Tag: paranormal romance

Stacking the Shelves #2

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Stacking the Shelves

Welcome back to Stacking the Shelves! This is my second stab at both this meme, and my new Gimp graphics program. About the meme, the deets on that are over at Tynga’s Reviews. We all post what we’ve received, borrowed, bought, etc. during the week.

About the graphics program…Gimp stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program. It’s Open Source, and it’s an alternative to Adobe Photoshop. I wanted to do a big cover spread picture, and MS Paint just isn’t that able. So far, well, see big cover spread below.

From Kensington Books (in response to On My Wishlist #6)
The Seduction of Phaeton Black (print ARC)

From the author or publicist for review at Book Lovers Inc.
Scourge of the Betrayer by Jeff Salyards (ebook)
Star Dust: First Contact by Ann O’Bannon (ebook)
Big Sky Country by Linda Lael Miller (print)

From BookBrowse First Impressions for review:
The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker (print ARC)

From the publishers:
Dreams of Joy by Lisa See (print)
I am Forbidden by Anouk Markovitz (print)
The Kissing List by Stephanie Reents (print)
The Watch by Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya (print)
The Dead Do Not Improve by Jay Caspian Kang (print)
All the books above, except for the Lisa See book, came in a plastic-wrapped wodge from the publisher. I don’t know why. They also came with their very own tote bag. Based on the size of said plastic wodge, they really NEED that tote bag!

From NetGalley (ebooks all):
Thieftaker by D.B. Jackson
The Rare Event by P.D. Singer
The Wanderers by Paula Brandon
The Bellwether Revivals by Benjamin Wood (part of Penguin First Flights)
Big Sky Mountain by Linda Lael Miller (for review at Book Lovers Inc)

From Entangled Publishing for book tour
The Fallen Queen by Jane Kindred (ebook)

I know, I know. I was bad this week. I’m not quite sure what to do with that tote from Hogarth Press (that’s the wodge). Have a contest and give it away?

But please tell me, did you get lots of books this week too? What’s stacking up on your shelves?

 

On My Wishlist #9

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | On My Wishlist

On My Wishlist is a weekly meme hosted at Cosy Books. Book Chick City started the meme. It’s where we share the books that are still on our wishlists, but that we have so far managed to resist the temptation to add to our TBR stacks.

For some of us, temptation can only be resisted for so long.

The book at the top of my wishlist is Nalini Singh’s Tangle of Need. Let me put it this way. I need this book. I’ve needed it ever since I finished the last book in her Psy-Changeling series (Kiss of Snow) last November. I don’t know what it is about these, because the description of the first book, Slave to Sensation, really didn’t grab me. But a friend made me read it anyway, and she was right. I’ve been hooked ever since.

Something in the combination of near-future earth, shapeshifters, ESP, convoluted politics, and that slight touch of SFR gets me every time.

However, I still think the US covers are abominable. Absolutely horrible. And Tangle of Need takes the prize for worst of the litter. Which I know I’ve said before.

Speaking of science fiction, or one of its cousins, urban fantasy, I really want to read The Minority Council by Kate Griffin. What I actually want is to read the whole Matthew Swift series. Minority Council is book four. This series starts with The Midnight Mayor, and it’s about an alternate London, in a way like Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere and Simon R. Green’s Nightside. A supernatural London that requires preternatural defenses and a mayor with extra-special powers. After all, even in our world, there are legends that if the ravens ever leave the Tower of London, the kingdom will fall.

So, that’s my wishlist. Well, that’s a bit of my wishlist. It keeps growing and growing. This was just a teaser. After all, I have to save some for next week!

What’s on your wishlist?

 

Guest Post: Kay Dee Royal on her new series

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | blog tours> Guest Posts

Today I’d like to welcome Kay Dee Royal to Reading Reality.  author of Staring Into the Eyes of Chance (reviewed here), Kay Dee is here as part of a Bewitching Book Tour to talk about her new book and series.

