Tag: 2012 Reading Romance Challenge

Review: Wicked As They Come by Delilah S. Dawson

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | A Reviews> book reviews
Format read: signed paperback purchased from the author at Dragon*Con
Formats available: Mass Market paperback, ebook
Genre: Paranormal romance, steampunk
Series: Blud #1
Length: 395 pages
Publisher: Pocket Books
Purchasing Info: Author Website, Publisher Website, Goodreads, Amazon, B&N, Book Depository

Have you ever heard of a Bludman? They’re rather like you and me—only more fabulous, immortal, and mostly indestructible. (They’re also very good kissers.) Delilah S. Dawson’s darkly tempting debut drops her unsuspecting heroine into a strange faraway land for a romantic adventure that’s part paranormal, part steampunk . . . and completely irresistible.

When Tish Everett forces open the ruby locket she finds at an estate sale, she has no idea that a deliciously rakish Bludman has cast a spell just for her. She wakes up in a surreal world, where Criminy Stain, the dashing proprietor of a magical traveling circus, curiously awaits. At Criminy’s electric touch, Tish glimpses a tantalizing future, but she also foresees her ultimate doom. Before she can decide whether to risk her fate with the charming daredevil, the locket disappears, and with it, her only chance to return home. Tish and Criminy battle roaring sea monsters and thundering bludmares, vengeful ghosts and crooked Coppers in a treacherous race to recover the necklace from the evil Blud-hating Magistrate. But if they succeed, will Tish forsake her fanged suitor and return to her normal life, or will she take a chance on an unpredictable but dangerous destiny with the Bludman she’s coming to love?

Run away and join the circus–it’s almost a cliché for living a life of adventure. But what if that adventure were in another world, a world parallel to our own? That’s the choice facing Tish Everett in Delilah S. Dawson’s Wicked As They Come. But it’s not the only choice Tish faces. It’s not even the hardest choice.

Tish has escaped from a controlling relationship with not much more than the shirt on her back and the tattered remnants of her self-respect. But she also has a career as a nurse that she has put back together, a terminally-ill grandmother who is helping her get back on her feet, and a desire above all else to never, ever lop off bits of herself to fit into someone else’s dreams or desires.

Then she accidentally walks out of an estate sale with a Victorian locket hidden around her neck–and wakes up naked in the world of Sang, the world of the Blud.

She thinks it’s all a dream. Until one of the rabbits bites her ankle. This is no fluffy child’s tale, no cute Bunnicula. It sucks her blood. And it has lots of friends. After all, it’s still a rabbit.

The man watching her is a predator. He wants her to come with him, to trust him. His picture was in that locket. She thought he resembled a decadent Mr. Darcy. He still does, but so much more. This Mr. Darcy has fangs, like the bludbunny he just killed for her.

Criminy Stain claims to have made the locket for her. That he called her. But Tish is too damaged to be let herself be “claimed” by any man, not just now. Still, she needs protection in this place where everyone, and everything will drink her blood for a meal. Even the deer.

Tish can’t quite wrap her head around a place where even Bambi is a deadly predator.

Then she discovers that she herself is something different in Sang. She sees the future. When she touches someone, she gets a “glance” at what their future will bring…if they do not deviate from their path.

When Criminy takes her hand, she sees their future. Together. And she is not ready. Nor does she know if he wants the real her, or just a woman to fit into his own dreams, as her abusive ex did. But Tish still needs his protection.

Discovering just how much, and what she needs protecting from, is a revelation.

Sang is…just a half-step off from Tish’s reality. London is London. London is always London. But on the maps, Brussels is Bruzzles, and Russia is, well, Freesia (it is freezing, after all). And everything in Sang is either predator, or prey. Or Stranger.

Tish discovers that one of her coma patients is in Sang. Casper Sterling plays the harpsichord in Criminy Stain’s carnival, and he’s like Tish, a Stranger from the world she knows. But Tish knows he’s wasting away after a motorcycle accident. But not in Sang.

Tish is just asleep. Until Jonah Goodwill, the despotic, and creepily bigoted ruler of Sang Manchester, sends agents to steal Tish’s locket, trapping her in Sang. Tish can’t bear to be trapped. To have her choices taken away. She’s already been there and done that.

Criminy magicked that locket to bring his perfect match to Sang. He can only do everything possible to let her come to believe that. No matter what it costs him or how much it might hurt. Even if what he has to do is get her the means to walk away from him.

