Tag: 2012 Ebook Challenge

Review: Return to Willow Lake by Susan Wiggs

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

Return to Willow Lake by Susan Wiggs is a small-town romance that’s not really about the romance. And that’s a very, very good thing. It’s a story about listening to your heart, and finding the path you were meant to be on. Because only when you know who you are and what you want are you ready to love someone else.

Sonnet Romano comes back to Willow Lake, in this ninth book of Susan Wiggs’ Lakeshore Chronicles, for her step-sister Daisy’s wedding. The setting is idyllic. Camp Kioga is a beautiful location, an old summer camp on the lake shore, near the small Catskills town of Avalon where Sonnet grew up.

A place that Sonnet couldn’t wait to leave.

But Daisy’s wedding reminds her of just what she’s given up for her high-powered career as a project director at UNESCO; time with her mother and step-father, time with friends, time to unwind, time to just be herself.

A few precious hours when she doesn’t have to watch everything she says and does for what her biological father, candidate-for-the-Senate General Laurence Jeffries, might think. A man who has only been interested in her since she won a scholarship at a pretigious university and looked like she might be a credit to him after all.

Sonnet is his one mistake. The product of a youthful indiscretion while he was attending West Point and her mother was still underage. But now that he’s a candidate, his campaign is trying to “manage” Sonnet’s existence. They have to; her father’s campaign manager is her boyfriend.

But at Daisy’s wedding Sonnet’s perfect plan for her future starts to slip. Sonnet’s best friend, the person who has always been there for her, is Zach Algers. They were both outsiders in the little community of Avalon. Sonnet because she was not only bi-racial, but because her mom was a young, single mother in a community of two-parent families. And Zach, first because his mom died, so they both were being raised by single parents, but then because his dad embezzled town funds and was spending time in jail for the crime.

Misfits together growing up.

At the wedding, Sonnet discovered something new about Zach. He hadn’t just grown up into his late high school growth spurt, he’d…changed. Zach Alger was the hottest man that Sonnet Romano had ever seen. Way better than her supposedly perfect boyfriend.

And it wasn’t supposed to be like that. Not with Zach. Not with her best friend. Not tipsy, after the wedding, alone on somebody’s boat out in the middle of the lake. Zach wasn’t supposed to be the best she’d ever had. Or thought she ever would.

Because sex with Zach took away their ease with each other. Ruined their friendship.

And then Sonnet had to hear just about the scariest thing a woman can ever hear from her mother. Her mother had breast cancer. And she was pregnant. Which meant that certain forms of treatment were off the table, because they’d harm the baby.

Sonnet threw her perfect life out the window, and came back to Willow Lake, to Avalon. Her plans didn’t matter anymore. The only thing that mattered was being there for her mom, after all the years that her mother had worked two jobs and more just to keep them together. After all the years that it had been just the two of them, before her mom had finally found her own what they hoped would be happily ever after. Until cancer came calling.

Sonnet thought that she was giving up a lot to come home and be with her mother, but that any, absolutely any sacrifice she made would be worth it. What she found out was that she wasn’t sacrificing anything that she shouldn’t have jettisoned a long time ago.

And that sometimes you have to travel far away to appreciate what was right in front of your eyes all along.

Escape Rating A-: Even though this is the latest book in the Lakeshore Chronicles, I’ll confess that I haven’t read the rest of the series, and I didn’t feel left out. A reader could step right in at this point and have enough info to know what’s going on. This is Sonnet’s story and her history with Zack is all on the BFF side up until now.

This is mostly the story of Sonnet waking up and smelling the coffee, so to speak, rather than the love story. Sonnet isn’t ready for a love story for most of the book. She needs to grow up and figure out what she wants. She’s just not ready. She’s a good person, but she’s being manipulated, a lot, by her sperm-donor father.

The parts of the story that really shine are the ones that deal with Nina’s (Sonnet’s mom) cancer treatment, and the hopelessness that the family goes through. And, on a more upbeat note, the job that Sonnet takes in Avalon to work on a reality TV show about a hip-hop star doing her community service at Camp Kioga with a bunch of inner-city kids. Jezebel, the diva of the show, was both hilarious and insightful.

What I didn’t quite get was some of Orlando’s (the campaign boyfriend) motivations for his ultimate betrayal. Sperm-donor dad I understood. I didn’t like him (I doubt the reader is supposed to) but I understood him. Orlando, not so much.

Avalon is a terrific place and I want to go back.

