Hearts of the Anemoi, is coming on July 10, 2012 (excerpts and swag giveaway post here). Book 3, South of Surrender, not until December, 2012. For the grand finale, East of Ecstasy, I’m going to have to wait until April 2013. Just in time for my next birthday.

Skies of Fire

Posted on April 7, 2012July 31, 2012 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | A Reviews> book reviews

If the British Admiralty is sending airships to fight the Hapsburgs, then this must be steampunk. And damned fine steampunk indeed!

Zoë Archer’s latest book, Skies of Fire, is that steampunk, the first tale of The Ether Chronicles. It’s that “ether” that powers those airships. Along with something, or rather someone, who has been transformed into a “Man O’War”. And no, Ms. Archer was not referring to the horse.

In this alternate-19th century, a scientist has discovered a rare element: Telumium. Telumium is amazing. One of its byproducts is ether, which powers the airships, and ether rifles, and ether-based lights. Another, even more amazing, property of Telumium is that it can be bonded to a human being, creating a super-human, a Man O’War. A Man O’War’s strength is what literally powers his airship.

Christopher Redmond captains HMS Demeter, and his small gunship is trapped and looking for a place to repair behind enemy lines when he catches the glint of an SOS from a British agent. Literally a glint: the signal is being sent by mirror flashes, and only his enhanced sight could have caught it.

Even while hiding from the enemy, Redmond is duty-bound to retrieve that agent, so he drops the jollyboat with a small crew. He puts himself on that jollyboat, knowing the agent must be in desperate straights.

The agent is desperately in need of rescue. And is the last person Christopher Redmond expected to find in the Carpathian Mountains. Or anywhere in his life again. Louisa Shaw is the only woman he ever loved. But when he asked her to marry him, three years ago, she left him, without a work, without a note. He underwent the transformation to become a Man O’War not long after. But he never stopped loving her, even while he sometimes hated her.

Christopher always knew Louise was a member of British Intelligence. Even that she was one of their best field agents. He just wasn’t expecting her here.

And Louisa wasn’t expecting Christopher, either. She still missed him. She always had. But he had wanted a wife, even though she had told him from the very beginning that she would not marry. She had panicked, and run.

But she followed his career and had even memorized the layout of his ship. She just hadn’t expected him to be the one who rescued her. Hadn’t expected him to have changed so much, and yet, not changed at all.

They had to work together, in spite of the lingering wounds and the growing tension between them. Louisa held vital intelligence about a munitions factory behind enemy lines. A factory that must be destroyed at all costs.

But first, it has to be found.

In the midst of searching for that factory, can Christopher and Louisa find their way back to each other?

Escape Rating A-: It was great to see some steampunk with a British background for a change! There’s been a recent run of Wild West steampunk (cowpunk!) that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed, but the change of scene was good.

The relationship between Christopher and Louisa isn’t just hot (although it is) but is also believable. The way the author makes them fight through their bitterness and betrayal, fight each other, and work so hard for their reconciliation is intense. Their second chance has to be hard-won, and readers need to see it to buy into it.

I was dying to figure out where in the alternative timeline this war fit in, and couldn’t quite figure it out. Drove me crazy. Is this an alternate to the Crimean War, making it the 1850’s? When did the telumium discovery taken place? Inquiring minds get caught on these niggly details.

I read this all in one gulp. I wish the next book in the series, Night of Fire by Ms. Archer’s husband and fellow romance writer Nico Rosso, were available now instead of in July.

Review + Giveaway of Isadora Daystar

Posted on April 6, 2012April 30, 2012 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | B Reviews> blog tours> book reviews> ebook giveaway> ebooks

As a human being, Isadora Daystar barely managed to a half-assed job at every single thing she tried in her life. But being the title character of this science fiction novel by P.I. Barrington, this one time, Isadora Daystar finally manages to come up aces.

The reader’s introduction to Isadora has a familiar feel to it. Isabella is a soldier, and she’s in the brig for screwing up. Her commanding officer is paying her a visit, disappointed that she’s messed up, again.

At first, Isabella reminded me of Starbuck on Battlestar Galactica. Starbuck also screwed up a lot, but had incredible potential. The difference was that Starbuck fulfilled hers, however strangely that turned out.

In the very opening of Isadora Daystar, Isadora’s life takes a different path. In her memory (and it is obvious that she is remembering something in her past) Isadora’s commanding officer Renan, chews her out, expresses his disappointment, turns off the cameras in her cell, and kisses her senseless.

