Tag: 2012 Ebook Challenge

Legacy

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | 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 by Marlene Harris | Author : | 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.

More on that in a minute.

Brightarrow Burning shows a world in shambles. A powerful race of Sorcerers invaded Layla’s human city just a few short years ago. The Sorcerers draw their power for their spells from human pain, so they capture and torture Layla’s people for their fuel.

The humans thought the nearby Elven Kingdoms were their allies, but the Sorcerers were clever. Divide and conquer is an old trick. The Sorcerers bargained with the elves first, promising power and riches, and the elves stayed neutral in the Human/Sorcerer conflict.

Without elven weapons, the humans had no chance.

Then some of the elves started trading weapons to the Sorcerers. With the neutrality broken, the more enlightened elves were able to start trading with the Layla’s people again. That enlightenment meant they had never been beguiled by the Sorcerers’ claims; they knew that as soon as the humans were conquered, the Elven Kingdoms were next.

Layla is an archer, one of the best shots the humans have. With elven weapons, she can disrupt a caravan of captives, and sometimes assassinate its guards. But she has a special assignment.

One elven lord has been betraying the secrets of the human city to the Sorcerers since the day they arrived. The elves used to be their friends, and had free entry into the city. Layla’s assignment is to kill that elf.

Although Althir may have betrayed the humans, his brother Ulric has been a friend of her family’s all her life. Now that Layla is a grown woman, the feelings she has for Ulric are anything but familial.

It won’t stop her from killing his brother. But Ulric might.

He’s suddenly there, every time she turns around. He says he wants to protect her. Even more, he says he wants to love her. But Layla fears that the real reason Ulric is there is to protect his brother.

After all, where was he before she started to target his brother? He disappeared for years, and suddenly he’s back. It can’t be a coincidence.

And then Ulric adds the addictive compulsion of elf-fire into this already combustible mix, and all hell really does break loose!

Escape Rating B: For a short novella, this story packs a surprising amount of emotional wallop into it. Equally surprising, it manages to tie up its major loose ends, as least as far as the hero and heroine are concerned.

The worldbuilding is pretty neat, too. This is a dark and gritty war-torn fantasy world. We see just enough to know why Layla’s and Ulric’s relationship has such a damn hard time getting started, and where Layla’s trust issues come from.

I would love to see more of this world, it’s got the kind of possibilities for future storytelling built into it that remind me a little of Shiloh Walker’s Veil series.

If you prefer your elves dark and tortured, your women warriors, and your road to romance rocky, you’ll enjoy this book.

Isabo will be giving away a $25 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to one randomly drawn commenter during the tour.

  • To be entered, just leave a comment along with your email address.
  • One commenter will be chosen randomly from all the comments made at each tour stop, so the more tour stops you make comments at, the greater your chances of winning! A list of all participating blogs can be found here.
  • Giveaway ends at 11:59 PM CDT on 3/30

 

Engaged in Wickedness

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | 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 by Marlene Harris | Author : | 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.

Isolation

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | A Reviews> book reviews

If someone offered me a one-way ticket to the next solar system, I would be so there. I probably, wait, I know I wouldn’t read the fine print on the contract.

Which is why I understand what motivates a character like Dana Sinclair to sign up to be part of mankind’s first journey outside Earth’s solar system in the first volume of A. B. Gayle’s Saa’ar Chronicles, Isolation.

In real life, one would expect exploring uncharted space to be a rough trip. One might not expect the kind of pre-flight corporate machinations to spillover into in-flight betrayal that helps make Dana’s story so compelling. On the other hand, the nastier bits of Dana’s adventure do turn out to have their…compensations.

Although this story takes place aboard a space ship, there’s a reason for that title. Most of the story takes place in isolation. Different kinds of isolation.

The ship sets out from Earth for the planet Sa’ar, with a mostly human crew and a few Saa’arians. Nearly everyone spends three months in suspended animation for a high-speed trip to Neptune.

When Dana wakes up, the situation has gone to crap in the recycling unit. Instead of being the second-in-command of the medical team, she’s in charge. Her chief is dead. It seems to have been a heart attack. But he wasn’t ill, and she’s not permitted to do an autopsy. All the Saa’arians are dead, and again, no autopsy is permitted.

The woman in charge of the expedition is a corporate bigwig, with no experience running an exploration mission or for that matter a diplomatic mission. Or much experience motivating people. The crew call her “the ice queen” for a reason.

But the second-in-commend, now there’s a man Dana wants to get to know better, if he could stand to spend two minutes in a doctor’s company ever again. But that’s a problem for Ethan Reilly. He was a bona fide war hero, until he deliberately stepped on a landmine to save his men. Now he has prosthetics from below the knee on both legs, and scars on half his face that he refuses to have healed. The prosthetic joints work so well, people forget he has them, but Ethan never does. And he’s had his fill of doctors in white coats. After months of rehab, he’d be happy to never see another one again.