Review: Serafina and the Silent Vampire by Marie Treanor

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

A psychic who doesn’t believe in vampires! How delightfully unexpected. You would think that one person firmly resident on the eerie side of the fence would automatically give at least some credence to the possibility that there might be some truth to rumors about the other denizens of the night.

But not Serafina. And that’s just a part of what makes Marie Treanor’s Serafina and the Silent Vampire so delicious.

Serafina MacBride absolutely does speak with the dead, among other “tricks”. But her own spooky powers are the only ones she has any faith in. So she uses them. Sometimes for good, and sometimes for things decidedly not so good.

She knows her current client, Ferdy Bell, is hiding something from her. He says there’s a vampire stalking him. Sera believes in ghosts, because they’re a natural part of being. We live, we die, our spirit passes on. But vampires are unnatural, so they must be fake. Therefore, Ferdy must be having her on.

However, Ferdy is a wealthy banker. His money is no lie. And he wants protection. Serafina’s, the psychic investigations agency that Sera owns, is perfectly happy to provide it. And while Ferdy is hosting a big house party for all of his rich friends, Sera and her friends have a plan to scare him with a fake vampire attack, all in good fun.

Too bad for Sera that their fake attack is crashed by two very real vampires. One kills Ferdy’s son, Jason, and gets clean away. The other very nearly seduces Serafina just when the murder is taking place.

Serafina still doesn’t believe that the man she met in her client’s garden–the one she saw biting her friend’s neck!–is a vampire. Even though he only speaks to her in her head, and not with his vocal chords. She’s the only one who can hear him.

She doesn’t believe until she sees Blair in action. beating up the “bad” vampires, the ones who killed, and turned, Jason Bell.

Blair and Serafina are surprised to discover that they have a common cause–eradicating the nest of vampires that is taking over the heart of Edinburgh’s banking industry. Serafina wants them removed because their insidious plan is to control Edinburgh, and eventually a much larger territory, by pulling the strings on a vast financial empire. They’re turning humans in key financial positions into vampires.

Blair wants these new vampires out of his territory. Edinburgh is his domain, and, reminiscent of Highlander, there can only be one — at least without an invitation. Too many vampires in one place risks exposure.

But Blair is working with Serafina for another reason, a much more personal one. The greatest enemy of the immortal is boredom. Until Serafina careened into his unlife, Blair had felt nothing for a very long time. With Serafina around, he’s been angry, frustrated, horny, satisfied, curious, excited, fascinated, impatient, eager and every other emotion he hasn’t felt for centuries. But he’s never, ever been bored.

Now that he’s found a reason to live, there’s someone out to kill him.

Escape Rating A: I didn’t want this one to end. The case had to be over, but it’s wide open for the next book in the Serafina’s series, and I want to find out what happens next to these people. Not just where things go between Serafina and Blair, but also Serafina’s whole crew.

Serafina and Blair’s love story isn’t just steamy (although it certainly is that!) but you feel the push/pull of Seraphina very properly worrying whether this is a good idea and what possible future they might have, and whether a fantastic time right now is worth the inevitable heartbreak.

And there’s Sera’s posse, who are also terrific. I hope that future stories will see them getting their own happy-ever-afters.

Oh yeah. Making the vampires silent was a stroke of genius. Very, very cool!

Review: The Guardian of Bastet by Jacqueline M. Battisti

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

Jacqueline M. Battisti’s new urban fantasy/paranormal debut, The Guardian of Bastet, had me from the very first word in the blurb. Her main character is a cat-shifter. Not a jaguar or a puma, oh no. At the full-moon, Trinity Morrigan-Caine shifts into a house-cat. The book might as well have jumped up and said “Here reader, reader, reader…”

The story made me purr with delight.

Trinity Morrigan-Caine is a half-breed. Her mother is a powerful witch of the Morrigan line. (Yes, that Morrigan. Morgaine. You know the one. She had a little something to do with a fellow named Arthur. Way, way back.) But Trinity isn’t a powerful witch like her mom. Because Olivia Morrigan went and fell in love with a werepuma, and that just isn’t done. So Olivia Morrigan got disowned and disavowed, and went to live with her husband, Ben Caine, in the Genesee Valley of upstate New York.

Which turned out to be kind of like Sunnydale in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Complete with demons and Hellmouth. Olivia Morrigan found herself the head witch of the Genesee Valley Society of Others (GVSO) because witches are just so much better than everyone else.

