Tag: 2012 Reading Romance Challenge

Review: Wicked Nights by Gena Showalter

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

Who would have thought that angels would make such terrific tortured heroes? Now the concept that fallen angels would become demons, and evil ones at that, well, that concept has been around forever.

Everyone knows the quote from Milton. That one about it being, “better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven.” But Gena Showalter has already shown that demons can be redeemed, or can fight their nature, with the help of the right woman. She proved that in her Lords of the Underworld series.

Wicked Nights is the first story in a spinoff series in the same universe, Angels of the Dark. And Zacharel certainly is a dark and brooding angel. Also a disobedient one. His Deity has made him general of an army of misbehaving angels who are all one step, or maybe that’s one wingspan, away from falling into the dark.

Zacharel is the one who is whipped every time one of them disobeys. Or accidentally kills a possessed human when they battle the demons. Every one of his soldiers is damaged goods. They’ve all been tortured by the dark.

Zacharel lost his brother to the demons. Hadrenial was the best part of him. But after his repeated, soul-destroying torment by the demons, Hadrenial begged Zacharel to kill him. To kill his spirit, destroy his soul and burn his body. To remove him utterly from existence. In the angel’s realm nothingness was better than being consigned to hell by self-murder. And Hadrenial’s self-destructive actions became more and more depraved by the day. Zachariel finally gave in, and killed him. Destroying his soul. He also carved out a piece of his own soul, all the love he felt in the universe.

Or so he thought.

Annabelle Miller watched a demon rip her parents to pieces right before her very eyes. Eyes that the demon had just ripped from their sockets. Then he marked her as his own and left Annabelle to attempt to explain what she saw to the police. Who of course believed that she was an insane psychopathic murderer and locked her up in a mental institution.

Where she was under continual attack by, not just demons that no one else could see, but by the staff who treated her as fair game for sexual assault. After all, no one would believe the crazy girl.

Until the angels came to investigate the place. Zacharel’s army was tasked to discover why this one building kept being attacked by demon armies. It was assumed that someone inside was possessed.

What Zacharel found, was Annabelle. A woman who could see the demons. A woman who had been claimed by a demon. Yet a woman who had absolutely not invited that demon to claim her. As an angel, Zacharel could “taste” when someone was telling the truth, and Annabelle was telling that truth.

He was intrigued in spite of himself. And that was a feeling. Zacharel had no feelings. He’d cut them all out of himself when he’d killed his brother. But Annabelle’s defiance of her circumstances made him feel. She was not broken, not yet.

But he could see that she would be. Not yet, but one year, or two. And his task was to protect the humans from the demons. He decided to protect Annabelle by rescuing her.

The demons chased them. Everywhere. Zacharel discovered that he wanted to do much more than just protect Annabelle. Even if he didn’t know what it was that he was feeling. Or why the demons were so intent on this one woman.

She was his woman now. And hell could be damned if he would let them have her.

Escape Rating A-: This is one of those stories where you just kind of buckle up, because you know it’s going to be a really bumpy ride. And I mean that in the best way possible.

The Lords of the Underworld series was not sweetness and light. Those dudes all had somebody pretty nasty sharing headspace with them. This is a spinoff series, so don’t expect fluff here either. Both Annabelle and Zacharel have incredible amounts of baggage. Whole steamer-trunks full.

These two tortured souls take a long time to trust each other, and they should. There’s a very rocky road to even see happy someone over the next horizon, and that’s the way it should be. These are two souls who don’t think happy could have ever applied to them. Getting there is what makes the story.

One small spoiler. Dr. Fitzpervert doesn’t get anywhere near what’s coming to him. But it was a good start.

 

Review: The Delphi Bloodline by Donna Del Oro

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

The Delphi Bloodline by Donna Del Oro sucked me in from the very first page. There were a few points in the middle where I wondered, “Sucked me into what?”, but I couldn’t stop flicking the pages on my iPad. I absolutely had to know what happened next. The Delphi Bloodline is a little bit paranormal romance, a little bit romantic suspense, a little bit thriller, and there were a couple of moments where I thought I’d wandered into The DaVinci Code, but all of it will keep up long past your bedtime.

