Tag: 2012 Paranormal Romance Reading Challenge

Succubus Lost

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

The first succubus that Detective Marisol Whitman of the Chicago P.D. “freak squad”  knows is lost in Succubus Lost by Tiffany Allee is unfortunately one who is very near and dear to her. Marisol goes to her sister Elaine’s room to wake her up for a shoe-shopping expedition and discovers that Elaine’s bed hasn’t been slept in.

Elaine and Marisol are both succubi. And Elaine is missing. But when Marisol slams into her Lieutenant’s office to start a missing person’s investigation, she discovers that Elaine isn’t the only young succubus who has disappeared; twenty young succubi have been kidnapped over the last two years.

The Otherworlder Enforcement Agency has been tracking the case, right to her house. But the Agent the OWEA has sent, Valerio Costa, doesn’t like or trust succubi, not since one destroyed his brother’s life.

And Marisol still has other cases to deal with. There’s a murderer on the loose on the Otherworlder side of Chicago, one who burns his (or her) victims to an ash so fine the cremains can barely be recognized as human. The murderer can only be a powerful coven, or an even more powerful salamander. Which is just what Agent Costa is, a salamander.

Could the disappearances and the murders be part of the same case? The OWEA’s psychometrist says that all the victims are alive, right up until those cremains are identified as a missing siren, one previously unconnected to the case.

Then one of the victims turns up, with her powers subverted into something out of a nightmare, and her memory wiped clean. Marisol discovers that Costa has been keeping even more secrets from her about the case than even she expected from an OWEA agent–and she expected plenty.

But her sister’s life and sanity are on the line, and Marisol needs to trust someone. Agent Valerio Costa is the only one who might be able to help her get her sister back in one piece.

He’s also the hottest thing she’s ever seen–and not just because he’s a salamander. But if she trusts him and she’s wrong, he won’t need his powers to burn her heart out.

Escape Rating A-: I absolutely adore the Files of the Otherworlder Enforcement Agency series by Tiffany Allee (see my review of Banshee Charmer here). One of the things that she has done that is particularly neat is pull in species that are not the same-old, same-old. Every urban fantasy series has vamps and werewolves. And they are here, but that’s not all.

Marisol is temporarily partnering with Astrid at the beginning of the story because Astrid’s vamp partner Claude is on vacation. I love this! A vampire taking a vacation. (I hope Astrid gets a story later, BTW)

But the heroine of Banshee Charmer was a half-banshee. Not many banshee heroines. The hero of Succubus Lost is a salamander. Again, not all that common. Also, succubi, while they aren’t rare, aren’t the flavor of the month, either.

I missed some of the “cop shop” banter from Banshee Charmer. Marisol isn’t “one of the boys” the way that Mac was, so the flavor was different. But I did like the way that the events of book one affected book 2. Costa’s ID got thoroughly checked out, after the Chicago P.D. got fooled the last time.

Succubus Lost is urban fantasy that includes a strong romance between two people who have no particular reason to like or trust each other at the beginning, but need each other to solve a case. Watching them work through all their issues to earn their happy ending, is very, very satisfying.

Drowning Mermaids

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

If you’ve ever watched The Deadliest Catch on the Discovery Channel, then you have an inkling of just how dangerous crab fishing in Alaska can be. The crab fishing season out of the small town of Soldotna is just part of the setting of Drowning Mermaids by Nadia Scrieva.

The dangers of the sea are more than the usual in this first book of Ms. Scrieva’s new Sacred Breath series. Those dangers also include predatory and dangerous mer-people. In Ms. Scrieva’s paranormal version of events, the Bermuda Triangle disappearance are merely collateral damage of some age-old clan warfare under the sea.

The first person to drown in Drowning Mermaids isn’t a mermaid. The man was a crewmember on Captain Trevain Murphy’s Fishin’ Magician. But Leo was the first man that Trevain has lost in all his years as captain, and he doesn’t understand what went wrong. There was no storm, and Leo was a greenhorn, but not that green. The boy wasn’t drunk or over-tired. He just seems to have fallen overboard for no good reason.