And that’s the last good memory Isabella seems to have.

Isabella’s present is a mess. She’s not in the military any longer. She not fit to serve. Isadora Daystar has fallen from being a Sergeant-Major to being a drug addict. One who will do anything to get her next fix. And since the military taught her how to kill, Isadora Daystar has become an assassin.

But she’s not terribly good at it. She admits that to herself in her coherent moments. She tells herself that she wasn’t all that great of a soldier, and she’s not all that great of an assassin, either. But she needs the money. For the drugs.

Beggars can’t be choosers. Assassins who don’t complete their assignments don’t get to pick their targets. They don’t get to negotiate terms, either.

Isadora takes what she knows is a bad job on the planet Nova Cheiros. It’s a place where too many people in too many low places remember her none too fondly. But she has to take what she can get.

The contractor is a liar and a cheat, and she knows it. But she needs the money. The target, well, she thinks she got him. But nobody told her he was a cop. So she has to get off planet, and fast.

Then her ride off-planet gets shot out from under her, and her fellow crash victim is a teenage girl with a whole lot of attitude; the daughter of that cop Isadora killed.

Are they going to save each other, or kill each other? And who shot the ship?

Escape Rating B: Isadora’s story is not for the faint of heart. She starts out at the bottom, and she knows she’s hit bottom. The worst part is, she doesn’t think there’s anything left for her except complete degradation and death. We see her memories and know that Isadora believes she deserves her fate.

When the Isadora’s escape ship crashes, fate intervenes. Of course saving the girl she’s stranded with keeps her alive. That’s a story we expect. But quite a bit of how that story resolved was a surprise. Guilt is easy and forgiveness is hard.

In spite of the scene in Isadora’s memories with her commanding officer kissing her senseless, this is not a romance in any way, shape or form. It’s science fiction, but that’s probably more of a setting than an actual necessity. This is a redemption story that happens to be set in a science fiction world. The space travel is a nice bonus.

Speaking of bonuses, this review is part of the Isadora Daystar blog tour from BTS Virtual Tours. I have 2, yes 2 e-copies of Isadora to give away. The giveaway will be open until 12:01 am EDT the morning of April 10, 2012 and I will announce the winners on April 11, 2012. All you have to do fill out the Rafflecopter form below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Watchmaker’s Lady

Posted on April 4, 2012April 30, 2012 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | A Reviews> book reviews

First there was steampunk, and now there’s clockpunk. And is it ever cool.

In the hands of an author like Heather Massey, it is also very, very hot. Hot enough to melt anyone’s circuits.

In Massey’s latest novella, The Watchmaker’s Lady, the “lady” in question is a combination of clockwork bits, metal parts, and a lifelike porcelain head. Or is she?

As the story begins, Matthew Goddard is one lonely watchmaker in the midst of New England in 1840. In our terms, he’d be a geek or a nerd. He enjoys fiddling with clocks and watches, and while he would like to marry and have some female companionship, he’s not interested in someone who wouldn’t provide interesting intellectual conversation as well as stimulating sexual escapades.

But Matthew is nothing if not resourceful. On one of his regular parts-buying expeditions to the local general store, he spies a mannequin’s head in a scrap heap. To Matthew, that dusty and bedraggled bisque face represents the woman of his dreams. Possibly literally.

Matthew acts as if “Isabel” requests that he take her home with him. He bargains with the shopkeeper for her head, and returns to his home in a lather of expectation. He lavishes care on the life-size and eventually life-like porcelain head, holding long conversations with “Isabel” as he washes her face and combs out the tangles in her long dark hair.

Matthew treats her as his lover, even as his wife, to the point of fashioning a body for the head. In fact, increasingly complex and complicated bodies, first from straw, and later from brass and clockwork mechanical parts.

However, Matthew Goddard is only a clockmaker; he works for his living. Creating Isabel’s body out of brass and parts is expensive. And in their intimate conversations, Isabel tells Matthew that she wants clothing as well. As a single man, Matthew has no socially acceptable method of purchasing female clothing, not to mention ladies’ “unmentionables”!

But Matthew is adept at creating small mechanical objects, clockworks in other words. And in that time and place, many ladies suffered from what was then called “hysteria”, an imbalance of the so-called “female humors”. Matthew creates a secret business in vibrators, which he demonstrates to a select clientele. His clients pay him in articles of clothing, which he uses to dress Isabel.