Until he meets Dana Sinclair. And discovers there’s a smart, funny and sexy woman under that coat. One who doesn’t care about any of his scars, because as a doctor, she’s seen it all before. She only cares about the man inside. Not the hero on the Army recruiting posters that he used to be.

The ship is stranded near the planet Nebula, waiting for help to come from the planet Saa’ar to pick them up. The expedition leader wants Dana to declare that all the Saa’ ar on board the ship died of natural causes, by exposure to an Earth disease, and that the problem is solved. Dana’s not so sure. There’s too much pressure to rush to judgment, and too little data.

And there’s a whole lot of the antidote for Sarin gas on board.

Only one person is willing to help her investigate. Ethan Reilly. Or so it seems. Until he turns on her, and gets her locked up. In isolation.

But not until after he’s gotten her to fall in love with him. Has Ethan betrayed her, or is he keeping her safe? Can he find the answers to all the problems without her?

Escape Rating A-: I couldn’t put this down once I picked it up. It was easy for me to get sucked into Dana’s point of view.

The story here is really about how the crew bands together to solve the mystery much more than it is about the space travel or anything else. There is kind of a locked-room aspect to the story, since the ship is out by Neptune and they can’t go anywhere.

I want the next book now. I have to know what happens when they reach the Saa’ar planet.

 

Born to Darkness

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | A Reviews> book reviews

I grabbed Born to Darkness by Suzanne Brockmann because so many people have recommended her, but her Troubleshooters series is already on book 17, and if I liked it, well, the so many books, so little time problem reared its ugly head and spat at me.

Born to Darkness is the first book in Brockmann’s Fighting Destiny series. and the readers who recommended her books were right. Born to Darkness is terrific romantic suspense. For this reader, Darkness has some added appeal, because this new series has a futuristic paranormal feel to it.

Born to Darkness takes place in Boston, in a near future at around the same time as J.D. Robb’s In Death series. Except this is a different future.

Instead of cops and robbers, the Fighting Destiny series centers around the Obermeyer Institute, a school for people with higher than normal brain-integration. In other words, people who can use more than 10% of their mental capacity at one time. Think of it as a different variation on the X-Men.

Except that a lot of the potential X-Men are X-Women, because of hormones, or they would be. The problem is that there’s a really nifty drug that can be made from the blood of these pre-pubescent “potentials”. That drug is called “Destiny” and it’s a humdinger. The Fountain of Youth in trade for instant addiction.  Eventually it drives them super-crazy-powerful insane, when they “joker”. Yes, Batman’s Joker. It’s like that. Then they die.

The men and women of the Obermeyer Institute (the good guys) fight the Organization that manufactures Destiny.

Born to Darkness introduces readers to those fighters, and the powers they use to fight Destiny, as they come together to rescue one young girl from the clutches of the Organization.

The romance in this romantic suspense, and is there ever a romance, is between Michelle “Mac” Mackenzie and Shane Laughlin.

Mac is a high-ranking member of the Obermeyer Institute. She’s an empath. She also has a nifty trick, she uses sex to heal herself. After a terrible incident with a joker, Mac goes out trolling bars, and picks up Shane.

It’s his last night before he reports to the Obermeyer Institute as a “potential”. And he really needs what he considers a job. Shane was blacklisted from the Navy SEALs for doing the right thing at the wrong time. He took the blame to save the careers of the men in his unit. But blacklisting means he can’t get any job anywhere. He’s broke.

Their intended one-night stand heals Mac’s broken ankle–and blows every circuit and light bulb in her building. Whatever potential power Shane has, besides the great sex he and Mac share, it’s not anything the Obermeyer Institute has ever seen before.

The only problem is, potentials are supposed to be off-limits, and Mac didn’t know Shane was a potential until after the lights blew. Walking away is what she’s supposed to do.

But she can’t, and neither can he.

Mac doesn’t believe any man could ever love her for herself, because part of her power is to make men love her. Only as long as they are in her presence. She’s sure love can’t be real. Ever.

Shane can only be genuine. He doesn’t know any other way to be. The sex may be earth-shattering, sometimes literally, but what he feels is real. Convincing Mac is harder than any mission he’s ever been on.

And no matter how much Mac wants to push Shane away, she can’t afford to. There is a little girl’s life on the line. And the Institute has figured out why all those lights blew. Shane amps Mac’s power. Real emotion amps power. And Mac needs that boost to find the girl. Before the Organization kills her.

If she loses Shane afterwards, Mac can survive the blow. Somehow.

Escape Rating A: This story is absolutely awesome. This was one I couldn’t put down. The paranormal elements are light, this is pretty much a romantic suspense story, but that’s just fine. It’s excellent.