The crew are drowning their sorrows, at the local strip joint when Trevain’s world takes a turn from the morose into the fantastic. A dancer steps onto the rickety stage, not to do the usual bump-and-grind, but to perform 14 minutes of mind-altering, heart stopping ballet. She does still strip at the end. It’s required. And she is unquestionably beautiful. And seems unbearably young to the fifty-plus Trevain. But her dancing is what speaks to his sorrow and confusion.

His brother, the ne’er-do-well Callder, notices that Trevain and the dancer, Aazuria, steal glances throughout the evening once her dance is over. He clumsily arranges for them to talk. Aazuria seems an old soul in a very young face. Trevain is the only person she wants to talk to.

Because Aazuria is not the girl she appears to be. Far from it. She is the Princess of Adlivun, one of the undersea kingdoms, and has lived most of her life in the waters under the Arctic. She is also over 600 years old. Trevain is the only person who talks to her as an intelligent person and not as just a beautiful body.

Not that he’s not interested in that too, but he’s gentleman enough to believe that since she can’t possibly be interested in him, he doesn’t want to look like an old fool chasing after a young girl. He’s happy with the intelligent conversation.

Trevain is generous and kind to Aazuria, expecting nothing in return except friendship. He has no idea who she is, or what she is.

What he doesn’t know is that her people are at war, and that she is on land for her safety. And that her war is about to crash into his coast, sweeping his life into the rocks. If he can manage to give up every single one of his preconceived notions about himself and the world, he can have his heart’s desire.

Or he can be alone and bitter for the rest of his life.

Escape Rating C+: I’m a sucker for stories set in Alaska, after living there for three years. Some parts of the setting were familiar. The whole thing about people coming to Alaska for the very high wages, and then getting stuck because the prices are equally high, that rings so true. And the place gets in your blood. If you can make the adjustment to the dark in the winter.

About the story. On the one hand, I kept turning pages, because I really wanted to see how the author made it all work out. There are not a lot of mermaid paranormal romance stories in general, and usually they use the siren theme. This one didn’t, and I was glad of that. It’s always good to see someone take a different road. Or sea lane, in this case.

I liked that Trevain and Aazuria did a twist on the older woman/younger man theme, since they are but aren’t.  But they also unfortunately hit the insta-love, or at least the insta-connection thing a bit too hard. Trevain invites someone he sees as a girl working in a strip joint to move in with him, along with all her sisters, during their first meeting. Even in small-town Alaska, that’s just not likely.

On that third invisible hand there’s a family sub-plot involving Trevain’s mother that is heart-breaking. And it’s a twist you don’t quite see coming.

Nadia will be awarding a “Drowning Mermaids” beer mug to one randomly drawn commenter on the tour as well as bookmarks to randomly drawn commenters at every stop. So please comment for you chance to win Mermaid bookmarks and maybe even a chance to drown your sorrows with a Mermaid beer mug!

 

Demonically Tempted

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

Demonically Tempted is the second book in Stacey Kennedy’s intensely amazing paranormal romance/urban fantasy Frostbite series. The events in Demonically Tempted directly follow those in the first book, Supernaturally Kissed. You should read Supernaturally Kissed before Demonically Tempted. All the 5 star reviews of Supernaturally Kissed were dead-on, it’s fantastic. And so is Demonically Tempted. You’ll be tempted to stay up late to finish it!

Right where Kissed left off, Tess Jennings sees ghosts, especially her ghost-lover, Kipp McGowan, a cop who is determined to continuing serving with the Memphis Police Department, even as a ghost.

But Tess is the only one who can see him. And Tess’ ability to communicate with ghosts is very useful to the cold-case squad. So many cold-cases involve old homicides, and so many victims, well, have the kind of unfinished business that results in ghosts. Ghosts that Tess can help.