It all starts when Athena Butler has a dream that her mother is being kidnapped. Except that it’s not exactly a dream; it’s a vision in what Athena and her mother call “The Flow”, the stream of spirits. And Flow Dreams are prophesies –unless they are thwarted. Or misinterpreted.

Athena and her mother Annabella both have precognitive visions, and they both work with the police to help solve crimes. Or rather, Athena’s mother still does. Athena used to, but she’s been hiding out, somewhere that no one can find her. Even her mother only has a cell phone number.

Athena is tired of seeing death. Because that’s all the future holds.

But when even Athena’s warning turns out not to be enough to stop her mother’s kidnapping, Athena comes out of hiding. Or rather, her mother’s failsafe plan to protect Athena if something happened to her kicks into place.

A Guardian comes for Athena. Guardian with a capital “G”. And just in time. Someone is hunting every identified psychic. Every person who has ever assisted the police or any law enforcement agency using any type of extra-sensory powers.

And all the fakes are turning up dead.

Athena, and her mother, are descendants of a long line of women who have psychic abilities, all the way back to ancient Greece. There’s always been an Athena in her family. And there have always been Guardians willing to lay down their lives to keep women like Athena safe from people who wanted to harm them.

Keriakos Alexander Skoros (Kas to his friends) doesn’t plan to be Athena’s Guardian on anything other than a temporary basis. But her mother entrusted him with this task, and so, for that matter, did his own mother, another one of these psychics. But when it turns out that all the psychics in the U.S. are being targeted, Athena, her mother, his mother, all the others, Kas, a former cop, is on board for the duration.

But the longer he spends with Athena, the more he wants to take up the role of her protector, forever.

Athena doesn’t want anyone vowing to lay down his life for her. She’ll protect herself, thank you very much. She’s looked at the statistics, and she knows that Guardians generally die young. The longer she spends with Kas, the less she wants him to be her Guardian.

Which doesn’t mean she doesn’t want him around.

The FBI does not believe in psychic powers. But they do believe in serial killers. They don’t believe one little bit that Athena has any power whatsoever, but they can figure out that she’s one of the targets. Eventually.

They think she’s the perfect bait to trap the kidnapper.

Athena was worried that Guardians have a short life expectancy? The life expectancy of bait really sucks.

Escape Rating A-: The suspense aspects of this one are like the snowball going down the hill. Once it starts rolling, it never stops. The pace just gets faster and faster. Everyone involved becomes part of the action, which just gets more and more tense. Wow!

The romance takes its time to develop. It should be the wrong time for Kas and Athena. But they are so right for each other, if events can just slow down long enough for them to figure it out.

The big-bad villain may have been a bit over-the-top. Your mileage may vary. Believable villains seem to be difficult. The one element that really bugged me was Annabelle, Athena’s mother, and her long-standing relationship with, of all agencies, the Vatican. Would the Pope be using a psychic to predict when it was safe to travel? There’s more going on there, but it heads into spoiler country.

But if you’re looking for a fun mostly romantic suspense with a touch of psychic power, give The Delphi Bloodline a read. Be prepared not to re-surface until you’re done.

 

Review: Forgotten Memories by Theresa Stillwagon

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

Ghost towns are such fascinating places. Even more when they get turned into living history museums. In the hands of a talented storyteller, the tales of parallel lives filtered through the shades of the past, and the light of the present, can make for quite haunting reading.

So we begin the Winter Creek, Montana Series by Theresa Stillwagon, starting with Forgotten Memories.

Jen Ferguson is both a history professor and a psychic, which makes for a pretty interesting combination when it comes to rebuilding a ghost town. She can see the ghosts. And she has studied the history of the area.

Too bad it’s her experience in the present that causing her the most trouble. The revival of Winter Creek is really her baby, her pet project. She knows the area.