Everything is fine, until one of his clients wants more from Matthew than he is willing to give. She spills the beans to her husband, selectively edited, of course. The townsfolk head for the store with fire and pitchforks.

Matthew’s only desire is to save Isabel at all costs. Their love was worth everything to him. But is Isobel real? Or only a clockwork?

Escape Rating A-: This was wild, and there were some parts of the wild that were a little bit true!

As I read the story, a part of me kept wondering if Isabel was real, or if the whole thing was in Matthew’s head. It is very, very easy to get taken along with his delusion, or illusion, that Isabel is a real person, and not a clockwork, especially when he’s making love with her.

You’re also never totally sure how far he’s gotten with making her into an automata or android as we would think of it, either. Does Isabel become self-aware? We never know.

There is a Pygmalion aspect as well. Matthew creates the woman he wishes existed, and then she falls in love with him. Pygmalion is one of the great myths, and it’s been told and re-played multiple times, George Bernard Shaw wrote one famous version of Pygmalion, which in turn inspired My Fair Lady. Of course, the creation doesn’t always fall in love with her creator!

The business about the vibrator business, that part is from history. If you want to read a hilarious account this plus some of the other even weirder things that went on in the name of health, try The Road to Wellville by T. C. Boyle (never judge a book by its movie).

The Watchmaker’s Lady is a terrific steampunk/clockpunk erotic story with a delicious surprise at the end. A surprise that you notice I am not spoiling for you.

As one of my Blogo-Birthday giveaways, one lucky reader will get their very own digital copy of The Watchmaker’s Lady (PDF, EPUB or .mobi) and find out what the surprise twist is for themself. (If you don’t win, I highly recommend buying your own copy. It’s definitely worth it!)

The deadline to enter the giveaway is 12:01 a.m. EDT on the morning of April 8, 2012. I will announce the winner on April 9th. To enter, leave a comment that answers the following question: If you could build an automaton of any kind (robot, android, etc.,) what would you build it to be? or do? Also, please let me know what format (PDF, EPUB, or .mobi) you want the book in if you win.

Continue reading “The Watchmaker’s Lady” →

Wrath

Posted on April 3, 2012April 9, 2012 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | B Reviews> book reviews

Wrath is the second book in Denise Tompkins’ Niteclif Evolutions. The story takes up immediately, and I do mean immediately, where Legacy leaves off. (This review contains spoilers for Legacy, book 1 of The Niteclif Evolutions. If you haven’t read Legacy, check out my review, then go forth and read Legacy. It’s a terrific and necessary introduction to the Niteclif supernatural world of Wrath.)

As Wrath opens, Maddy Niteclif’s new life as the supernatural investigator for the High Council has fallen apart before it had fairly begun. The prophecy that she and her newfound love, Bahlin Drago spent all of Legacy trying to avoid seems to be coming true in the worst possible way. Their dreams are in tatters, and Maddy’s trust in everyone in her new world is shattered.

The death-curse of Bahlin’s rival has left Maddy sick, weak and dependent: she’s now an invalid who needs a full-time attendant just to make it to the bathroom!

She’s not even capable of doing her job as the Niteclif, and someone in the supernatural community has turned serial killer. The murderer clearly has some kind of grudge against Maddy, since all of the victims look enough like her to be her twin.

And into the middle of this mess steps yet another prophecy. The first prophecy said that whichever male member of the High Council managed to get Maddy into a sexual relationship would become Head of the High Council. That man was also fated to love Maddy and lose her. Bahlin and Maddy spent all of Legacy hoping to thwart the prophecy, but prophecies do not readily accept being thwarted.

That High Council had three men sitting on it when Legacy began. Tarrek, the fae prince, met his fate by the end of Legacy. Bahlin was the other contender for Maddy’s hand. But what of the third?

During Legacy, the last man, Hellion the wizard, was not “in play”. He had a mate. By the time that Wrath begins, Hellion is available, but still angry at Maddy for her part in in his mate’s death.

However, there’s another prophecy…

Can Maddy manage to get over her betrayal by one man (even if he is a dragon), long enough to figure out if she’s ready to trust another (even if he is a wizard)? Can she stop railing at her fate long enough to listen to her heart? Can Maddy stay one step ahead of the killer long enough to figure out who it is before he kills her and makes all her other problems go away–permanently?

Escape Rating B: There are parts of Wrath that I absolutely love, and parts that made me want to shake Maddy until her teeth rattled.