Tess gets a job offer from the Memphis P.D. Which she really has no choice about taking. Her old job isn’t there anymore. She spent too much time working with the cops on Kipp’s case. She got fired.

But working with Kipp’s old squad is okay. They accept her and Kipp as a team. But, there’s a problem. The supernatural community is not so accepting. Kipp is a ghost. His issues are resolved. He should cross over. And he isn’t, hasn’t, won’t. Because of Tess.

Tess’ powers are untrained. She started seeing ghosts when she was seventeen, after a very near-death experience. The Police Department has brought in a medium, someone who has more experience working cases, to work with her. Dane Wolfe says he can train her, but something about Dane gives her the heebie-jeebies, even more than the ghosts.

And something is seriously up with the ghost community. There are lots of ghost coming to see her. Deliberately. There is a dark spirit terrorizing them. Tess didn’t even know the ghosts were organized, and now they’re passing the word around about her. They want her to actually “Ghostbust” a bad spirit for them. What’s up with that?

So the quiet life Tess had at the beginning of Supernaturally Kissed is toast. Instead, she’s a police consultant with a ghost-lover and a real would-be Ghostbuster for the good ghosts on the ghostly side of Memphis–something she didn’t know existed. And she feels guilty for keeping Kipp from crossing over. Because she loves him more than she’s ever loved any man, and it’s going to rip her apart when he leaves. Which is what is supposed to happen.

And she’s in the middle of her first real case, which is nothing like it appears to be. And might be part of the whole supernatural Ghostbusting-thing.

Maybe Tess should ask for her quiet life back?

Escape Rating A: This just keeps getting better. And darker and deeper. The urban fantasy mix-in of the cop shop is marvelous–all of Kipp’s squad trying to get used to Tess, and knowing that he’s there watching, but they can’t see him. Some of them answer the question they know he’s just asked, even though they can’t hear it. Now that’s teamwork!

There’s angst here, too. Tess and Kipp know this can’t last forever, and there are definitely problems. Their relationship is hot, but, their ability to physically interact is seriously limited. And they definitely love each other. They want to do what is best for each other, but don’t know what that is, since they have no clue what comes next. What happens to ghost, after?

Demonically Tempted ends on a scrape-your-jaw-off-the-floor cliffhanger. I wanted to reach through my iPad and shake the next book out of Ms. Kennedy right then and there. (This feature needs to be added to future iPads)

The cover reveal for Mystically Bound is tomorrow.

Supernaturally Kissed

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

Tess Jennings sees dead people. Ghosts. And they’re usually pretty clueless. No “Ghostbusting” required. Mostly they’re lost and confused and they need Tess to deliver a final message to somebody, or close out some unfinished business for them, or maybe just tell them they’re dead. Then they move on.

They aren’t supposed to spend an entire evening whispering dirty nothings into her ear. Not in a voice so sexy it ought still be doing phone sex, whether the operator is dead or alive.

But when Kipp McGowen, starts coming on to Tess in Supernaturally Kissed, the first book of Stacey Kennedy’s Frostbite series, he’s a ghost. The most deliciously handsome and mentally together ghost that Tess Jennings has ever seen. But definitely a ghost.

Kipp is a cop with the Memphis Police Department. And he needs Tess to help him solve one final case before he can “move on”, or whatever it is that ghosts do. He needs Tess to deliver all the information he has on the case that got him killed.

What’s weird about that case is that Kipp was working a cold case. It shouldn’t have gotten anyone excited enough to gun down a cop. But it sure seems like whoever murdered Hannah Reid five years ago must have gotten nervous about a cop asking questions about the old case. Even if the cop in question doesn’t know which rock he overturned that uncovered his killer.

Kipp didn’t see his murderer. It isn’t that easy. He wants Tess to go to the police station and talk to his partner.

Tess is NOT THRILLED. She knows what’s going to happen. The cops are going to be certain she’s a fake. Or crazy. Or both. She’ll be exposing her gift (or her curse, it’s all in the definition) and nothing good will come of it. At least not for her.

