Tag: 2012 NetGalley Reading Challenge

Undercover Alliance

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

One of the neat things about genres like science fiction romance is that the author gets to use the science fiction part of the blend to “play” with or comment on some of the aspects of the human experience from a slightly different perspective.

Undercover Alliance by Lilly Cain lives up to its claim of being erotic science fiction romance. And it does a very good job of it, too!

But the alien race in her Confederacy Treaty series, the Inarrii, are not merely empathic, they literally require sexual healing as a means of processing tension and staying sane. Their bodies, although very similar to humans. are covering in l’inar, lines of nerve endings that convey and express pleasure, pain, stress and every emotion.

Undercover Alliance is the story of an Inarrii woman, a warrior named Sarina. Her l’inar were permanently damaged in battle, but she survived. However, with her l’inar severed, everyone believes that she will eventually lose her sanity, because she cannot achieve the full mind-contact and sexual release that is needed for an Inarrii to de-stress and remain sane.

Sarina thinks she’d be fine if she could just keep working. She’s a trained warrior. She thinks if she keeps doing her job, eventually a battle will solve the problem for her. The enemy won’t mind if she’s damaged goods.

But her own people are afraid that she’ll go berserk and don’t trust her in a combat company. So they assign her as a bodyguard to a low-status human during the final stages of the Human-Confederacy Alliance treaty negotiations — while they wait for her to crack.

The only problem is that her supposedly low-status human charge isn’t. He’s an undercover Spaceforce Security agent sent to make sure that the treaty does get signed. There are both human terrorists and alien Raveners out to break the alliance before it begins.

And John Norton absolutely hates pretending to be a bureaucrat. But not quite as much as he hates having to even let it look like he’s letting someone else handle his security. He’s used to working strictly alone. No partners.

It’s only in the silence of his own mind that he can think about how much he really wants to be in charge of everything…including his strong and beautiful bodyguard. It astonishes, and delights him, when she reads his thoughts enough to decide that maybe they can try being in charge of each other. Or take turns. Or all of the above.

Then someone tries to blow up their section of the ship. And only their section of the ship. Along with John’s cover story. While they are fleeing from marauders and fighting for their lives, John and Sarina discover that the moments between life and death are a great time to reach past the broken places for something wonderful.

They’re just not sure if they can hang on once the shooting stops.

Escape Rating B+: Undercover Alliance is the third book in Cain’s Confederacy Treaty series, after Alien Revealed and The Naked Truth. The series keeps getting better.

Undercover Alliance reveals a bit more of the world behind the story, and I enjoy seeing how they get where they are. Unfortunately, not everyone on Earth would welcome an alliance. There would be terrorists, damn it. Whatever we do, someone is always against it.

The Raveners remind me a bit of the Reavers from Firefly. I don’t think they’re that bad, but the name is close. There are always the good guys and the bad guys. And politics. Undercover Alliance has the political story in the background, making sure the treaty gets signed.

We also see that the Inarrii are just different from humans. Some of those differences are physical, not just the l’inar, but also that they are stronger, see better in low light, have better hearing. But also their society works differently. And it should. They aren’t human.

I hope there are more books in this universe. I want to see what happens next. Now that the treaty is signed, do the Raveners come in force?

 

Dead Sexy: Deadly Secrets, Loving Lies

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | B Reviews> Book Lovers Inc.> book reviews

Deadly Secrets, Loving Lies by Cynthia Cooke is the very first book in Entangled Publishing’s new Dead Sexy romantic suspense imprint.

It turned out to be a great opening act for the new line, because DSLL is definitely a very sexy and suspenseful story. And considering the plot of spies, conspiracy theories and secrets-gone-wrong, the heroine and her hero leave a whole cemetery-full of dead bad-guys along the way to their, well, let’s not spoil things, shall we?

I don’t want to ruin the suspense.

Deadly Secrets, Loving Lies starts out with all its guns blazing. Genie Marsters is on the run from the men in black. Not those men in black, just thugs in suits. They might be government agents sent to bring her in. Or they might be worse bad guys than that.

Her old agency (the National Counter Terrorism Agency) might be compromised. But other people might be out to get her and her sisters because they are fully-functioning empaths. Genie trusts no one except her father. And he’s just gone underground. Even further under the radar than his normal paranoia.