Hello Marlene, thank you for having me today. 🙂

I’m Kay Dee Royal, a paranormal erotica romance author. My first book in the LIIA series (Lycan International Investigation Agency), Staring Into the Eyes of Chance, introduces Chance, an Alpha Lycan, three hundred years old, and Olivia, a fifty-five year old widow.

I enjoyed writing both of their stories and completely resonated as the two of their lives began to entwine.

Olivia walked away with my emotions.

This woman was marked as different from an early age because of her ability to “read” wildlife/animals. As a child, she thought everyone could do this, until bullies knocked the wind out of her preteen years, shoving it in her face that she was a weirdo. From that time on, only a select few knew of her gift with reading an animal’s mood.

She opened a wildlife rescue and preserve on two-thousand acres.

The other thing about Olivia was her incessant loyalty to her husband of thirty-four years, even though he never showed her passion, nor did they ever have children. He traveled more than he lived with her, and at his funeral she discovered he’d been a philanderer their entire marriage. Her trust and faith in any man ended, broken.

Chance totally stole my heart.

His story begins with the death of his mother during his birth. It merited his older brother’s hatred and his father living as a shell of a man from the loss of his mate. Both his father and brother died in accidents, shortly before Chance was to take the Alpha position in the pack.

His father’s dwindling life (before the accident) tore Chance in two. When both his only living family died, he jumped into his Alpha and LIIA position full force, not caring to find a mate and go through the loss of another loved one.

OH, also, Chance has a special ability…besides the capabilities of Lycan, he has premonition visions.

What brings these two together when they are so unlikely to find each other? Good question.

A killing machine of a rogue Lycan named, Smoke. He leaves a trail of death and destruction where ever he goes, and Chance tracks him onto Olivia’s wildlife sanctuary…but Olivia won’t have anyone trekking around her property.

There’s a number of reasons why, all of which are within the pages of Staring Into the Eyes of Chance. 🙂

Here’s a bit about it:

A LIIA (Lycan International Investigation Agency) Book (Series ~ Book One)

Genre:

Paranormal Erotica Romance ~ Must be 18 or older, Explicit Love Scenes Rated Sizzling Hot

Tagline:

Olivia swears off men until she meets Chance, a Lycan alpha. He ignites an undeniable hunger they can only sate together.

Blurb:

Olivia endures a thirty-four year passionless marriage, discovering her dead husband’s philandering history at his funeral. She devotes her energy and life-long sensitivity with animals to her wildlife refuge and preserve.

Chance, a Lycan alpha and leader of the Lycan International Investigation Agency (LIIA) throws himself into his investigations. He chooses to neglect his duty of finding a primal-mate after watching his father become an empty shell over the loss of his.

A murderous rogue pack draws Chance onto Olivia’s wildlife preserve, sending Olivia’s animal sensitivities into overdrive. Chance and Olivia discover a sizzling force driving them together.

Will they succumb to its enticing tether, or fight to resume their loveless lives apart?

Buy Links:

Muse It Up Publishing  Amazon
Staring Into the Eyes of Chance Coffee Time Romance Buy Link
All Romance ebooks

About Kay Dee Royal:

Kay Dee Royal writes paranormal, fantasy, and contemporary erotic romance—maybe because it’s also her favorite genres to read! She pens tales with wild, rugged heroes and confident, intelligent heroines. She’ll give them both a few shadowy secrets, making her stories intriguing and fun. Blogging and promoting other authors feeds her passion and muse.

She resides in Southern Michigan with her family (her dogs, her cats, her caged husband… you get the idea)

You can reach her at:

Kay Dee Royal ~ Paranormal & Erotica Romance Musings;
Ravencraft’s Romance Realm;  MuseItHot; Twitter; FB

 

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.

 

Q&A with Lisa Kessler, author of Night Walker, plus book, poster and Amazon GC giveaway!