But Kipp is certain this is the only way he’ll get the resolution he needs to cross over. And Tess knows she won’t get him out of her life until he does. And dammit, she finds him amazingly, incredibly hot. Having him around, as a ghost, all the time, watching her, talking to her, in that sexy voice, describing all the things he’d do to her if he weren’t a ghost–she’ll combust.

She goes to the station. And it’s every bit as bad as she feared. Except that Kipp is there with her. Really with her. So it’s good. Even though it shouldn’t be. And that’s a problem.

Because he’s a ghost. And the longer he stays, the better they are together. The better they are together, the more difficult it will be when his case is finally resolved, whatever that’s going to take.

The more Tess works with Kipp and plays with Kipp, the more danger she is in. Working with the cops is dangerous enough, but the real danger, is to her heart. What happens if she falls in love with a ghost?

Escape Rating A: This is one of those times when the book is every bit as good as all the buzz you’ve heard. Everyone raved about Supernaturally Kissed and they were absolutely right. This story is a wow!

Tess is wounded and keeps to herself because she’s got a gift, or a curse. She can see ghosts, and she helps them cross over. Kipp is a ghost who needs her help. The only problem is that Kipp is her wildest dream of a man she would have wanted, if only he were alive!

Struggling with being a ghost, with needing to rely on others, and with the awareness that his time has already run out, makes Kipp into the man that Tess needs, except it’s already too late. Kipp’s a ghost. Resolving his last case is the loose end that keeps him from crossing over. When it’s done, he’ll be gone. But he’s a cop, and the case needs to be done so that Hannah Reid, the woman whose death he was investigating, has justice, and so that her murderer isn’t free.

It was never about Kipp. That’s what made him a good cop. That’s what makes him a good hero for this romance, in spite of being a ghost. Or maybe because he’s a ghost. A very hot ghost.

The Frostbite series continues with Demonically Tempted and the upcoming Mystically Bound (cover reveal tomorrow)

Seized: The Pipe Woman Chronicles

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

Mediating between two opposing sides in legal disputes comes just a little too easily for Naomi Witherspoon. She is an ace mediator for her law firm, but when she discovers that she can “suggest” that the car ahead of her just get out of her way, and it does so by running a red light almost causing a head-on collision, Naomi realizes that all the sudden coincidences in her life are more than just her being very good at her job.

Naomi never expects to discover that a Sioux goddess has chosen Naomi as her avatar for the upcoming end of the world. And Naomi isn’t all that sure that she wants the job.

It makes the conflict of Naomi’s emotions and beliefs a wild ride in Seized, the first book of The Pipe Woman Chronicles by Lynne Cantwell.

As Naomi’s journey begins, her life seems pretty good. She has a job she mostly like, a best friend she trusts and a handsome man who she hopes will finally pop the question after eight years of on-again/off-again that seems to finally be on track.

But there are some gaps in her life she still needs to fill. Her law firm is pretty wishy-washy about her mediation practice, and that’s a big problem. Naomi doesn’t feel right about litigation, especially considering some of the rich scumbags they’ve started representing. She’s good at finding compromises, maybe too good. She loves mediation, especially the court-appointed work she’s been doing.

About that man of hers…well, Brock has been part of her life since law school, but he’s got one heck of a roving eye, and sometimes other body parts. He’s very handsome but just a bit on the shady side when it comes to practicing law. But this time, their togetherness seems to be sticking. Naomi just wishes he’d finally ask her to marry him already.

There’s one haunting blank spot in Naomi’s life. She doesn’t know who her father is. Her mother says that he died in the Vietnam War, and won’t talk about him. His name isn’t on Naomi’s birth certificate, and there are no pictures. Her mom won’t talk about him. But the war ended two years before Naomi was born. Pregnancy may seem like forever, but it doesn’t last that long.