When the worse guys (not the NCTA) send a team to capture her, the NCTA sends someone to bring her in from the cold. They may not trust her, but they don’t want her kidnapped. The NCTA sends her ex-partner, and ex-lover, Kyle Montgomery.

Kyle doesn’t trust her either, but his sense of personal betrayal hurts a lot more. He doesn’t know she’s an empath. He does know she didn’t come to the hospital after their last op nearly killed him. He saved her life, and she might be the cause of whatever happened. Or her sister was. Kyle didn’t even know she had a sister.

Talk about deadly secrets. Genie’s sister was involved with the bad guys. And she might still be. Or she might be dead. Becca is supposed to be dead.

But who’s out to kidnap Genie and her sister Cat? And why?

And why does Kyle feel like he and Genie are still a team? After everything she didn’t tell him, after all the lies she told him, he shouldn’t still love her. But he does.

The question is whether he can trust her, ever again. Especially since Genie Marsters has been taught, her whole life, never to trust anyone. Not even herself.

Escape Rating B+: Deadly Secrets, Loving Lies would make a terrific romantic suspense movie. It grabs you up in that first scene, and doesn’t let you go until the end. The pace is wild and crazy and totally non-stop.

And it probably needs to be that fast, because the government conspiracy at the heart of the bad guy’s insanity doesn’t quite hold up if you look at it too closely. But the story is moving so fast, that you don’t get a chance to. You’re swept up in the action.

The sibling rivalry between the three Marsters sisters is off the charts. I’m an only child, and they make me grateful for it.

The ending of DSLL definitely sets up for the next book in the series, and I’m glad of it. I want to know what happens next to these people. They’re wild and crazy and I’m compelled to read the next installment.

For more of my thoughts on Deadly Secrets, Loving Lies, head on over to Book Lovers Inc.

But back to next installments, Deadly Secrets, Loving Lies is just the first of the Dead Sexy line. I’m looking forward to a continuing line of sexy stories starring deadly lovers.

Kiss of the Goblin Prince

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | A Reviews> Book Lovers Inc.> book reviews

Kiss of the Goblin Prince by Shona Husk is a story about second chances. And third chances. And twentieth chances. On the one hand, it’s about realizing that we only have a short time at this life, and that we have to make the most of it. And at the very same time, it’s a story about that classic conundrum that those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it. Literally, life after life, whether the person remembers those other lives or not. The soul remembers.

Amanda watches her sister-in-law marry a man that she barely knows, and wonders how Eliza could turn her life around so fast. Not that Roan isn’t a major improvement over the now-residing-in-jail Steve. But Eliza and Roan haven’t even known each other long enough to file the 30 days paperwork to make this wedding legal.

Amanda is a widow with a young daughter, a daughter with a fatal disease. A daughter whose father died before she was born. She was a wife for a year, and has been a widow for seven. She’s poured all her energy into taking care of her daughter, Brigit. Watching as severe asthma steals more and more of Brigit’s lungs every time she has an attack.

But in that church, watching Eliza marry Roan, she finds herself watching Roan’s brother, Dai. And feeling things she hasn’t felt in years. And isn’t any too comfortable with.

Dai is no more sure of himself than Amanda. Roan and Dai spent almost 2,000 years under a curse. They were goblins. Slowly, slowly losing their souls to the lust for gold, cursed by a Druid priest during the Roman occupation of Wales for leading a failed rebellion.

Eliza’s love for Roan cured the curse. Roan was the King, and curing him, cured Dai as well. But they were the only ones left in their band of warriors to survive the ages. And Dai, well sometimes, he’s not so sure he came all the way back. In nightmares, he’s still in the Shadowlands, still a goblin.

What he feels for Amanda, he’s afraid to pursue. He spent those centuries researching their curse, researching magic. He’s bargained away parts of his soul, many times over. Those vows still bind him. And in the human lands, he discovers that he can practice real magic. Magic that has not been seen since the Druids that cursed them died out.

With his newfound magic he learns much that surprises him about the modern world. He can see connections between people. He can see disease, even though he doesn’t know how to cure it. He can actually see the growing attraction that runs between himself and Amanda.