The whole concept of this supernatural world, and that someone like the Niteclif has to straddle the two, is a terrific concept. The idea that Maddy’s great-grandfather was Sherlock Holmes still gets to me. Maddy has to maintain her balance between the worlds, otherwise she’ll just fade away into fiction like great-grandad. That’s cool…and eerie at the same time. Maddy knows there’s a fiction writer already prepped and waiting in case she fails.

On the other hand, Maddy’s love life definitely has its ups and downs, and not all of them between the sheets. While I understand that Bahlin’s betrayal would make her rather gunshy when the prophecy about Hellion comes along, I found the constant angst a bit much. Especially the repeated refrain of how seldom Maddy had sex until after she become the Niteclif but now she’s supposedly a bed-hopper. Then she’d have some internal debate and “give in” to Hellion again, as though he or the circumstances were responsible instead of Maddy being responsible for her own actions.

Not that the romance and the sex weren’t sizzling hot, but I wished that Maddy would take more responsibility for her personal actions sooner in the story. As the Niteclif, she can be judge, jury and sometimes executioner in criminal cases. I wanted to shake her when she kept pretending that circumstances were in control in her sex life for so long.

But I’m really enjoying Maddy’s evolution and I can’t wait to see what happens next! I have some guesses but the next book, Vengeance, doesn’t have a pub date yet. Now I wish I could find a prophecy!

Legacy

Posted on April 3, 2012April 9, 2012 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | B Reviews> book reviews

What if you found out your great-grandfather really was Sherlock Holmes? And that you’re supposed to take up his legacy of sleuthing? For most people, it might sound like a dream come true. For Madeleine “Maddy” Niteclif, it’s only one of a series of surprising revelations that the world she thought she knew will never be the same. Her journey into paranormal investigations makes for one compelling story.

Legacy, by Denise Tompkins, is the first book in The Niteclif Evolutions, and it is definitely the story of Maddy Niteclif’s metamorphosis into a special kind of criminal investigator. Maddy’s story begins at the end of her old life, when she’s ripe for a change.

Maddy doesn’t even know why she is driving around England in the dark, compelled to find Stonehenge. She’s not sure why she felt compelled to splurge her vacation money on a trip to England in the first place. What she does know is that she is weighed down by grief at the loss of both her parents in a car accident just a few short months previously.

This trip is her attempt to shake off her crushing depression. But driving around southern England in the dark, on the “wrong” side of the road, directly after getting off a trans-Atlantic flight, trying to find Stonehenge mostly without a map, is not the way to find anything except exhaustion.

Maddy finds a stone circle. She believes its Stonehenge. Except she is able to walk right up to the standing stones. She’s certain Stonehenge is fenced off, but this just feels right. Inside the circle, under the stars, Maddy asks, wishes, prays for a changed reality. She wishes to be her old self again; strong, quick-witted, adventurous. And for love to find her. As soon as the wish leaves her heart, she feels the stars spin, and a voice comes out of the darkness, whispering in Gaelic, “Let it begin”.

It begins indeed. Maddy makes her way back to London, only to be confronted by two men as soon as she falls asleep. Bahlin and Tarrek invade her dreams. Either or both are more than charming and sexy enough to be her dream man, but two of them?

When Maddy wakes, she discovers that her dream introductions were real! Bahlin Drago invades her room, and her life. Drago for dragon. Bahlin is a shapeshifter, and a member of High Council that governs supernatural creatures.

Confused? So was Maddy. She was having a hard time believing everything that Bahlin had to tell her, both before and after he magically opened the door of her hotel room. However, it was necessary that Maddy believe. Why? Because her family wasn’t just Niteclif, she was THE Niteclif, the office responsible for investigating crimes among supernaturals, and between supernaturals and humans.

That was how great-grandad got to be Holmes. He was the previous Niteclif investigator. Now it’s Maddy’s turn. As soon as she figures out what she’s supposed to do. And how she’s supposed to do it.

Bahlin is more than willing to help her. After all, he played Watson to her great-grandfather’s Holmes.

But there’s this one tiny problem. Maddy is the first female Niteclif to take up the office. And there’s a prophecy about whichever male member of the Council manages to get her into his bed, he’ll become the Head of the High Council.

There’s that old saying, you know the one, “Power corrupts”. So is Bahlin courting Maddy and being so wonderful because he genuinely wants to help her, or because he wants to be Head of the High Council?

And then there was that other dream man. Tarrek is a fae prince and also on the High Council. What game is he playing?