Naomi’s best friend Shannon knows all the answers. At least, enough of the answers to put Naomi on the right path. But Shannon knows Naomi well enough that Naomi will have to start the journey for herself.

But Shannon believes that the world encompasses more than just technology and logic. She believes that there is still magic, and faith, and powers that shape the universe in ways that Naomi’s legalist mind doesn’t want to see. Shannon says that she’s “fey on her Irish granny’s side”.

So when Naomi figures out that some of her gift of mediation is more than just training. Shannon takes her to a ritual Native American “sweat” outside of Denver. A very special ritual just for Naomi. So that Naomi can meet her destiny. And save the world.

But only if she can manage to accept it. While that destiny turns her entire set of beliefs, her identity, her world, upside-down and inside out.

Escape Rating B: This has the potential to be a very interesting series, and I definitely liked the opener. The story is ultimately about a war among the gods, through human avatars. What was interesting was that the primary point-of-view deity chose, not a warrior, but a mediator as their avatar. So the war is might be decided through negotiation rather than outright warfare. Neat choice!

This is a building of the fellowship type of story. A teacher, a healer, a mediator, a guardian create the team. The overarching story looks like a battle of the pantheons, with a flavor of “this has all happened before, and it will all happen again” thrown in for good measure. The gods and goddesses are picking sides, not because the conflict can be stopped, but because they want to make sure the result it “better” than the last time.

What constitutes “better”? That’s always the question. Naomi’s side represents better for the environment. The other side is looking for more unbridled development. Odin is on the other side. This has the potential to make things very, very interesting in the later books.

There is a love story involved, or rather, an insta-attraction sub-plot. But whether Naomi and Joseph’s story turns out to be real love or the goddess making sure things go along the right path for her purposes is something that will be further investigated in book 2. Which I want to read.

Lynne will be awarding a $10 Amazon GC to one randomly drawn commenter on the tour.

So, if you want to read all of Naomi’s journey (or all that’s available so far), here’s your chance! Comment! Leave a comment on this review, and on all the stops on the review tour this week. Lynne will be giving one lucky commenter a $10 Amazon GC. The more you comment, the better your chances of winning.

May 21: A Case of Reading Insomnia
May 22: Cafe of Dreams Book Reviews
May 23: From Me to You … Video, Photography, & Book Reviews
May 24: Reading Reality
May 25: Stories of My Life

 

Staring Into the Eyes of Chance

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

Staring Into the Eyes of Chance by Kay Dee Royal is the first book in her Lycan International Investigation Agency series. And it is definitely a series that I will want to investigate further!

The story begins on Olivia’s wildlife sanctuary in the U.P. (that’s the upper peninsula of Michigan) when the perimeter alarms go off one night. To Olivia, that means some predator is after the animals she is protecting until they can be released back into the wild.

Olivia has a “sixth sense” when it comes to animals, she can sense what they’re feeling. It’s beyond empathy, she truly connects with them, to the point that her sensitivity is considered a psychic ability.

So when she looks out her window and stares straight into the eyes of a huge black-and-silver wolf, and knows for certain that this predator is out there protecting her homestead from something else, she believes that instinct unquestioningly, even though she questions most of the other sensations she gets from the big beast. Because animals do NOT project those sorts of feelings towards humans. Not ever.

But her wolf isn’t just a wolf. The big male is a Lycan, a shapeshifter. Chance and his team of international investigators have chased a crazed Lycan named Smoke all the way from Europe to Olivia’s door. Where Chance has discovered after 300 plus years that the human woman is his primal-mate. A distraction that he absolutely did not need in the middle of the most critical hunt he has ever faced.

Especially since protecting his mate, the Alpha’s mate, distracts his entire team. Because Lycans, like wolves, mate for life — and follow their mates into death.

But that Smoke, they keep finding him, and he keeps eluding them. Almost as if he has a spy in their midst. Or a way of tracking their communications. Or a little bit of both.

Who is Smoke? Or who was Smoke?