The only problem is that Olivia and Ben’s daughter, Trinity, isn’t quite what Olivia had in mind. Trinity isn’t much of a witch, and she doesn’t shift into anything fierce. Dad’s an alpha werepuma. When it’s Trinity’s time of the month, Trinity turns into good old Felis catus, otherwise known as an ordinary house cat. She even (ugh!) hunts mice. Very well according to her cousin and housemate.

Tracy’s other power? Well, since she turns into an animal, she can also understand them. Which makes her a fantastic vet. Her patients just adore her. And she does work miracles with the animals.

The other problem with being a were-kitty is that Trinity has all the morals of, well, a cat. She likes men. Frequently and often. And isn’t horribly particular. Which comes to bite her, and pretty much everyone around her, in the butt when Trinity brings a demon home on the worst booty call ever.

But at least Trinity didn’t summon the demon. She just didn’t pay attention when he started mesmerizing her. There’s a hotter place in hell for the ones who summoned him. Figuring that out and growing up and into her powers enough to take that bad boy out, is what makes this story sing.

This is Trinity’s story. She starts out as a damn good veterinarian, but a dud in everything else. Only one person believes in her, and unfortunately for Trinity, it isn’t one or both of her parents. (Dad did better than mom, but still…) The only one to believe in Trinity was the GVSO’s one and only resident vampire, Vincent. His last act is to gift Trinity with an ancient amulet, a powerful talisman that he has been keeping for centuries, waiting for the one person capable of meeting its potential.

That person is Trinity, the forbidden child of a witch and a shifter. Only she can be the true Guardian of Bastet. But only if she can accept herself and her own powers, powers that everyone has told her she does not have. She’s always believed she’s just a dud.

But only a true Guardian can send the demon back to the nether-realm he came from. And to do that, Trinity will have to accept that she is powerful and capable, and worthy of being the true avatar of Bastet.

Bastet was a warrior-goddess, the woman with the head of a lion. Her Guardian must also embrace the warrior within.

Trinity will need to be a warrior, and a shifter, and a witch. And powerful in all ways. Because that warrior within her will need to fight against a traitor who is way too close.

Escape Rating A-: The mother/daughter dynamics (and grandmother/mother/daughter dynamics) remind me a bit of Brave, and that’s a good reminder. A lot of what drives this story is the mother/daughter issue. Not just that Olivia makes no secret of her disappointment in Trinity, but also Gwendolyn Morrigan’s rejection of her daughter Olivia for marrying a shifter. And most of all, Trinity’s cousin Lily, and her feelings of rejection by her witch mother for also being an under-powered half-breed.

Trinity comes off as a bit self-absorbed at the beginning of the story (her mental dialog about turning into a cat once a month and playing with her cat-familiar as a cat is hilarious), but she definitely has reasons for where she starts out. And she certainly redeems herself.

Review: The Memory of Roses by Blair McDowell

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

The Memory of Roses by Blair McDowell is simply an incredibly lovely story. It’s also a love story, and a story about finding yourself, and about closure. The theme running through the book is “all’s well that ends well.” The story goes very well from beginning to end. The life that it tells, that definitely has some rough patches. But it ends very, very well.

Death and discovery. It could be a metaphor for the life of Ian McQuaid. He was, after all, an archaeologist. He was also the father of Britomartis McQuaid, and it’s his death that begins Brit’s journey. Because with her father’s death, Brit discovers that much of what she knew about her father was a lie.

Brit thought her parents’ marriage was a reasonably happy and faithful one. Her mother died of cancer when Brit was eight, and her father never remarried; Brit’s memories are those of a child. Her father’s will leaves her a house on the Greek island of Corfu, one Brit never knew he owned, and a package to deliver to his long-ago lover, a woman he met, loved and left on that island, one long ago summer before Brit was born. The summer just before Brit was born.

His last letter tells her to “Go to Corfu. I hope you will find there the peace, the beauty, the sheer joy in being alive that I found.” 

Brit goes in search of the mystery of her father’s life–the secret of what happened during that missing summer. She has time, and she has the burning need to know the truth. The things Brit doesn’t have are that peace, that joy that her father found on Corfu. She’s never had them, and she doesn’t expect to find them. She doesn’t believe they even exist, at least not for her. All the people she’s ever loved have left or rejected her, and she doesn’t even know why.

But on Corfu, she finds friendship, and in bringing the villa back to life, she finds peace and purpose. Brit starts to write, and finally finds joy in her work, real joy.

Love comes looking for her. And when it finds her, she begins to understand the reasons that her father made the decisions that he did, so long ago.