But an impetuous affair with a hot-shot historian has tarnished her professional credentials, throwing all of her hard work in question. In the halls of academe, when an affair ends, the man always comes out ahead, no matter how big a jerk he is.

Jen is forced to act like an Old West schoolmarm to save her academic reputation, even though the man she broke up with is telling lies about their supposed engagement. He’s the one with the big list of publications. She’s still just a local girl.

Too bad the building at Winter Creek that she’s rehabbing for the college is the town saloon, and that one of the late “good-time gals” is sending her messages. Telling her that the hot new rancher riding through town, Adam Craine, is just the man to show her that not all men are jerks.

Adam’s also the spitting image of a former Winter Creek resident. Adam and Jen are part of a century-old mystery, one that the ghost wants to help them solve – before old grudges take more lives in the here and now.

Escape Rating B: I absolutely love living history museums, which is what initially attracted me to this series. The romance between Adam and Jen is plenty hot and sparky, and it’s doubly fascinating as it plays out across two time-periods, because it’s not just the present, but the ghosts also get involved. Adam and Jen wait to be sure they are acting on their own desires, and not re-enacting someone else’s. Very hot and very emotionally well done.

The element that kept this from being a B+ or A was the way Jen was treated by the College and “The Jerk”, and even her grandfather, regarding her personal life. This is the 21st century, not the 1950’s. While there is still a double-standard in many ways, Jen’s treatment seemed exaggerated, considering that both parties were single. I understand why she wouldn’t trust another man. I didn’t understand her employer’s reaction to the aftermath of the relationship, especially since most of it happened before the Jerk was employed at her college and they were not in a supervisory relationship.

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?

 

City of the Gods: The Descendant

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

Maybe the Mayan calendar is right, and the world really is coming to an end. They just had the date a bit off. And things aren’t quite hopeless, or there wouldn’t be a story in it.

One other tiny detail, the ancient civilization involved wasn’t the Mayans, it was the Aztecs. But there’s still the whole “end of the world” deal. Except that in this case, there is one person, a Redeemer, who can prevent it. If she’s not stopped.

And the forces of evil definitely pull out all the stops trying to keep the Redeemer from fulfilling her mission. Even before she finds out she has one.

Katalina is that Redeemer. But she doesn’t know. Of course she doesn’t, because the story of The Descendant is Katalina’s journey.

The story begins with Kat at a crossroads. This is not an uncommon beginning for a hero’s (or heroine’s) journey. Not only has Kat just been fired, she came home to find her fiancé moving out of their apartment, with the help of his new girlfriend. Heated words were exchanged.

But when Kat meets her best friends at their neighborhood hangout, everything changes. First, it turns out that her BFFs are not quite what they seem. Sabine and Vivian are Kat’s bodyguards, although Kat doesn’t know that yet. Second, the club has gone upscale in the last week, and the new owner turns out to be hot for Kat.

And third, Kat goes out into the alley to get some fresh air after running into her recent ex — and her split personality evil side kills two drunks who try to rape her. Yes, you read that right. Kat has multiple personality disorder, and her dark side, a nasty piece-of-work named Lina, takes over whenever Kat can’t handle things. Drunken rapists definitely qualified.

Kat created Lina when she watched her parents die in an auto accident. Lina has nothing to do with being the Redeemer. At least not yet.

But the evil dude who watches the drunks attack her does. He’s the sworn enemy of Vivian and Sabine. His name is Damien. Once upon a time, he used to be Vivian’s fiance. Back in Teotihaucan.

Damien has been chasing the Redeemer forever, waiting for her to be born. Vivian and Sabine have been watching forever, waiting for the Redeemer to be born. Tristan, the new owner of the club, is Vivian’s brother. He has been hunting for the Redeemer for his entire life, waiting for her to be born. They’ve all been waiting since 700 A.D. Just for Kat.

Kat doesn’t want any of this. She wanted the life she had. But like the Rolling Stones said, we can’t always get what we want. Kat and Tristan are going to have to try very, very hard to get what they need.