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Author Q&A> blog tours

Today’s guest at Reading Reality is Lisa Kessler, author of the absolutely fascinating tale of vampires and reincarnated love, Night Walker (my review here, the book is awesome). She’s here to talk about her life, her research for the book (it’s really cool!) and her plans for her Night series.

Take it away, Lisa!

Tell us a little bit about who Lisa Kessler is when she isn’t writing about vampires.

I’m a wife and Mom to two great kids.  And if I’m not at the keyboard writing, I’m usually singing or at a rehearsal…  Keeps me very busy!

Night Walker combines two interesting themes for paranormal romance, vampires and reincarnation. Either one would make a pretty powerful story all by itself. What made you decide to put those two together in one story?

Night Walker was my first attempt at writing a book, and while I knew wanted to write about vampires, I also wanted to set it in San Diego.  I didn’t want a European vampire.

So I visited the oldest building in San Diego, the Mission de Alcala and started researching.  When I discovered the unsolved Kumeyaay uprising when they burned the Mission to the ground and bludgeoned the priest to death, it occurred to me that maybe the uprising was retaliation for the murder of a Kumeyaay maiden…  Then I realized reincarnation would play a role in the story as well.  It all came together from that point. 🙂

The pictures of the Mission de Alcala in San Diego on your website are fascinating. What made you decide to feature the Mission and its history in Night Walker?

Thanks for checking out the pictures!  One of the coolest parts of publishing Night Walker is all the emails from readers who have actually visited the Mission after reading the book!  🙂  I knew if I wanted an immortal in San Diego I would need to dig into the history of the city, and all of San Diego’s beginning starts with the Mission de Alacala.  It’s an amazing place to visit, and the sanctuary is still used for Sunday Mass…  I couldn’t pass up using the real history in the book. 🙂

Who or what most influenced your decision to become a writer?

I started writing every night for fun about 12 years ago…  My focus changed the day I visited a palm reader in New Orleans.  She gave me a reading, and when I got to the door to leave, she said, “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“Are you a writer?”

“Not really.” I shrugged. “I do write every night, but it’s just for fun.”

She smiled and I swear her eyes sparkled. “You’re going to be a famous writer one day.”

I walked back to the hotel in a daze, but 6 months later the first draft of Night Walker was done.

And are you a plotter or a pantser? Do you plot everything out in advance, or do you just let the story flow?

I’m a big time pantser!  🙂  It makes writing the book and adventure for me, because I don’t know what’s going to happen either.  I love getting to know the characters and racing through the book with them…

Do your characters ever want to take over the story?

Always!  In fact, when I was writing Night Demon, I wrote Gretchen thinking I would kill her off early, but after trying to kill her twice, she kept surviving and I realized she was actually the heroine! LOL  Who knew? 🙂

What book do you recommend everyone should read, and why?

Tough question!  There are so many!  Hmmm…  I guess first off I’d have to say The Stand by Stephen King.  It’s a long book, but there are so many meaty characters on both sides of the good and evil lines that it’s amazing.  You won’t want the book to end!

And if I could name one more, it would be The Mists of Avalon.  It’s a retelling of the King Arthur story told through the women’s eyes.  It gives you a really fascinating look at the time period when religion started shifting from Paganism to Christianity and the shift in power from a matriarchal to patriarchal society.  Lots of betrayal and intrigue too!  It’s one of my all time favorite books! J

Can you tell us what you have planned for the future in The Night Series?

I have a prequel novella called Night Thief coming out in September.  You’ll get to meet one of the original Night Walker brothers, Kane.  Can’t wait to share this one with you!  And in Spring of 2013 Night Demon, Book 2, will be out.  It picks up right where Night Walker left off so you’ll know who was watching them in the epilogue…  Night Demon raises the stakes for the human race when an ancient Mayan Demon is freed into the world of man.

What would you be if you were not an author? (I saw on your website that you were also a singer…)

Before writing took over most of my time, I had aspirations to sing in some of the opera houses in Europe.  There is so much history there, and I love opera so it would have been a blast!  But I have no regrets with my choices.  I still get to sing, but telling stories is definitely where my heart is… 🙂

Coffee or Tea?