The magic was to find his perfect match. Not to bring him someone he could force into that role. But someone who was already that right person. Tish just doesn’t believe she could be right for anyone, even herself.

It takes Tish a long time, and a lot of pain, to realize that the carnival is all about freedom. And so is the bludman who is its master.

Escape Rating A-: Wicked As They Come was a book that had been teasing me since I first saw it. I knew I would succumb to temptation eventually, and when I finally did, the story was every bit as deliciously wicked as the cover promised.

It succeeds on multiple levels. The world Ms. Dawson creates is an amalgam of off-kilter Victoriana, outright steampunk and paranormal alternate universe magickal delight. Not only is Tish not sure this isn’t a dream, the reader occasionally isn’t either. A dream with teeth.

There’s a quest mixed into this love story, and it is both. Tish needs to find herself, and Criminy needs to prove, not that he’s worthy, but that he wants Tish for who she is, not for who he wants her to be. It’s a crucial difference that isn’t often dealt with in romance. Very nicely done.

The other theme is that every dream has a price. Criminy wants his soul mate. Tish wants to retain her freedom to choose. The price of both of those desires is high, and Tish will eventually have to make a final choice. Freedom is never free.

Speaking of freedom, the world of Sang is not free. There is a villain in the piece, Jonah Goodwill. While the picture of Sang is clearly drawn and compellingly beautiful, although it takes a while to fill in, Jonah’s motivations are a little less clear. He comes across as a charismatic bigot with a devout and murderous following. But how did he get such incredible power? Defeating him was absolutely necessary, and made for a hair-raising climax on both sides of the story, but he felt a bit like a cardboard cutout.

I want to go back to Sang right now. The next book, Wicked As She Wants, is much, much too far away. Good thing there’s an enovella, The Mysterious Madam Morpho, coming next month to tide me over.

***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

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 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: 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: Timeless Sojourn by Jamie Salisbury

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

When one door closes, another door opens. That’s what they say. In Timeless Sojourn by Jamie Salisbury, the door seems to have closed directly on Anne Harrison’s foot, and on her long-term marriage. It opens on a new life.

The step through that door is a bit unsteady at times. In more ways than one.

Anne is in her mid-50s when the story begins. She’s outside the courtroom in rural north Georgia, on the threshold of divorcing her meth-addicted, soon-to-be-ex-husband. Life should be looking up.

Instead she stagnates. The divorce goes through. But the meth catches up with the ex. He only occasionally pays alimony. Anne has surgery and loses most of the toes on one foot. She can’t find a job. The economy sucks.

Her best friend Kat gives her some tough love, and tells her to get the hell out of Dixie and come home to Seattle. Kat has a place for her to live, and Kat’s fiancee Tom has a Administrative Assistant job waiting for her until she gets back on her financial feet.

Not only can you go home again, but things get better when you do. Anne gets out of her rut. What she expected was a chance at a future. Or at least moral support from her best friend.

What she got was a life. Tom didn’t just need an Administrative Assistant. He needed someone to find him a new office, help set up his new business, and do PR. PR is Anne’s specialty. Anne starts taking photographs again, her passion.

And she meets a man who infuriates, aggravates and excites her all at the same time. The only problem with Geoffrey Quinn, besides his arrogance and his amazing good looks, is that he’s in his 30s. He can’t possibly be pursuing Anne. Can he?

The more time they spend together, the deeper their relationship grows. But Anne and Geoff have, not just a lot, but some rather surprising, hurdles to overcome before they can even catch sight of a happily ever after.

Escape Rating B-: “It’s not the years, it’s the mileage”, or some cliché like that. In order for any relationship where the partners have a significant age gap, there has to be some kind of life experience equalizer to make the relationship work. Anne is older, but Geoff has graduated the school of hard knocks. Not just his own early divorce, but his sister is HIV-positive, and has been for several years. This is a difficult thing to get right, and it’s one area where the story succeeds.

As the story progresses, the reader is very aware of how Anne feels. This tale is told from her first person point of view, so we’re inside her head. We see what she sees, hear what she hears, and know what she thinks. But we only see her side. Anne’s emotions are crystal clear, but we don’t have the same perspective on Geoff. We know what he says and how he acts, but not why.

In the very early stages of their acquaintance, we know what Anne sees in Geoff. What we don’t know is why he pursues her. It’s a limitation of the first-person POV. He never tells her, and she doesn’t have a chance to overhear it. The reader doesn’t get inside his head, and I, for one, would definitely have appreciated seeing his side of things.