Escape Rating B: This could have been a standard paranormal romance, but the author took some twists that definitely made it more interesting.

Choosing the Aztecs as the forebears for this history was a brave choice. The author doesn’t gloss over their historic practices of animal and human sacrifice, nor Kat’s revulsion toward them. Her job is to save the world in the present, not correct the past.

Kat’s psychological response to witnessing her parents’ death was to create a secondary personality, Lina, to handle the hard stuff in her life. Lina is a bad-ass. Re-integrating Lina into Kat becomes a necessary part of Kat’s journey to becoming the Redeemer. Still, that initial scene where Lina emerges was a WOW! The reader isn’t sure whether Lina is the Redeemer, whether she’s evil, or whether she needs to be exorcised.

Although Kat is very attracted to Tristan, she loses her faith in him, and all her friends, when she discovers how much they have concealed from her over the years. No matter how justified that concealment, Kat should lose faith. Talk a about a whopping big set of lies.

On the other hand, I didn’t get Damien’s initial motivation for turning to “the Dark Side”. He definitely was evil, but why it happened in the first place, all those years ago, wasn’t quite clear to me. He turned “bad” because the truly evil dude wasn’t punished enough? He betrayed his friends and his entire belief system for that?

I’ll need a better explanation, or a bigger evil, in book 2. But I definitely want a book 2!

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.

About Last Night

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

About Last Night by Ruthie Knox is an absolute gem of a love story.

Mary Catherine Talarico has been “Good Cath” for two years. She left her last mistake behind, burned her last bridge (pretty much literally) and kept herself focused on her work.

And what a job it is. She’s the assistant to a curator at the famous Victoria and Albert Museum in London. It’s a job Cath sort of created for herself, making herself indispensable during the creation of an exhibition and catalog devoted to the history of knitting as folk art, Cath’s favorite subject.

But in order to keep “Bad Cath” safely locked away, Cath hasn’t had a social life in those two years. Her personal life has become so boring and predictable that one morning she bets her boss that she can accurately predict the next several commuters to get off the bus at the V&A stop.

The stakes of that bet? Her boss will bring in a hand-knitted straight-jacket. Great item for the exhibit. The good news, Cath wins the bet. The bad news, Cath wins the bet. Her life is officially that boring.

Except that one of those commuters is a man Cath has nicknamed “City” for his gorgeous bespoke City-banker type suits. Not that the man wearing the suits is half-bad either. Cath also sees him most mornings when they take the same running trails, and he’s pretty good to look at in just running shorts and a sweaty t-shirt, too.

But he’s just a fantasy man. “Good Cath” doesn’t have the time or energy to chase inappropriate men. That’s “Bad Cath’s” territory.

Until one night, when a friend fixes Cath up on a blind date. That should have been nixed from the start. It was a disaster of epic proportions. Unfortunately for Cath, the bad date was the kind who insisted that she must have a drink with him, unless she was too good to drink with him, and it was too early for her to bail. One drink let “Bad Cath” out.

The end of the evening found Cath drunk in a bus stop, too broke for cab fare (the V&A doesn’t pay much) when “City” stopped and recognized her. “Bad Cath” doesn’t have any inhibitions about inappropriate men, but does have commitment issues. And “City” turned out to want to rescue the pretty woman he remembers from the bus. So he takes her home with him, since she refuses to say where she lives.

After one glorious night, Cath wakes up and realizes that she has just made a horrible mistake. Admittedly a mistake involving some really, really terrific sex with a gorgeous man she’s always fancied.

At first, Cath doesn’t even want to know “City’s” real name. (It’s Nev). She’s not sure she wants to see him again. She thinks the last night was a mistake, and she just wants to put it behind her.

Nev definitely wants to see Cath again. And again. And not just for the great sex. He’s pretty sure she’s the best thing that ever happened to him.

But the fact that she’s exactly the opposite of anyone his family might want him to be involved with really does confuse the issue. His family is positive he’s making a mistake.