But there is one secret from that summer still left to be revealed. As Brit finally finds her joy, she discovers she has the power to totally destroy someone else. Or she can keep her father’s last secret.

Escape Rating A: I really loved this story. There were so many circles within circles, and they all came to the absolute perfect conclusions. There’s the mystery about what happened to Ian and Maria in the past, and you absolutely have to find out how their tragic love story ended so badly. Then there’s Brit’s unhappiness. You both want her to have a happy ending, and you want her to deal with her ghosts. Extra points for a particular person getting his just desserts near the end.

This is a story about resolutions. Not New Year’s resolutions, but about things getting resolved appropriately. Brit has to be ready for love before she can even get within shouting distance of happy, and Andreas is not just handsome, but also patient enough to be a friend first and wait for the moment to be right.

One other thing…this was just so good that I was able to forget the absolutely HUGE watermark that Rebel Ink Press puts on every single page of their eARCs. I was so completely immersed in the story and my eyes stopped seeing it.

 

Review: Only Scandal Will Do by Jenna Jaxon

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | B Reviews> blog tours> book reviews

Only Scandal Will Do by Jenna Jaxon is, for the most part, an absolutely delightful Regency romp with just a touch of romantic suspense to add the right amount of spice to its story of a marquess in pursuit of a scandal-free marriage and a sword-wielding heroine who promises to give him anything but.

Kat Fitzwilliam and Duncan Ferrars do anything but “meet cute”. She’s been kidnapped on her way to a ton masquerade ball, dressed as Athena, Goddess of War, unfortunately without the weaponry. He’s visiting his ex-mistress’ whorehouse for one last fling before attending that same ball. And there he sees a masked red-headed beauty in the midst of a Greco-Roman tableaux, and Duncan buys her services for the night. Of course he thinks she’s a lady of the house.

By the time he starts thinking with the brain above his shoulders, he’s already compromised her virtue; not in fact, but enough to cause a scandal. And it would be a scandal; Kat Fitzwilliam is Lady Katarina Fitzwilliam, the sister of the Earl of Manning, and Duncan is the Marquess of Dalbury. To save Kat’s reputation, Duncan must marry her, if he can find her. She scratched his face, clonked him over the head soundly with a pitcher, and escaped the brothel.

There’s no scandal if no one knows there’s a scandal.

But too many people do know. Kat knows that she nearly gave in to the sensual stranger with the practiced seduction techniques. It was only when she realized that he was only pretending to believe her story that she found the will to fend him off. His techniques were very, very good. But she never saw his face, he remained masked.

The doctor who treated her bruises knows, and thinks she was raped. And the Bow Street Runner in charge of the case, Reginald Matthews, has entirely too many good guesses about what happened for Kat’s peace of mind.

Her brother Jack mostly believes the story she fabricated about unlocked doors and lucky escapes, but then Jack was knocked unconscious and left behind by her kidnappers. He wasn’t the prey they were after.

Kat plans to return to their Virginia home to escape any possibility of meeting her tormentor again. She hopes that if she marries a friend in Virginia, she’ll eventually forget the taste of passion she found. Friendship she trusts; what happened in that locked room was tinged with lies and deceit.

But Duncan finds her first, partly by accident, but also through determination. He’s been hunting every ton function in the hopes of finding the elusive woman who haunts his dreams. He wants to do the right thing, but he also just wants Kat.

But he’ll have to fight for her. And only one person can defend Kat’s honor. Kat herself. She won’t let Duncan and her brother kill each other for her, she won’t let them guilt her into a marriage she doesn’t think is right. If there’s going to be a duel, she’ll fight it herself.

Kat can wield a sword as well as any man, and better than most.

Too bad that’s not the last battle they’ll need to fight to win their chance at happiness.

Escape Rating B: The auction scene in the brothel, and its aftermath, is a terrific setup for the story. The reader gets to see inside both of the main characters, and gets to see how they tick. Kat is not just feisty, but very unconventional, and you see how and why she got that way. Her attitudes make sense; she’s not a typical Regency debutante for very good reasons. Duncan’s thoughts and actions are logical from his perspective; although you want him to believe Kat right away, unfortunately he probably wouldn’t in that situation.

However, while I understand the necessity of avoiding the scandal, I found Kat’s willingness to fall in love with the man who caused it a bit too quick. After she spent so much time agonizing over his demonstrated lack of respect for her, she fell too easily. Leaving for Virginia was an option, because her brother would have been fine afterwards. Scandals never affect the man as much as the woman. It’s not fair, but it’s true.