The setup of the Institute for future stories is good. Although a secondary love story was also resolved within Born to Darkness, you can see who will be featured in at least one of the next books. I hope it’s soon, it’s a story that begs for an HEA.

If you decide to read Born to Darkness, it’s worth reading Shane’s Last Stand first. This is the prequel short story that explains how Shane winds up getting blacklisted. I highly recommend both Shane’s Last Stand and Born to Darkness. Be sure you don’t have to get up early the next morning.

Update: This review was reposted at Romance at Random on 3/21/12.

Silver: Humanotica, Book 1

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | book reviews> C Reviews

I’m not quite sure where to begin in my review of Silver by Darcy Abriel. This book is book one in her Humanotica series, and I will also be reading and reviewing Haevyn, which is book 2 for Book Lovers Inc.

The thing about Silver is that I’ve never had a book bother me quite so much. On the one hand, it definitely captured my attention. On the other, some of that capture was in the perturbation factor.

Silver is a science fiction romance. I generally like SFR.

Silver takes place in an empire that has probably hit the downward spiral. Think of Rome under the really, really bad emperors, like Tiberius, or Caligula. You know, electing horses to serve in the Senate. Or Star Wars under that fellow we all know and love, the Emperor Palpatine. Remember him? He turned out to be way out there on the Dark Side of the Force.

Decadent empires can give rise (pun possibly intended) to all kinds of disgusting, and manipulative poltical practices. Including the use of sex, and blackmail about sex, as political maneuvering.

Very decadent imperial citizens are often too lazy to work (back to Rome again) so they employ slaves.

In the case of Quentopolis, those slaves are humanotics. Any person with 51% or more cybernetic parts is automatically sold into slavery, if they are caught.

Women are second-class citizens anyway. The reason for this isn’t explained, it just is. But then again, it so frequently isn’t explained, even in real life.

Silver used to be a normal woman, but she was caught pretending to be a man in order to attend a prestigious scientific academy. Her sentence; to become a humanotic and be sold into slavery.

Her new owner, Lel Kesselbaum has a fetish for male humanotics. With cybernetics, this is a complicated but not impossible problem. Lel has this formerly independent woman transformed into a trinex.

What’s a trinex? In this case, female from the waist up, male from the waist down, and more than 51% cybernetic. There are a lot of descriptions of the sexual aspects of Silver’s nature.

But what keeps driving me wacky is the change in Silver’s personality. She was fiercely independent, and now she’s submissive to Kesselbaum’s Dominor. (Dominor being both a political title and a sexual reference in this case).

In male/male romance, there’s a trope named “gay for you”. This story made me wonder if there is a similar trope in BDSM fic called “sub for you”. During the story, Silver discovers she likes to be dominant with other lovers, but not with Kesselbaum. With him, she’s always the submissive, and she loves it that way.

There’s is a slave revolt being planned. Entreus is the leader of that revolt. When he enters the picture, Silver discovers that her master is playing a very long game, and is not quite what he seems.

But there’s never any doubt about what choices she will make.

Escape Rating C-: I found the world fascinating, but I’m very glad that Entreus is the main character for Haevyn. He has more agency, and is in more control of his actions than Silver is.

For more of my thoughts on this book, head on over to Book Lovers Inc.

 

Mako’s Bounty

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | book reviews> C Reviews

Mako’s Bounty by Diane Dooley is part of Decadent Publishing’s 1 Night Stand series. And that description just about encapsulates the book. The story is about a one-night stand, and it is a decadently delicious little treat of a science fiction romance.

Mako is Makiko Dolan, and she is an intergalactic bounty hunter. With a name like Makiko, and a profession like hers, winding up being nicknamed for the earth-bound shark seems only natural. Especially since Makiko, like the shark she is named for, always puts the bite on her prey.

Her prey in this story is a man named Vin Sainte, who naturally has a nickname of his own: “the Saint,” of course. The Saint is on the run from Ravenscorp, the evil mercantile empire that controls the galaxy, or at least the human-inhabited corner of it.

Mako has been chasing the Saint for months, because she needs the major bounty he’ll bring in. Ravenscorp has been keeping Mako’s mother imprisoned in indentured servitude, and Mako desperately needs a big payday to get her out.

So Mako chases the Saint to Earth. Literally to Earth, as in the planet Earth. She’s arranged a meeting. Not just an ordinary meeting, but a one-night stand arranged through Madame Eve’s exclusive dating agency. Mako’s plan is to sex him up and then handcuff him while he’s still “recovering”.

Mako doesn’t count on the sensory overload she gets from being on Earth for the first time. She’s used to the deprivations of a backwater colony–and the empty vastness of space. Earth is almost an LSD trip.