Just whose mistake is this, anyway?

Escape Rating A: This is a tremendously fun contemporary romance. If you like contemporary at all, even once in a while, go get this book!

The story uses the “sex into love” plot, and does it very, very well. That’s a story that doesn’t always work so well in real life, but the author makes it work in the story because there is still definitely a courtship, even though it happens after they fall into bed.

Nev has to court Cath because he wants more from the relationship, and he needs to get Cath to trust him in order to get that more. It’s not a traditional courtship by any means, but it does definitely explore the characters, and the readers get to know how they got to the place the story began, where they make that first so-called mistake.

Delighting In Your Company

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

If the phrase “delighting in your company” sounds familiar, it should. It’s from one of the most persistent ballads in the English language. Still stumped?

It’s Greensleeves.

And the story, Delighting in Your Company, uses the tune and the words, as it is one song that is familiar to people in both the 19th and 21st centuries.

That’s important, because Blair McDowell has created a ghost story and a time-travel story that links people and events between those two centuries.

Ms McDowell interweaves the history and beliefs of the Caribbean, a stinging rebuke against the “Triangle Trade” of the 17th and 18th centuries, and a bittersweet love story that changes history. Because history needed a “cosmic kick in the pants”.

But first, the heroine needs a more localized one. Amalie Ansett’s life needs a do-over. Or at least a fresh start. Her marriage has ended in bitter divorce, and her beloved mother is dead. While packing her her childhood home, she discovers a family secret–the good kind for a change. She has family she never knew about. A cousin in the Caribbean, on the laid-back island of St. Clement’s.

One delighted phone call, and Amalie is taking a much-needed rest on a sleepy tropical island where the pace is life is slow, and time has a chance to heal her.

The one thing she doesn’t expect to find is a man. The other thing she doesn’t expect to find is a mystery.

Long ago, there was another Amalie Ansett. Her portrait hangs in the museum. And she’s a dead-ringer for 21st century Amalie. There’s something else dead about historic Amalie. Her eyes. They’re empty. Not just in the sense that the portrait was bad, but as though the artist painted her corpse.

He did. History-Amalie was catatonic while she was painted, while she was the governor’s wife. There’s a big mystery about her death. And Amalie’s cousin Julia knows it. Something went very wrong back there in the past.

Because that man Amalie has met in the here-and-now? He’s a ghost. Everyone on the island knows something haunts the old Ansett and Evans Plantations, and it’s him. Jonathan Evans. The man the original Amalie was supposed to marry.

Instead there was a slave rebellion, and history went way, way, way off track. Jonathan’s ghost thinks his Amalie has come back to him. Amalie thinks that her handsome ghost-man is using her as a substitute for the woman he really loves.

But he’s real enough to her that they manage pretty well. Until Amalie investigates that rebellion-and figures out that she might be able to go back and fix things. But if she makes things right, she’ll lose the man she loves.

Love is about making the one you love happy, not yourself, isn’t it? No matter how much it hurts?

Escape Rating A-: Usually it’s either the ghost story or the time-travel story. This time it’s both, and it SO works. Amalie has to meet the ghost of Jonathan in order to know she’s supposed to go back and fix things. And yes, it might be a little arrogant to think she’s the one who has to fix the past, but who else?

The story works on a lot of levels, the love story because Amalie knows it can’t last, but does it anyway. She’s always trying to make things right for Jonathan, aware that it’s a sacrifice for the greater good. But it only works when she builds trust with people in both the present and the past, especially her past self. That was fascinating.

The time travel angle works because Amalie goes back to herself. She’s not trying to create a new role, she’s already there. She works with what is.

The historic mystery has its roots in the Triangle Trade, and the money to be made there. Not just the slave trade itself, but also the sales of the cash crop from the Caribbean that the slaves produced. If you’re curious about the Triangle Trade, the best, and most colorful description is still the song “Molasses to Rum to Slaves” from the musical 1776. It indicts everyone involved.

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.