On the other hand, back to the suspense angle, it took me a while to figure out who the real villain in the piece was, and just how far and how deep his villainy ran. Very nice job on the dastardly suspense business.

Review: A Demon and His Witch by Eve Langlais

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

There are absolutely no great literary themes or deeper meanings to be found in A Demon and His Witch by Eve Langlais. And frankly, if all the demons look like the one on the cover of the book, who the hell cares? Seriously, that man has got something, and if Hell can just bottle it, they’ll have a fortune in souls. Yum. Make that YUM!

When I said there were no deeper themes, I lied. Just a little. (What can you expect in a story where Lucifer, Prince of Lies, is the big boss?)

Ysabel is Lucifer’s assistant. When I say assistant, I mean his administrative assistant. Because Hell mostly works like the worst bureaucracy you’ve ever seen. (What did you expect?) Lucifer really, really needs an Admin to deal with the paperwork!

Why is Ysabel in Hell? Because she’s a witch. A spellcasting witch. One who was burned at the stake in ye olde Dark Ages. These things happened. But the folks who burned her at the stake, well, let’s say they really honked Ysabel off. Her lover’s mother didn’t want to let go of her not-so-little boy, so she led the torch-wielding brigade. The boyfriend didn’t just let it happen, he stood around and watched. With her last breath, Ysabel sold her soul to damn the whole lot of them to Hell.

She didn’t read the fine print in the contract. No one ever does. Five of the a**hats escaped, and Ysabel’s true torments began. It turns out that working in Lucifer’s office isn’t all that bad compared to re-experiencing your own personal burning-at-the-stake every single day.

Of course, if she recaptures her tribe of escaped miscreants, her little fire-show will go away again. But Ysabel is a witch, not a tracker. Lucifer has just the tracker in mind. Of course he does.

Ysabel doesn’t trust men. Not after her first and only lover let his mother burn her at the stake. Would you? So who does Lucifer send her? Hell’s best-known stealer-of-hearts and female panties, the name and number on every female restroom wall in Hell, “For a good f*** call Remy”.

Remy is one of Lucifer’s best trackers. A half-human, half-demon warrior with a string of commendations and a sweet but totally insane demon mother.

And a man who spouts some of the worst and funniest pick-up lines in history. But they work. Even on Ysabel. And isn’t she one surprised witch.

Especially when he brings her home to meet his mother.

Escape Rating A-: This is sweeter than you might expect from the story premise. Which doesn’t mean that it isn’t every bit as snarky, funny and sexy as you do expect from the blurb, because it absolutely is all of those things. But the love story between Ysabel and Remy has it’s surprisingly touching moments.

In order for love to work, even a demon and a witch in Hell need to trust each other for true love to blossom. They have to work pretty hard to get to their happily ever after. Even writing that seems strange–a happily ever after in Hell? But it happens for Ysabel and Remy. Since this is Hell, there’s a miserably ever after for others.

But the twisted way that Lucifer justifies his matchmaking is screamingly funny. After all, he can’t be good without explaining why his good time is going to be bad for someone else…eventually.

Pick this one up expecting a Hell of a good time. And a sequel, because Lucifer has matchmaking plans. Now that he’s been such a terrific success out-cupiding Cupid, he’s got another couple in mind. Look out for A Demon and his Psycho. I know I will.

Review: The Midnight Court by Jane Kindred

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

Jane Kindred’s House of Arkhangel’sk trilogy reminds me of Russian tea, initially bitter, often and unexpectedly sweet, and filled with immensely complicated rituals. And incredibly satisfying for those who savor a heady brew.

The Midnight Court comprises the second book in this tale, following The Fallen Queen. The title is apt; in The Midnight Court Anazakia’s court is definitely in eclipse. All is as dark as midnight in a Siberian winter.

And the situation goes all downhill.

At the end of The Fallen Queen, Anazakia and her temporary allies rescued the demon Belphagor from Aeval. In the process, they burned much of the Supernal Palace that Anazakia once called home.

When The Midnight Court begins, it’s been months, and the alliance is fracturing. So is Anazakia’s peaceful household near the earthly 21st century Russian city of Arkhangelsk. Belphagor came back from Aeval’s torture broken; not where it shows, but inside. He’s not the demon he used to be.

And Vasily, his lover, is caught between anger that Belphagor offered himself to save them all, and guilt that in Bel’s absence, he fathered a child with Anazakia.