And he can see the reason why he, Amanda and her daughter Brigit were brought together. In a previous life, Brigit was his sister. He couldn’t save her then, but now, he feels that he must try, no matter what it costs him.

Even if he has to tell Amanda the truth, and he loses her. The only woman he has ever loved.

Escape Rating A: This story was complex, and it really drew me in. It kept going deeper and deeper as it went. On the surface it seemed straightforward enough. Eliza and Roan get married (after The Goblin King) and now it’s Dai’s turn.

But not simple at all. Dai is much more tortured, not just by the past, but by everything he studied. All those magic rituals and vows, one on top of another. He’s been a scholar for centuries! All those secrets, and no one to ever tell. Starting with the biggest secret of all.

Amanda has been hurting too. She feels like she can never do enough for her daughter, and she’s fighting a battle she can’t win. Eventually she’s going to be left alone. But all her energies are focused on taking care of Brigit.

Putting these two tormented people together made for one amazing story.

For more of my thoughts on this book, take a look at Book Lovers Inc.

Dark Magic

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

Dark Magic by James Swain is one of those books that grabbed me and wouldn’t let go. Take one part Batman, one part A Discovery of Witches, one part Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and one part The Prestige, mix well, and what you have is one hell of a story. I almost forgot, add in a touch of either the X-Files or Men in Black, just for flavor.

Peter Warlock is the leader of the Friday Night Psychics. Who are the Friday Night Psychics? Just what they sound like, a group of psychics who get together every Friday night. Except that these aren’t charlatans, these are the real deal. Peter and his friends all have power, real power, of one kind or another.

They get together every Friday night to connect with the spirit world, to find out if there is anything bad going to happen. Well, anything big and bad. They live in New York City, after all. Something small and bad is always happening. The Friday Night Psychics are trying to prevent major catastrophes.

So when Peter foresees some kind of epic catastrophe radiating out from Times Square only four days in the future, they all start working on how to alert the police. They’ve always sent in anonymous tips before, but this is too big and too imminent for an anonymous phone call.

And they all know what will happen if they reveal themselves. They’ve already lost a friend that way. They’re not afraid that no one will believe them. The government will believe them. The CIA took their friend Nemo somewhere they could pump him for predictions–indefinitely.

But before they can figure out a way to alert the police, the evil forces send an assassin after Peter. Live, on stage, in the middle of his magic act.

Peter Warlock covers his real psychic powers by making his living as a stage magician. He pretends to read minds by really reading minds. He’s hidden his talents in plain sight his entire life.

The attack alerts the police and the FBI. It also blows the covers off Peter’s tortured past. The FBI agent who comes to interview Peter in the wake of the attack is the same agent who interviewed him when he was a child, after his parents were thrown into a car in front of his eyes and driven to their deaths.

Peter’s attacker and his parent’s murderers are members of the same society of dark magic mercenaries, the Order of Astrum. And now the Order is after Peter and his friends.

The police were already hunting for Peter’s would-be assassin. Every city that Jeremy Wolfe has visited has suffered from a series of murders of well-respected psychics, followed by an act of terrorism. Peter knows that his friends and his city are next. What he does not understand is how the deaths of his parents might be linked to this Order of Astrum.

The discovery of his parents’ true history threatens his identity, and his life. Peter finds that his friends have been keeping terrible secrets, secrets that he must unravel in order to find the truth about himself and his destiny. But once he learns all, he then must answer the eternal questions about the nature of good and evil. Will his ends justify his means? And will he always be able to choose good when there is evil in his soul?

Escape Rating A: Dark Magic is the kind of story for which the term “dark fantasy” was invented. Peter Warlock is such an intense character. He does remind me a lot of Batman, I mean Bruce Wayne. He watched his parents die, and he grows up tortured by their deaths. He creates this image of them as being so good, only to discover that they weren’t the people he thought they were.

The suspense factor was also very well done. There’s the part of trying to get one step ahead of the assassin, as he targets the psychics and then there’s the second part, just trying to find out what the heck the real target is.  Very techno-thrillerish and very cool.

If there turn out to be more books in this universe I will be a very happy reader.