Escape Rating B: This story had a lot of fun in it, but at the same time, there are some parts toward the end that are not for the faint of heart. Smoke is truly messed up, and bad stuff happens. I want to read his story, so I’m hoping that we’ll learn more about him in book 2.

Olivia and Chase are perfect for each other. They’ve both graduated from the School of Hard Knocks, and are not looking for a relationship. So when a relationship pretty much slams into them, they’re both surprised, and not necessarily open to the idea.

I want to know more about Olivia’s gift. She’s clearly had some training, but where? how? who? Is it accepted? Inquiring minds are very curious.

The Lycan International Investigations Agency has some neat background, too. They are super-secret and have some friends in very high places. I hope we learn more in later books.

For anyone who enjoys Kate Douglas’ Wolf Tales, I would definitely recommend Staring Into the Eyes of Chance. The Lycans remind me of the Chanku, just with more detectives.

 

Night Walker

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

Night Walker by Lisa Kessler is a paranormal romance that combines two very powerful themes in modern PNR, vampires and reincarnation. Either one of those elements would make for a very moving love story. Mix them together and you have one very special romance indeed.

The story begins with our modern heroine facing a very contemporary dilemma. Her fiance is a two-timing snake. Kate’s just caught him with one of his grad students, and their engagement is very definitely over. Now she’s on her way from Reno to San Diego to finish up the other unfinished business in her life, closing up her late parents’ house. After her parents’ death in an accident two years ago, she’s been putting off that closure. Now it’s time. Ending her engagement, cancelling her wedding, and realizing that she’s more embarrassed and angry than emotionally devastated, tells her that it’s finally time to take control over the rest of her life.

Kate and her best girlfriends do the tourist thing in San Diego, visiting the Mission de Alcala on the Day of the Dead for Mass brings her into contact with the darkly handsome and eminently mysterious Calisto Terana as she examines the rare and beautiful flowers placed on a centuries-old grave in the Native cemetery surrounding the Mission. Calisto gives Kate the strangest sense of deja vu, as if they have not merely met, but known each other intimately, before. Kate is certain she’d remember meeting a man as compelling as Calisto before.

Kate is both right and wrong. She’s never met Calisto before. But he remembers her. He’s walked the night for two centuries, waiting for her to return.

When the Mission de Alcala was built, Calisto Terana was Father Gregorio Salvador, and he was part of the Spanish mission that helped to build it. When he fell in love with a native girl he betrayed his vows and decided to leave the church. The church refused to let him go. Someone foolishly thought that if they got the girl out of the way, their errant priest would meekly return to the fold.

Instead, he found an entirely different path. A much, much darker way, but one that allowed him to wait for his lover’s spirit to be born again.

There were only two flaws to Gregorio’s, now Calisto’s plan. In the 21st century, Kate remembered nothing of her previous existence. Calisto had to woo and win her all over again. He loved and wanted her more after two centuries of waiting than he had in the flush of first love. The hunger of a night walker made him even less patient than a normal man.

That other flaw? The church is eternal.

Escape Rating A-: I was surprised at how good this was. Even though the elements of the story have been used before, the combination was different enough that I got sucked right in. One of the particularly neat things is that the historic aspects, the Mission and the history of it, are pretty close to what’s known of the events. It’s one of those points in colonial history where records were lost so there’s a ton of room for speculation, fiction and well, just plain flights of fancy. This story was an especially good way of filling that gap.

I didn’t use the word vampire in the review because, although Calisto is a vampire, he doesn’t think of himself as one or refer to himself as one. He knows what vampires are, and they aren’t him. He thinks they’re flashier, for one thing.

The next book in this series is The Night Demon, and starts out in the Yucatan jungle, sometime later this year. I can hardly wait.

 

 

 

Finding My Faith

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

Finding My Faith by Carly Fall is book two of her Six Savior Series. Who are those “Six Saviors”? And what are they supposed to save? All, well, some anyway, will be revealed in this romantic suspense series with a hint of SFR and what feels like more than a touch of inspiration from the Black Dagger Brotherhood.