Ola, the child, is the light of all their lives. She is also a pawn of powers. For Anazakia is still the last heir of the house of Arkhangel’sk, and Aeval has no right to the throne of Heaven she sits on. It should be Anazakia’s. Or her daughter’s.

And Ola’s power is greater than anyone could have imagined. Because Vasily is not, as he was raised to think, a demon. He is a Seraph, one of the host. The little girl is more than a little girl. More than a sweet child or a toddler with tantrums. She is the holder of the fifth radiance, not air, fire, water or earth, but aether.

Some of the powers of heaven want to control her; others want to kill her while she is still a child, to make sure that the “wrong” party does not control her.

Ola is kidnapped, and the hunt begins. Across all of Russia, and through all the orders of Heaven, one tiny little girl is bartered back and forth like a tiny bomb, or a pearl of great price.

Her parents will sacrifice anything to get her back.

Escape Rating A: The Midnight Court (and the whole House of Arkhangel’sk series so far) is the kind of densely multi-layered political pot-boiling gut-churning romance that doesn’t come along very often. The nearest comparison is Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel’s Dart series, as much for the very long game political machinations as for the kink relationship between Belphagor and Vasily.

The part of the comparison that I come back to is the politics. Every layer of every relationship, both personal and political, is going to matter before this series is over, and Kushiel had that same feel to it. Everything counts. Sex is sex but IOUs are forever.

The saying that “revenge is a dish best served cold” may have had Aeval in mind. She manipulated both the Romanov dynasty and the House of Arkhangel’sk to get something she wanted.

Waiting for the Spring of 2013 for the final book of the trilogy The Armies of Heaven, is going to be absolute torture. I stayed up until 4 in the morning to finish The Midnight Court. It ended on one hell of a cliffhanger, in a scene that reminded me a lot of something from The Dark Knight Rises. Read Fallen Queen and Midnight Court and see if you see the same thing. It’s so worth it.

 

Review: Forsaken Protector by Nana Malone

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | B Reviews> blog tours> book reviews

Forsaken Protector is more superhero romance than paranormal romance, with a little bit (maybe a lot) of science fiction by way of genetic manipulation thrown in for very good measure. And it so works.

Gentech Labs has been shut down for a year when Forsaken Protector begins. (For that story, get Reluctant Protector. It’s good and it’s free!) But the young men and women that Peter Reeser used in his genetic experiments have been altered for life, against their wills and without their permission. They just have to live with the powerful, unpredictable and sometimes awful results.

Symone Jackson received one of the more awful results. Enhanced strength and speed, the ability to heal herself, and one nasty side-effect. Anyone she touches gets an electric shock. A potentially lethal electric jolt. Sort of like one of the X-Men, Storm, but with way less control over her powers. Symone can’t touch anyone without barriers. No hugs, no kisses, no lovers. She can’t lose control. Ever.

Symone is being watched. Garrett Hunter has a mission to capture the computer hacker/terrorist Symone Jackson. Only problem is that none of his target’s behavior matches that of a terrorist. She works at a youth center, counseling teens to stay off the streets, she feeds stray cats, she goes to the library. But when she stops a gang of street-toughs from assaulting a girl, Garrett knows for certain he’s been lied to. Terrorists don’t stop would-be rapists. And no one else besides his unit is supposed to have the same kind of powers that he has. Powers that he’s just watched Symone demonstrate in no uncertain terms.

Among his powers, Garrett is an empath. He hates liars. And his mission just went totally pear-shaped.

Garrett knows about the genetic experimentation. He went to Symcore Industries and asked to be part of a new military program. His career in the military was ending, and not by his choice; he was in the beginning stages of ALS, Lou Gehrig’s disease. The “super soldier” program didn’t just cure him; it made him stronger, faster, and gave him X-Men-type powers like empathy. But he’d been told that his unit was the first group in the experiment. Now he knew something was off. He just wondered how much.

And Symcore had his kid brother, Michael. Their family has a history of the disease. Garrett went into the program, not just to save himself, but also in the hope that Symcore could find a cure for Michael before the disease got him, too. But Garrett knows that if there is one lie, there are usually more. He has to talk with Symone, and find out if anything he was told is the truth.

And as soon as they try to communicate. all hell break loose. He knows she’s telling the truth. He can feel it. And Symone knows that he’s been altered, just like she has. And that the experiments are still going on.

And one more thing. Whatever form the power has taken in Garrett, Symone can touch him. All over. And isn’t that a complication she didn’t need when a whole set of super-soldiers is chasing after her.