It’s not just Maddy’s life on the line, it’s her heart.

Escape Rating B+: Maddy’s late evening drive through the English countryside made for a slightly strange start, but once she hit that hotel bed and started dreaming, the story had a breakneck pace with lots of compelling twists and turns. Reading how an author starts with a prophecy and then has the characters subvert it instead of going meekly to their fate is angsty but makes for great reading.

I did figure out who one of the bad guys was long before the end, but not the other one, nor did I get quite how far around the bend things were. I always give “points” for fooling me. I got caught up in the romance and missed some of the clues about the evildoers. Excellently done!

Review Tour: Brightarrow Burning + Giveaway!

Posted on March 29, 2012April 1, 2012 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | B Reviews> blog tours> book reviews

When your people are struggling for survival, love is the last thing on your mind, especially if your job is to kill the brother of the only man you’ve ever loved.

That simple plot description becomes a multi-layered fantasy romance in the hands of Isabo Kelly. Her Brightarrow Burning gives readers not just a steamy romance, but also a compelling portrait of a heroine caught between duty, desire, and the gut-instinct to trust someone she’s known all her life, even when recent events say she shouldn’t. The story boils with added fire of the human desire to live fast in the face of imminent death, and a truly addictive partner.

Engaged in Wickedness

Posted on March 28, 2012April 1, 2012 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | B Reviews> book reviews

From the description of Engaged in Wickedness, it looked like Jade Lee’s introductory novella for her new Bridal Favors series would merely be a purely engaging frothy romance. But the desperate purpose behind Lady Gwen’s wickedness gives this historical romance a surprising depth.

The story does have what seems like a typical start. It could have been whipped out of the Regency, and with a few updates, taken place anywhere and anywhen.

A young woman tests, in fact over-reaches the rules of her station, seemingly out of a spirit of adventure. She seems adventurous to her tamer and more conventional peers, who listen avidly to the tales of her adventures, safely after the fact.

But Lady Gwen is the daughter of an Earl, and the rules she is flouting are the staid and unbreakable conventions of the haut ton. What rules are those? She likes to sneak off into darkened corners and shadowy gardens with men, and let them kiss her.

This is dangerous behavior. If she is caught, she will be ruined in the eyes of the ton. Her father’s station will not save her. And Lady Gwen simply does not care anymore. Flirting, and being caught, just a little, is the only thing that fills the emptiness of her life.

But one man is watching her. Sir Edward Murray has come to London to find a wife. And Lady Gwen is just the wife he wants. This slightly reformed bad boy has found his responsible side since the death of his father six years ago. Before he assumed his baronetcy, all of his plots and schemes were focused on getting into trouble. Since then, he’s been too busy successfully managing his estate.

Now, now he’s spent all his time in London crafting one plan after another to ensnare Lady Gwen. Little knowing that she is all too ready to be caught.

All he has to do is quit plotting and really, really see her. But by the time Edward finds Gwen’s true depths, she discovers all of his plots and schemes.

Can recklessness and deception lead to lasting love?

Escape Rating B: At the beginning of the story, Gwen seems to be a very shallow person, and the reader wonders why one would sympathize with her. She’s not just a flirt, she’s actively self-destructive, and for no particularly good reason. Gwen seems to be running around a ton ball looking for someone to compromise her reputation, and her family is nowhere in sight.

Lucky for Gwen, this part doesn’t last long. As we meet her family, it starts to be clear. Gwen’s family is clinically dysfunctional, and things are being concealed from the world. Gwen is acting out of stress, because she can’t cope anymore.

She needs to be rescued, but that risks exposure. So instead, she’s looking for ruin, because adventure makes her feel alive for a few minutes. She’s searching for danger. And it makes sense. Finding Edward is the best thing that could happen to her. Gwen needs a bad boy with a respectable facade. It just takes her a while to realize it.

Figuring out just how bad he can be is what makes the story fun.

Blue Galaxy

Posted on March 23, 2012March 25, 2012 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | B Reviews> book reviews

So I read Mako’s Bounty a little while ago and really liked it. Then I remembered that I had another little SFR treat by Diane Dooley tucked away on my iPad.

Diane Dooley’s Blue Galaxy is a short, romantic and sexy science fiction romance. It’s a story where you think you know the characters; the hard-bitten, hard-drinking ship captain on his last voyage and his last credit, and the naive upper-class young woman who will redeem his honor, while he saves her from life as some older warlord’s chattel bride.