The titular “Faith” in Finding My Faith is Faith Cloudfoot. Faith works as a barista at a coffeeshop in Phoenix, just a little bit away from her overprotective father in Flagstaff.

You see, Faith is supposed to be the legendary, “Woman with Fire for Hair” among the Navajo people. Her red hair signifies that she will be the mother of a son who will cure the Earth. But only if she mates with a red-eyed night-wolf-warrior.

Faith doesn’t believe a bit of it. She just wants to expand her boundaries away from her overprotective parents. So, she fights to move to the “big city” of Phoenix.

Faith’s life in Phoenix is terrific for the first year. Then she is kidnapped and held in an underground “prison cell” with five other red-headed women. Even stranger, after she is unconscious, her spirit leaves her body and haunts the streets near the scene of the crime, until she finds one person who can see her–a big warrior with red shining eyes.

Rayner is that warrior. He is not a native to this planet. He, and his band of warriors, are from planet SR44. They’ve been on Earth for over two centuries, chasing a band of renegades their homeworld unimaginatively labelled Colonists, for originally escaping the law by colonizing a local moon.

Those Colonists are now on our Earth, becoming mass murderers, serial killers, and political despots and megalomaniacs. Oh, and interbreeding with humans. Colonists’ offspring usually become Colonists, too, but the strain does eventually become diluted. And nurture sometimes triumphs over nature.

Rayner and his band of brothers have come to Phoenix to hunt one of those Colonists who is kidnapping and murdering women. Rayner’s particular talent is to be able to unite spirits with their bodies, in other words, he can bring people back to life. But there’s a catch!

He can only do it if the spirit can find its body. And the body is still “habitable”. And if there is someone who loves the person and who they love back. A lot.

Rayner and his warrior band have been on Earth over two centuries, hunting down Colonists. They are inhabiting human bodies that never age. They can be killed, and they have to maintain their bodies, but no aging or death by natural causes.

Their natural forms are spirits of light. The light glows from their eyes at night. Rayner was a forest spirit on his homeworld, and the red light of his natural form glows from his eyes at night.

Faith’s spirit, wandering the streets of Phoenix, is the key to finding the Colonist that Rayner and his friends are out to catch. So it’s important that Rayner keep in contact with her as they hunt the bad guy. Very important.

There’s this one big problem. The Warriors can’t go back to their homeworld until the last Colonist is dead. It could be centuries. But if one of the Warriors falls in love with a human, and makes love with her (not just sex, but really makes love with her) he’ll lose his native form and become human, age, and eventually die.

He won’t be able to go home again. Ever. And he won’t be able to finish the mission. Rayner promised his mother he would come home. No matter how long it takes. He’s made a vow to finish the mission, no matter how long it takes. But he fell in love with Faith the minute he saw her spirit. What good is a warrior without his soul?

Escape Rating C: Based on the description, I was expecting more of a science fiction romance than this actually turned out to be. The SFR aspects are definitely downplayed in the story itself.  The story we have is über-powerful and über-huge band of good-guy warriors chasing down über-evil dudes who leave behind “ash” when they do something wicked.

Substitute baby-powder for ash. Sound familiar? I’m afraid it rang a bell for me. The band of testosterone brothers fighting evil is a tried-and-true theme, and it works, every war story uses it. But if you describe the good guys as all being over 6’5″, and the bad guys leave powder residue, then the theme is suddenly derivative. It might not be intentional, and YMMV.

The legend attached to Faith made the story a bit different. I liked her character, but  not the way she asserted herself one minute and then folded the next. If there was a reason for her willingness to bow to her parents’ wishes that I didn’t understand, where was that explanation? She is 23 not 16. If she feels like she can’t move out without permission, tell the readers why.

(This review copy was provided by Bewitching Book Tours. Bewitching requested additional reviews outside of the tour, and here we are!)

North of Need

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

The Watchmaker’s Lady

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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