Definitely Tea! 🙂

Lisa is celebrating the re-release of Night Walker in paperback!  As part of the celebration, she is having a tour-wide giveaway. And that’s what the Rafflecopter form is here for. Lisa will be giving away one signed print copy of Night Walker, one Night Walker Poster, and one $25 Amazon Gift Card at the end of the tour. Check Lisa Kessler’s Facebook page for more tour stops.
Continue reading “Q&A with Lisa Kessler, author of Night Walker, plus book, poster and Amazon GC giveaway!” →

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.

 

 

 

What’s On My (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand? 5-6-12 AKA The Sunday Post

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | The Sunday Post> Virtual Nightstand

As I looked for a replacement Mailbox meme, I looked long and hard at The Sunday Post. Why? Because I do a Sunday post, it’s this one, my mostly virtual nightstand.

Kimba the Caffeinated Book Lover (and I love that name, BTW) created her meme in part to fill the gap. But The Sunday Post is also intended as a

“chance to share News. A post to recap the past week, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up for the week on our blog.”

I use Virtual Nightstand to do the forward looking parts of that. I’ve chosen Stacking the Shelves as a way of handling the Mailbox bits of the mandate. But Virtual Nightstand is my news and upcoming reviews post.

To make a long story short, I’m going to link Virtual Nightstand to The Sunday Post. Anyone who comes here from that link might wonder why they got here. Or hopefully they’ll just jump down to the cover pictures.

What’s up this week?

Monday is Ebook Review Central, of course! This week is Leap Week, so I’ll be covering two new publishers, Red Sage Publishing and Curiosity Quills. They are permanent additions to ERC. For this first round, you’ll see a round up that takes them back to the beginning of ERC and catches them up to everyone else, so September 2011 through March 2012, if they have titles back that far.

Tuesday, May 8, I’m hosting an interview with Lisa Kessler, author of Night Walker, as part of a Bewitching Book Tour to celebrate the re-release of Night Walker in paperback! I’ll also have a review of Night Walker and an entry for several tour-wide giveaways.

Thursday, May 10 Reading Reality will be the host for a guest blog from Kay Dee Royal, promoting her book Staring into the Eyes of Chance. This is also part of a virtual book tour from Bewitching Book Tours. And I will also be posting a review of this shapeshifter/paranormal romance, the first book in Ms. Royal’s new Lycan International Investigation Agency Series.

On my nightstand, there are books I’m reading to prepare for next week. I always look a week ahead so I don’t get too surprised. Also, next week I’ll be traveling again, which does throw things off a bit!

There are only four, so maybe I’ll have a chance to catch up with myself. Probably not. But a girl can dream next to her nightstand, can’t she?

I asked for A Patch of Darkness by Yolanda Sfetsos from Samhain because it sounded like an interesting urban fantasy/paranormal romance. And because some of Ms. Sfetsos’ previous work has been well-reviewed. And because it’s book 1 in a series, so I don’t have to jump into the middle, or read a long backstory. All good things. I’ve averted my eyes from some early reviews.

Railsea by China Miéville is a book that I selected from NetGalley because my husband likes China Miéville’s work. And Galen is supposed to provide a guest review for this one for me.

On May 17 Reading Reality will be hosting a Virtual Book Tour of Bad Girl Lessons by Seraphina Donovan for Book and Trailer Showcase. So, I need to read and review the book before the tour.  This book just sounded like yummy fun. Good girl seeks bad boy to teach her how to have a good time after she gets dumped at the altar. Sex, love and romance ensue.

I have to remind myself that I also have a print ARC of The Mongoliad Book One by Greg and Erik Bear and a host of others on my nightstand. It’s not only a relatively big monster (450 pages), but I owe my editor at Library Journal a review on May 21. This one is sort of looming out there. Like an attacking horde.

So, are there any books on your nightstand that you’re looking forward to? How’s your Sunday treating you? And what do you have planned for your week?