If that were the story, as long as it ended in an HEA, if the characters were written well and the adventures were fun, (and the sex was smokin’ hot) it could make for a damn fine story.

Captain Javan Rhodes is pretty much as described. Han Solo without Chewie, if Leia had told him to take a hike. Only way further down on his luck and he never loved her anyway. He’s a war hero that slid really far down the seamier side of the space lanes.

However (ahem), Sola is much, much more than the innocent blue-blood Javan thinks she is. Is he rescuing her, or is she rescuing him? And exactly how much of the galaxy is chasing after them?

Escape Rating B+: This was just plain fun. I loved the twist at the end. I just wish I knew more about the world. And I wish there were more story. Are there any more Javans out there?

Word to the wise ebook romance junkie. Subscribe to the Carina Press newsfeed from your purveyor of choice, be it email, Facebook or Twitter. Their sales or specials are worth knowing about. For their one-year anniversary they gave away an ebook a day, Blue Galaxy was one of the books I “bought” during that giveaway, and I’m so very glad I did.

Assassins in Love

Posted on March 22, 2012March 25, 2012 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | B Reviews> book reviews

From the cover of Assassins in Love by Kris DeLake, I was expecting something along the lines of Mr. & Mrs. Smith, or maybe Shana Galen’s Lord and Lady Spy. I didn’t examine that cover picture closely enough to notice the details; that gun he’s holding is some kind of blaster pistol. And Kris DeLake is Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s newest pen name.

Ms. Rusch writes science fiction as under Rusch, and romance under the name Kristine Grayson. The new name represented a new direction. As I started the book, I wondered what direction it would be.

Assassins in Love begins with what would be a “meet cute” for a pair of hired killers. He helps her shove a body out an airlock on a luxury cruise ship. In space, of course. Hence the airlock.

Unlike Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Rikki and Misha are not married to each other before they meet over the corpse. But they have met before. Just once. And Rikki has repressed that memory completely. For a very good reason.

Misha has been hunting Rikki down for a totally different reason. They are both assassins, but he is a member of the Guild, and Rikki operates alone. Or maybe she’s a member of the rogue group that is targeting the Guild. Misha doesn’t know for sure.

What he does know is that Rikki doesn’t follow the rules he lives by. She isn’t licensed to kill. Or properly trained to clean up her messes. And every mess she makes recently seems to get traced back to him. Not that he can’t get himself out of her problems, but he’s pissed about it. He wants her to clean up her act, and join the Guild.

But when they meet, all Misha can think of is that he wants her.

That dead body they just shoved out the airlock? Distracting the security guards from the airlock alarm is the perfect excuse to pretend Rikki is his date, just for a few minutes, no make that hours. Making a show of sex-crazed, drunken party-goers fools the guards into thinking they are harmless.

Only one problem. The sex-crazed act is no act, for either of them. And it’s not just sex. Nor does it wear off in the morning, like it would if someone had slipped one of them an aphrodisiac. It’s real, whatever it is.

Until Rikki finds out who Misha really is. Not just that he’s a member of the Guild, but specifically who he is. His mother assassinated her father. Misha was there that night, and so was Rikki. She just spent one perfect night with the man who helped murdered her father. The man whose mother broke nearly every bone in her body. While he stood by and watched.

Rikki escapes from the ship, entangling Misha with security as best as she can behind her.

But Misha comes after her. He has to tell her the truth. Her childhood memory of the event is not what really happened.

But as they explore their past and see if they might possibly have a present, they take on a job together to see if they can find a way to trust each other. Little do they know that they have been caught in a web of destruction intended to bring down the entire Assassins’ Guild!

Escape Rating B: The Assassins Guild takeover plot is kind of a caper/suspense twist. It gets wrapped up pretty fast at the end, but at the same time, it’s part of the set up for the Assassins Guild series. Maybe now that the Guild is established in readers’ mind, there won’t be a need to have another mutiny?

Knowing that Rusch was the author may have set the bar higher than this story is intended to reach. I love her Retrieval Artist series, but lost interest in the romance series she writes under her Kathryn Grayson name. YMMV.

Assassins in Love mixes a caper plot with a science fiction romance with some heavy backstory about suppressed memories and trust issues and surviving abuse. For the story, Rikki and Misha needed to both be assassins and Rikki needed to have the kind of issues she did. I wonder if making the issues as bad as they were and specifically related to Misha was a little too heavy for a romance that felt like it was meant to be the lighter part of the plot?

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