Except now she has one on her side. If she can bring herself to trust him. If she can afford to let herself care.

And if Garrett’s former buddies don’t get them both killed before they can get to safety. If there is any safety left.

Escape Rating B+: Think of Nana Malone’s Protectors series as the X-Men with romance instead of philosophy, and you’ve got a good picture. Or maybe Lora Leigh’s Breed series, substituting superpowers for shapeshifting. Or mix well and stir.

But definitely those two things tossed together to make a delicious (and hot and steamy) story. The genetic experiment gets superpowers, and the kids were unwilling lab rats, and tortured. That’s from Reluctant Protector. Peter Reeser was a psychopath/sociopath, a couple of other ‘paths, but brilliant.

Anytime you have a military contractor looking to make super-soldiers, something always gets out of control, and that’s where Symcore comes in. Garrett signs up willingly, but it doesn’t end there. And that whole “need to know” covers a lot of sins. Once he starts asking questions, he gets burned.

There’s a bit of the “fated mate” trope hinted at. I’m not sure whether they are, or it just feels like it. Whether anyone from the program could have helped Symone figure out how to control her powers, or whether it had to be Garrett. Maybe we’ll find out in later stories.

Overall, both books in the series have been tremendous fun.

Review: Remedy Maker by Sheri Fredricks

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | B Reviews> blog tours> book reviews

Remedy Maker by Sheri Fredricks is a contemporary fantasy/paranormal romance that I took on a lark. It turned out to be a delicious treat with some fairly serious underlying themes in the middle of its mythological creatures’ Romeo and Juliet love story and backroom political machinations.

Rhycious doesn’t start this story in a frame of mind to be anyone’s hero. Or anyone’s much of anything. All he wants is to be left alone. This centaur is the Royal Remedy Maker for Queen Savella of the Centaurs, but he’s used the excuse of needing to gather herbal remedies to live in a remote cabin as far from the center of court life as possible.

Rhycious suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as result of his service in the two-century-long Centaur-Wood Nymph war. One of the problems with being a healer is that Rhy knows exactly what his problem is. He just doesn’t know how to stop the flashbacks. Living alone just means that no one else suffers when he has one.

The war has been over for one hundred and thirty years, and they’re getting worse, not better. Maybe living alone isn’t the cure Rhy thinks it is.

His nearest neighbor is Samuel, a young Amish farmer. Rhy has been friends with Sam’s family for centuries. Sam knows about mythologicals, and he knows what Rhy is. Most humans have only seen Rhy by day, in his human form, but Sam has seen his true form, his  Centaur form, between sunset and sunrise.

Sam also knows that Rhy is a healer, so when his buggy nearly runs over a young woman in the woods, Sam brings her to Rhy. Sam just thinks the woman is English, meaning not Amish, and Rhy is the nearest healer.

She’s way more than not Amish, she not human. She’s a Wood Nymph. The first one to ever enter Rhy’s house.

The nymph’s name is Patience. A quality that Rhy is sorely lacking thanks to his PTSD. But a quality he absolutely must find in order to treat the female now in his care.

Meanwhile there is also a second female in Rhycious’ care. He is the royal physician, and someone manages to poison the Queen. In the investigation, a plot to overthrow Savilla, and the peace and prosperity of her reign, is uncovered.

There’s corruption in the court. Some centaurs would prefer they go back to war. Savilla, Rhy, and his friend Alek want the peace to continue. And Patience, she was born after the war ended. She believes in the dream of peace, the way it was before the war started all those centuries ago. She’s an ally.

But the more she and Rhy work together, the stronger their attraction for each other, in spite of the difference in their races. Peace seems barely possible between Centaur and Wood Nymph; can they have a long-term future?

Escape Rating B+: I was surprised at just how much I liked this book. The world of the Mythic Boronda Forest is well thought out, and everything hangs together very well. It was neat the way that the Centaurs switched from human appearance to Centaur form, that was nicely done.

And the whole thing with the mythicals bordering Amish country in Pennsylvania was fun. I realize that if this had been written a bit later, Rhy would probably have gotten his t-shirts from someplace other than Penn State, but maybe not. Still, I like the idea that the world is bigger and more eerie than what we think we know. That’s the fun of fantasy. And there would be asshat hunters trying to pull the crap that happens in one of the sideplots of the story. Unfortunately some of human nature sucks.