What’s On My (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand? 4-29-12

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Virtual Nightstand

Before I tackle the books in, on, and around my more or less virtual nightstand, I want to take just a minute to acknowledge the origins of this regular Sunday meme-o-mine.

By this time, those of you who are regularly follow book blogging have read about the drama regarding The Story Siren and her plagiarism of several posts on “How to Blog” from Beautifully Invisible and Grit And Glamour. The details are summarized by a number of bloggers, including my friend Has over at Book Lovers Inc.

I won’t be participating in In My Mailbox, and I’ve unsubscribed from anything I subscribed to at The Story Siren. That includes email, twitter, RSS, you name it. But that’s yesterday’s news.

I’ve seen a couple of new memes crop up to take the place of IMM. That’s terrific! Tynga’s Reviews has started Stacking My Shelves, and Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer‘s Sunday Post starts today, since it’s Sunday. There’s Mailbox Monday, which is fascinating because it’s nomadic. A different blog hosts it every month.

I usually tried to post my IMM on Saturday, so I’m leaning towards Tynga’s meme, but, as Mary Engelbreit so poignantly drew, Everybody Needs their own Spot. I’m just glad the community has created alternatives so fast!

Back to my Mostly Virtual Nightstand. We’re all inspired by somebody. And so was I.

In October, 2011, after six months of blogging, I realized that one of the things I did over the weekend was figure out what reviews I really, truly had to post that week. And sometimes I surprised myself, even with a to-do list.

In my hunt for a meme so that I could write about what I was reading, I found What’s on My Nightstand at 5 Minutes for Books. It’s a great meme but for my purposes, it had one flaw. It’s monthly. I need WAY more organization than that.

But it gave me an idea. What if I did the same thing, only weekly? Since what’s really on my nightstand is usually an iPad full of ebooks, my nightstand is mostly virtual. And that’s how What’s on My Mostly Virtual Nightstand was born.

I laid out these gory details in the original Nightstand post, back on October 23, 2011. But in light of this week’s events, it seemed like a good time to repeat them, and give credit to my muse.

Now then, what’s actually ON that mostly virtual nightstand this week?

My editor at Library Journal sent me a book on Friday. Those are always out of the blue, but usually pretty good. So I have a review of An Heir of Deception by Beverley Kendall due on May 7. This looks yummy. Former rake forced to confront the woman who turned him seriously toward the bad side, and then ran away from him. And now that he’s back on the straight, narrow and responsible, she’s back. With secrets. Of course with secrets. Naughty Regencies can be so much fun. If you have an ereader, an earlier book in this series, All’s Fair in Love and Seduction, is currently free for both Kindle and Nook. (Yes, of course I did!)

On the Samhain Publishing list a month or so ago I picked up the entire Fringe series by Anitra Lynn McLeod to review. It’s science fiction romance, so of course I’m interested. Very interested. And I’ve seen some good reviews of the later books, but the earlier books just weren’t found. I’m always interested in doing my bit to promote SFR. Stripper, the 4th book in the series will be released May 8. I still need to read books 1, 2 and 3, Thief, Overlord and Runner.

But before I can get to my SFR, I have some more urgent commitments first.

Bronwen Evans, the author of Invitation to Scandal will be doing a guest post at Book Lovers Inc. on May 9. I have to get my review of her Regency ready to post before then. This looks like another darkly sensual Regency, with a Viscount chasing a smuggler to clear his father’s name. Smuggling and/or piracy usually make for delicious reads!

Meanwhile, back at Reading Reality, I have a couple of book tours scheduled next week that I also need to get reviews ready for!

I will be interviewing Lisa Kessler, author of Night Walker, here on Tuesday, May 7. Bewitching Book Tours is organizing this tour, and in addition to the interview, I’ll be reviewing Night Walker, the first book in her paranormal romance series, The Night.