But Mako’s big surprise is the Saint himself. She’s been studying his picture for months. But in person, he’s, well, she has to admit to herself that he’s the best looking man she’s seen in a long time. The Saint is a major part of that sensory overload.

And even bigger surprise is that he knows exactly who Mako is, and why she’s there. The Saint knows it’s a honey trap. He’s there to bring the little shark over to his own cause.

Until Vin Sainte met Mako, he thought his mission was just to convert the bounty hunter from Ravenscorp’s side to his.

When he finds her naked in his hotel room, he realizes that he needs to convert her to his cause, heart, body and soul.

Escape Rating C+: This story is cute and fun. It’s a very quick and enjoyable dip into the science fiction romance pool.

However, because the story is very short (about 40 pages) there isn’t time to do a lot of worldbuilding, so the science fiction part rides on some assumptions. The beginning has a very good SF feel at the space station, and I loved that one ship was named Gagarin.

But…adjusting to Earth’s gravity wouldn’t be that easy for a lifetime spacer, or I don’t think so.  The mental adjustment, perhaps, but the physical, not so much.

The bigger question for me was Vin Sainte’s religious beliefs. He is a devout practitioner of a religious faith that isn’t named but seems awfully familiar. He certainly prays a lot, and at surprising moments. In a story of this length, inventing a religion would have taken up a lot of worldbuilding time. That being said, assuming that current religions would survive into space relatively unchanged seemed a stretch.

Of course, there’s that scene from the end of the Babylon 5 episode The Parliament of Dreams, where representatives from ALL the Earth’s religions come to the station in 2258. It could happen.

Lust in the Library

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | book reviews> C Reviews

To commemorate the Public Library Association Conference, which starts today in Philadelphia, let’s talk about Lust in the Library.

Not book lust, although there certainly is a lot of that. Lust in the stacks. Wait, that could still be book lust.

I meant good old-fashioned hanky-panky in the stacks.  And in the librarian’s office.

Lust in the Library is a book by Amelia Fayer, subtitled “An Erotic Novella”. And it definitely is that. But with a title like Lust in the Library it might as well be catnip to librarian (and archivist) erotic romance readers.

Escape Rating C+: This is short, sexy and a whole lot of fun. It’s book/library themed adult mind candy.

Unfortunately, working in a library or archives isn’t anything like the academic library portrayed in this novella. Darn it. So this story carries a consumer warning about not attempting these activities at your local library, especially if you are a member of the staff!

Motor City Mage

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | A Reviews> book reviews

I’ve enjoyed every trip to magical Detroit so far, and Motor City Mage turned out to be another delightful journey to Cindy Spencer Pape’s paranormal version of Motown.

The mage in Motor City Mage is Desmond Sutton. He’s the representative of the Wyndewin League in Detroit, and a powerful wizard. But the incredibly insular Wyndewin League has a few problems with the way that Sutton represents them in Motown.

Desmond has been mixing with beings from the other magical races, the fae and the werewolves. His sister is married to a fae lord, his niece is half-fae; they’re family! Cutting off his sister just isn’t happening. And his brother-in-law has family of his own, and they’ve married into the local werewolves. More family.

And his new relatives are very effective at helping him manage the demon threat. Some demons have crossed to the earthly dimension and are distributing very potent, and very lethal, drugs to the human population. College kids just see it as a new way of getting high.

But his boss only sees Desmond’s family as dangerous elements. Wyndewin are not supposed to mix with the other magical races or with non-magical humans. They’re supposed to be superior. Desmond is beginning to wonder whether or not its all a load of unicorn pucky, but he also wants to keep his job.

However, there’s a woman that he shouldn’t be interested in. Because Lana is not only not Wyndewin, she’s a werewolf. But she’s the only woman who can stand up to everything he can dish out. And dish it right back. Lana is so wrong for Des, and so very, very right.

That drug problem he’s investigating, Lana not only wants to help, she’s the ideal person to help. She’s a part-time student, and, as a werewolf, she’s got her own built-in set of weaponry if the investigation turns nasty.

But their investigation takes on a dimension that neither of them expects. Literally. Their sting operation on the demon drug distributors sends Des and Lana out of Detroit and into one of the nearby demon dimensions, where they have no one to rely on except each other.

And a demon.

Escape Rating A: Cindy Spencer Pape’s entire Urban Arcana series deserves an A rating. If you enjoy paranormal/urban fantasy romance, just start at the beginning with Motor City Fae and plan on rolling right on through to Motor City Witch, and Motor City Wolf before reaching Motor City Mage. (I loved them all. My review of Motor City Wolf is here)

I just wish it looked like there were more, but Motor City Mage matches up all of the original “cast”. Is it too much to hope for Motor City: the Next Generation?