 

Review: Timeless Desire by Gwyn Cready

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

The Urban Dictionary defines an “outlander” as:

Any individual who does not belong in a social setting; an intruder; an interloper

But for readers of time-travel romance, using the subtitle “An Outlander Love Story” as Gwyn Cready does on the cover of Timeless Desire, and specifically setting that romance on the Scottish border in the early 1700s, is bound to invoke comparisons to Jamie Fraser and Clare Randall.

Search Google for “outlander”, and Jamie Fraser’s name comes up as a related search, along with Diana Gabaldon (duh), the unrelated 2007 movie, and the Mitsubishi SUV.

But the heroine of Timeless Desire is Panna Kennedy, not Clare Randall. She’s a librarian and not a nurse. A time-travelling librarian who is the heroine of a romance novel. Okay, I was hooked from the description right there.

Totally incapable of an unbiased opinion, mind you, but completely hooked.

Panna thinks, acts and sounds like “one of us”. Us librarians, I mean. Her budget is being slashed, her staff is under-appreciated, her library is underfunded, and as much as she loves being the head librarian in a small town, occasionally she wants to escape.

Mostly she escapes into a good book. Her husband died two years ago, and she still hasn’t gotten over it. Panna’s spirit of adventure seems to have died with him.

Until she goes searching through the under-basements of the library for something to sell. Something that might keep the budget axe from chopping quite so close to the bone. And she sticks her hand through a locked doorway and into blackness. Not darkness. Blackness like her hand has been cut off, except she can still feel it, she just can’t see it.

She pulls it back like it was on fire. But the fire is back in her soul. She has to see what’s on the other side of that formerly locked door. Was it real? Is she crazy? Why is it there?

There’s a statue in front of the service desk in her library. Colonel John Bridgewater, the founder of the library, or at least the funding angel. (One gets the distinct impression that the statue, albeit fully clothed, is nearly anatomically correct–Panna has certainly fantasized about Bridgewater often enough!)

Panna goes back to the library in the evening and steps through the door into nothingness. She finds herself in the 18th century. What’s more, she’s in England, on the Scots border. She can see Hadrian’s Wall. The library she left behind was in Carlisle, PA. In the USA.

The first person she meets is Colonel John Bridgewater. In the very warm and living flesh. And he thinks she’s a whore. Not to mention a spy. It’s not a very auspicious start to their relationship.

And what a relationship it turns out to be. Nothing on the Scots borders is ever simple. John Bridgewater is the son of two countries. His father is an English Earl and commander of the English forces on the Border. But John was forced to make his own way in the world, because his father neglected to marry his mother, who was the daughter of a Scots clan chief. John’s loyalties are divided.

Each side is sure he must be a traitor. All he wants is peace. Or at least, less pointless bloodshed.

He sees Panna as either an angel or a temptress. John makes Panna feel alive again. But as they drag each other deeper into the tangle of secrets and lies, he discovers that she is telling the truth, and that there is more danger in the knowledge she holds than he ever imagined.

Escape Rating B: There are two ways of looking at this story. One is to attempt to consider how it works on its own merits, and the other is to look at how it deals with the long shadow cast by Diana Gabaldon’s classic tale, Outlander.

Timeless Desire is a solid time-travel romance. Panna’s desperation to solve the budget crisis was very real, and rang true (Been there, done that, and I’ve known too many library folk in that same boat). Her grief over her late husband also “felt” right. Everyone grieves in their own way and time.  Going back in time, while contrived, made for a terrific adventure. It shook Panna out of her rut in every way possible. Fighting for your life will do that. And because the circumstances were extreme, falling in love happened fast and hard.

It was easy to get caught up in Panna’s story.

On the other hand, the title invokes one of the truly great stories, Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander, and that’s a dangerous comparison to make. Jamie Fraser is positively beloved. The two romance heroes whose names I wouldn’t get near with someone else’s barge-pole are Jamie Fraser and Roarke. Naming another Scots hero Jamie in a time-travel romance is simply bad juju. IMHO.

There were a few too many times when I read a scene in Timeless Desire and knew what was going to happen because either the same thing had happened in Outlander, or it happened before but with an opposite twist. (Spoiler alert) For example, the wedding was in extremely similar circumstances, although Bridgewater was not (thank heavens!) a virgin. The ending worked opposite but had a lot of similar characteristics. In this case it depended on who had a home to go to in which time.

As Outlander-lite, Timeless Desire works very well.