 

 

 

You Have No Idea

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

You Have No Idea by Vanessa and Helen Williams  may be the perfect book for Mother’s Day reading. Why?

As the long, but very accurate subtitle says, it’s about “a famous daugher, her no-nonsense mother, and how they survived pageants, Hollywood, love, loss (and each other)”

This story is both autobiography and biography, as Vanessa and Helen take turns writing about their own lives, and then say what they did, and more importantly, how they felt, as they weathered the storms of their life together.

Because there were definitely storms. Some were the typical battles between teenage daughters and their moms. And college-aged young women and their moms.

And then, there’s the big, famous one. Which, when you read the Williams’ story, actually started because a typical college-aged young woman wanted to prove her independence. And it came back to haunt her at the worst possible time. Doesn’t it always?

Reading the events of Vanessa Williams’ life pre-Miss America, it’s easy to see the events from her perspective. A young woman looking for scholarship money, she entered the contest thinking she didn’t have much of a chance against the veterans of the pageant-circuit. Then she won, and her life changed forever. Fame, fortune and notoriety, all embodied in those words, “There she is, Miss America.”

The first African-American Miss America. The first Miss America to receive death threats. The first Miss America to resign after nude photographs of her were published in Penthouse.

The autobiography she wrote with her mother Helen is not just about her year as Miss America, and the aftermath. It’s about how she pulled herself up afterwards.

Vanessa Williams had always intended to be on Broadway. She never meant to be a pageant queen. The story is about picking herself up, dusting herself off, and getting her dream back. No matter how many detours it takes.

If you detour often enough, the wreckage isn’t even in your rear-view mirror any longer.

Reality Rating B+: I read this pretty much straight through, which isn’t something I often do for biography, so that’s a big plus. The parts where Helen and Vanessa (I can’t call them both Ms. Williams, it’s just confusing) gave different perspectives on the same events, was absolutely fascinating! Being a daughter and not a mother, I saw Vanessa’s side so easily, I wonder more what my mom was thinking about some of the things I did at those same points.

I really felt for both of them at the sudden loss of Mr. Williams. I lost my own dad in similar circumstances, and I teared up in those scenes.

There’s a lesson in Vanessa Williams’ story, one that made me think. When those photos were taken, she trusted the person who took them, and assumed they’d never come to light. If she hadn’t become famous, they would probably have been lost forever. They only had value because she became famous. She (and I) grew up at a time when one’s youthful excesses were not recorded. No Facebook, no cellphone cameras. You embarrassed yourself in front of your friends and they would probably remember, but there wouldn’t be any actual evidence to haunt you 5 or 25 years later.

Today, with Facebook and cellphone cameras the Wayback Machine, does anything ever really go away? Especially the stuff that you really wish would?

***Disclaimer: I was compensated for this BlogHer Book Club review but all opinions expressed are my own.

If you want to join this month’s discussion of You Have No Idea on the BlogHer Book Club, you can join the discussion by following this link to the Book Club. If you want to connect with Vanessa Williams, you can connect with her on Twitter at @vwofficial, or by liking her Facebook page.

 

Somebody to Love

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

Somebody to love, isn’t that what we all want? It’s such a universal wish that it’s been a song title, over and over, from Queen to Jefferson Airplane to (gulp) Justin Bieber. At least Glee went with the classics, and covered Queen’s awesome version, pretty well, at that.

Somebody to Love is also the title of Kristan Higgins’ latest contemporary romance. And it fits even better than the songs. Because every single character, from Parker Welles, the poor little rich girl heroine, to James Cahill, the lawyer with a whole lot of baggage, to Parker’s daddy Harry Welles, even right down to the dog Parker adopts, Beauty, every single one of them is searching for somebody to love. And somebody to love them back.

That tale of searching, and finding, and the other things they lose and find along the way, makes for one fantastic story.

Parker Welles starts out as the quintessentially poor little rich girl. She lives in a mansion, Grayhurst, that belongs to Daddy Dearest, her father Harry. She even refers to him that way. Harry owns Grayhurst, but only visits when he wants to impress some clients, because Harry is a real wheeler-dealer. Harry never comes just to visit his daughter, he only shows up with his entourage, his interchangeable flunkies in their conservative suits.