Rounding out next week, on May 9, author Kay Dee Royal will be a guest at Reading Reality, also courtesy of Bewitching Book Tours. Kay Dee’s guest blog will be about her new shape-shifter/paranormal romance, Staring Into the Eyes of Chance, the first book in her Lycan International Investigation Agency Series. And of course, there will be a review of the book.

Well, that’s all this book blogger has time for in one week. I’ve never prayed for insomnia before, but I think I’d better start.

What’s on your nightstand this week?

 

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!)

What’s on my (mostly virtual) nightstand? 4-22-12

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Virtual Nightstand

Before I start on this week’s Nightstand, which is going to be a traveling nightstand, two newsworthy items.

We’re famous! Or maybe infamous. Your mileage may vary. Very much. Reading Reality is the featured blog this week over at Curiosity Quills Book Blog Spotlight. Go check out all the blogger interviews. They are awesome. And don’t forget, there’s still time to review one of their books and enter their contest for a chance at an iPad3.

Speaking of giveaways, tonight at midnight, the Spring Fling Blog Hop will begin at Reading Reality over 80 other blogs. So come back tomorrow and fill out the Mr. Rafflecopter for your chance at a $10 Amazon Gift Card at Reading Reality, plus more fabulous prizes at all the other participating blogs.

About that nightstand of mine. As I said, it will be a traveling nightstand this week. We’re going to a conference. Well, my husband has a conference, and I’m going along as his “plus one”.

So I’ll be taking one or two print books as my “airplane” books. Probably either Julie Kagawa’s The Immortal Rules, or Karen Kondazian’s The Whip.

But what’s up on the reviewing calendar between now and May 1, next Tuesday? And is anyone else out there having a difficult time wrapping their heads around the idea that next Tuesday is the first of May?

I did get a new iPad3 for my birthday earlier this month. There were a certain number of trials and tribulations involved in transferring the contents of my old iPad to my new one. Enough that Galen was moved to write a guest post that will appear later this week.

But I do love my iPad enough that I requested Insanely Simple by Ken Segall from NetGalley. It’s a non-fiction business book, which is not the sort of thing I usually get. But it’s about Apple Corp. There are a couple of companies whose inner workings do interest me. Apple is one. (For anyone wondering, no, I don’t have a Mac. Galen has a Mac)

From a business that makes gadgets we go to gadgetry that makes a genre. I have Cruel Numbers by Christopher Beats, which is subtitled “A Steampunk Noir Mystery”. I hope it’s half as cool as it sounds.

I also have Zero Gravity Outcasts by Kay Keppler. As you might guess from the title, Zero Gravity Outcasts is science fiction romance. These are my two Carina indulgences from NetGalley for the week.

Because I loved Shona Husk’s Dark Vow, I snapped up her Kiss of the Goblin Prince when is appeared on NetGalley. The difference is that Dark Vow was stand alone, and Goblin Prince is book 2 in a series. So I have the prequel (The Summons) and book 1 (The Goblin King) to get through first.

Sadie Jones’ The Uninvited Guests is a book that looks like it’s going to get a lot of buzz. I picked up a paper ARC at PLA and I requested in from Edelweiss. It’s due out on May 1. At least when the Edelweiss egalley timebombs, the paper ARC will still be good! It’s about an Edwardian house party that goes sadly astray, it reminds me of the movie Gosford Park, and, of course, Downton Abbey.

I went through a period of picking up mysteries at NetGalley. Fatal Induction by Bernadette Pajer is the second in the Professor Bradshaw series, after A Spark of Death. These are historic mysteries, and they look interesting, taking place at the beginning of the 1900s and having to do with electrical engineering and academics, and, of course, murder.

My last book for next week is also a bit unusual for me. I will be participating in the BlogHer Book Club in May, and the book chosen for the Book Club next month is You Have No Idea by Vanessa and Helen Williams. So it’s an autobiography written by a famous daughter and her mother.

I’ll be visiting my mom in the middle of May. Maybe I’ll get some insights from the rich and famous…

So, what’s on your nightstand this week? What are you planning to read?