The court politics about the war, and folks wanting to go back to the “good old days” of the war, and the “good old days” when they were on top, sounded all too possible. As did the undercover operations. Politics is often a dirty business. So is the environmental pollution that affected the wood nymphs.

This just missed being an A rated book because there were some points in the middle where I felt like the story could have been tightened up a bit. I enjoyed it a lot, but there may have been one too many subplot threads. YMMV

I can’t wait for book 2. The author’s website lists it as Trolly Yours. Soon please!

Review: Dragon Justice by Laura Anne Gilman

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

Dragon Justice is the fourth book in Laura Anne Gilman’s Paranormal Scene Investigations Series, after Hard Magic, Pack of Lies, and Tricks of the Trade. She’s been building this urban fantasy version of New York City and its world for quite a while, ever since the first book in her Retrievers series, Staying Dead. And what a world it is! If you love urban fantasy I dare to to read the words “Cosa Nostradamus” without your imagination opening up into a smile of wonder. Concept and pun in one single phrase.

Dragon Justice, being the fourth book in the PSI series, builds on everything that came before. (See my review of Tricks of the Trade for details about prior events in the series)

It helps a LOT to have read the other books in the series. That’s no hardship. This series, both these series, are awesome. But it makes it damn difficult to write a review as though this book stands alone.

Dragon Justice has the feeling of a middle book in the story arc. Each individual book in the Paranormal Scene Investigations Series uses a police-procedural-type framework — the PUPIs are investigators, after all. So there is a crime that needs to be investigated. But that’s not the biggest part of this particular story.

The big things are the forces moving in the background. Ian Stosser and Ben Venec are the two “Big Dogs” at PUPI, and they go off in different directions. Ian gives everyone a vacation so he can take care of some family business. Alone.

Ben goes to Philadelphia to work on a private security contract at a small museum. Ben turns out to be much smarter than Ian. He invites Bonnie Torres, one of the PUPs, to come to Philly. Whatever Ben’s original motives might have been (and yes, they were exactly what Bonnie is hoping they were) when a dead body turns up, the PUPIs start an investigation. The victim wasn’t Talented, but Talent seems to have been used to kill him.

While Ben and the team are working in Philly, Ian is in New York City dealing with problems of his own, and they are big ones. Two of the biggest; money and family. It takes a lot of capital to start up and investigative service like the PUPIs, and it requires a lot of specialized equipment. Expensive. The Cosa has some very unsavory characters in it, including loan sharks. Bloodthirsty ones who demand actual blood.

And then there are the long-standing problems that Ian has had with his sister Aden, problems that go way beyond sibling rivalry. Aden believes that only the Cosa Council should have the power to police and punish Council members who commit crimes. Ian knows the system is broken, that’s why he started the PUPIs in the first place. Ian believes in that old principle from Spider-Man, “with great power comes great responsibility.”

Aden thinks the Council is capable is watching over its members, and that no one else is fit to judge them, because the Council members are the most powerful Talent-users. Aden has forgotten the principle that “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” She’s tried blackmail, she’s tried boycott, she’s tried a smear campaign. Nothing has stopped her brother. She resorts to finding people with even greater power than the Council, not thinking that anyone with that much power won’t stop Ian with just a warning.

If someone wants PUPI stopped so badly that they will kill for it, then something truly evil must be coming. Bonnie and Ben need even greater help to save themselves and their friends from what Bonnie’s sense of kenning sees in the future. But the price of enlisting the aid of Bonnie’s friend Madame, the dragon who watches over New York, is very, very high.

Sometimes the myths are true.

Escape Rating A: There is a LOT going on in this story, and it all matters. It also ties into the original Retrievers series, with cameos from not just Wren Valere, but also her partner Sergei Didier and the demon P.B. (Someone really needs to make a P.B. plushie!)

The depth of the world having already been built really tells. Things feel solid. The reader knows who Founder Ben is, what Bonnie means about needing to top up her current, or why all the PUPs need to restock on food as much as they do. Current uses real energy. The interactions between Council and Lonejack and Fatae are already well-established.

And Ian Stosser is an idiot. He built up this entire organization, and then he continues to handle too many things as if he has no backup, and no responsibilities to anyone other than himself. I know the character is that way for a reason, and I still want to reach in and shake some sense into him. Idiot.

There’s also some foreshadowing that old enemies from the earlier series are building for a comeback. This is not a good thing for Bonnie or her world, however excellent for the story. But I bet things are going to get darker before they get lighter again. I can’t wait for the next book.

Soon, please?