Parker even tries to forget they have names. She refers to them as “Thing One and Thing Two”.

But they aren’t interchangeable. “Thing Two” might be just a yes-man, but “Thing One” is Harry’s lawyer. His very young and attractive lawyer. Something it turns out that Parker has very good reason to know.

There are two things that keep Parker Welles from being a classic poor little rich girl. Thing One is that she is a best-selling children’s author. Unfortunately for her, she gave all the money from her books to charity, because she didn’t need it. Or so she thought.

Thing Two is that Parker has a five-year old son, Nicky. Who she unashamedly had out-of-wedlock and cheerfully shares in joint-custody with his father. Who just married her best friend.

And Parker is going to need her friends. Because Daddy Dearest is going to jail for insider trading. He lost the house. All the houses. And everything in them. And Parker’s trust fund. And Nicky’s trust fund.

Parker has just one thing left. A house her great aunt left for her in Gideon’s Cove, Maine. Parker thinks she can flip the house and have a nest egg to start over. It turns out that the house isn’t quite in shape for that. But, Parker finds something better in that small town on the remote coast of Maine.

She finds her strength. She finds family she never expected to find. She finds friendship. She rescues a terrific dog.

And in the most unlikely person, and at what seems like the lowest point in her life, Parker Welles finds Somebody to Love.

Escape Rating A: Heart-warming is such an over-used word, but it definitely applies to Somebody to Love. This contemporary romance definitely is heart-warming. The slowly simmering love story between Parker and James Cahill also warms up the temperature (and eventually Parker) quite nicely as well.

Both characters have a lot of emotional baggage they need to sort through. Not so much in the romance department, but in much earlier, and more fundamental relationships. They’re both afraid to love, and yet, they’ve found each other anyway. They want to trust, but they’re not sure they can, or if they should. And they both have good reasons for that wariness.

Beauty, the dog Parker adopts, has been beaten before too. Just the same, she learns to trust again. Metaphor, anyone?

Sunrise Point

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

Sunrise Point by Robyn Carr was my first trip to the lovely town of Virgin River in northern California. But I don’t think it will be my last. Not just because the town was beautiful, but because the people who live there are ones I’d like to see again, to catch up on their stories. And because the love stories that seem to happen there, like Sunrise Point, involve terrific characters and great storytelling.

Nora Crane is a single mother with two very young daughters. Her daughters’ sperm donor (father is so the wrong word) abandoned her in Virgin River in a house that not only wasn’t ready for winter, it wasn’t even fit for habitation. The whole town pitched in to help Nora get by.

But Nora wants to stand on her own two feet. The school of hard knocks is a rough teacher, but she’s learned better than to be dependent on anyone ever again. She was young and stupid when she dropped out of college to follow a minor league ballplayer who ended up a drug dealer, but she’s not stupid anymore. Now she’s still young, but she’s pragmatic as she can be.

And she needs to work to support herself and her girls. Harvest time at Tom Cavanaugh’s orchard is the best paying work she can get now that school is out for the summer and her teaching assistant job is temporarily over.

It doesn’t matter that the orchard is over 3 miles outside of town, that she has no car, and that Tom Cavanaugh is ruggedly handsome, overly opinionated…and only hired her because his grandmother made him take pity on her situation. Nora will prove to herself, and Tom, that she can learn the back-breaking, callous-making hard work of picking apples.

The thing is, Nora is all wrong about the reason Tom didn’t want to hire her. Oh yes, he’s worried about her learning the job, but everyone is new once. Tom’s problem is that he finds Nora much too attractive, and he doesn’t want to get himself involved with someone who works for him. And he’s just back from serving with the Marines in Afghanistan. He’s thinking about settling down, but he’s not ready for a ready-made family either.

Nora is both an employee, and a single mother. He should be declaring her completely off-limits.

And Nora has already made some seriously bad decisions about men once in her life. Getting involved with her boss is all kinds of bad.

But the heart wants what the heart wants. The head can be so totally wrong about these things. Especially in Virgin River.

Escape Rating B+: Watching Nora and Tom court and spark is the fun part of this story. When they are thinking and not feeling, they think they are wrong for each other. But when they simply interact, everyone around them can see they are so very right for each other. It just takes them a long time to see it. Their obliviousness is funny, and almost heartbreaking. The wrong choice does loom over them for a while.

There are two sets of background characters. The set that are part and parcel of Nora and Tom’s story are terrific. I’m not sure there is anyone who wouldn’t want Tom’s grandmother Maxie for their own. Or at least to borrow her for awhile. She’s marvelous. The story of Nora’s childhood, and the resolution, that part introduces some good things as well.

The other piece of the story is probably the setup for the next book, with some characters who had their HEA in a previous story and one new one. Because this was my first trip to Virgin River, I was a little bit lost in the parts with Luke, Jack and Cooper. But I think Cooper’s story might be the next book, since Luke (Temptation Ridge) and Jack (Virgin River) have already had their stories.

Speaking of temptation, I’m tempted to go back to find out exactly what their stories are. Before book 20 in this series comes out. I want to catch up with everyone!

For more of my thoughts on Sunrise Point, check out Book Lovers Inc.

 

Grave Mercy

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

Assassination has often been a tool of politics throughout the centuries. There is a classic quote that “war is the continuation of politics by other means”. Assassination has historically been one of those “other means”–sometimes as a way of starting the war, sometimes as a way of stopping it.

But seldom outside of fantasy have readers had such a god-ridden heroine’s journey to follow, with an assassin as that heroine.

The heroine is Ismae Rienne, and the book is Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers. It is the first in her series about, as the author’s website puts it “assassin nuns in medieval France”. That series is titled His Fair Assassin.

It’s historical fiction, not fantasy or science fiction. But Grave Mercy is still quite a trip.

Ismae grows up in a tiny farming village in Brittany. Not France, Brittany. That’s important. Brittany was still independent in the late 1400s and many people still clung to the old ways and the old worship. The old local gods were called “saints” by Ismae’s time, but people still brought them offerings.

Brittany was an independent duchy, and she wanted to remain that way. The tide of history was against her, but the tide wasn’t all the way out, yet.

Ismae was born with a significant scar on her back. Everyone in her superstitious town saw it as a sign that Ismae was the daughter of Death, literally, the guy with the scythe, Mortain. Why? Because that scar represented the effects of the drugs her mother took to abort her, drugs that failed. Only the child of Death himself would have failed to die.

Instead, Ismae spent her early life abused by everyone around her, including her father. And when it came time for her to be married, her father sold her to another brute, one who intended to kill her the moment he saw her scar.

But she was whisked away by Mortain’s followers to the Convent where his assassins were trained. After three years, she was sent on her first assignment. And thus became embroiled in the realpolitik for which the Sisters had barely prepared her.

Anne of Brittany‘s court turned out to be a spiderweb of intrigue. And even worse, the man the convent sent with her both for her to spy on and as her cover, Gavriel Duval, well, Duval is not what he appears to be. The Convent believes he must be betraying the Duchess, but Ismae knows he is not.

Which means that someone else is. Ismae must find the real traitor before he, or she, brings down the ducal house of Brittany. And Ismae must decide where her loyalties really lie.

Ismae is only seventeen. The Duchess whose realm she must protect at all costs is fourteen. The future rests on them.

Escape Rating A: This was one of those books where the pages fly by. Which was excellent, because there are a LOT of pages. This is a story that drags you in and doesn’t let you out until it’s wrung every emotion out of you.  At the end you’re completely spent and you feel satisfied, and slightly disappointed because you have to leave the author’s world.

This is historical fiction, not fantasy. The historical characters and the place and history behind this story did happen. Anne of Brittany, and the Mad War, and the fight over who she would marry, all happened. Gavriel Duval, Ismae and the Nine Old Gods or Nine Saints are fictional, but the blending of the fictional into the historic is seamless.

Grave Mercy reminded me of Maria V. Snyder’s Poison Study, the young assassin’s training and first target story, except that Snyder’s story is fantasy. The seriously politically insane fantasy version is Kushiel’s Dart, although that is in no way YA, and Grave Mercy and Poison Study both ostensibly are.

Grave Mercy is a story you won’t want to let go. It’s an excellent thing that the author is returning to the world of His Fair Assassin in the Spring of 2013 with Dark Triumph.

 

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.

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?