Tag: romance

Revealing Silver

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | book reviews

Revealing Silver is the conclusion of the Silver Maiden Trilogy by Jamie Craig. With a very small amount of recap, it picks up exactly where Touching Silver left off. And thank goodness for that! The cliffhanger at the end of Touching Silver was a real doozy!

The oldest story in the world is boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl. As a society we’ve finally admitted that there are tons of wonderful stories in the variations on that theme–boy meets boy, girl meets girl, variations where three or more can play, whatever happens to float your personal boat. Science fiction and fantasy have added even more flavors, for example: boy or girl meets robot, or boy or girl meets vampire or shapeshifter, but the basic concept still stands. The love story is a classic, and the pattern is the same, they meet, they get separated, they get back together.

In Chasing Silver, Remy and Nate meet because Remy gets dragged back in time 70+ years. For them, it’s a miracle. They save each other.

Touching Silver was Nate’s partner Isaac’s story. When Nate and Remy find each other, Isaac is left out in the cold. He’s been the one keeping Nate from the abyss for the past five years, and suddenly he’s a fifth wheel. Until Detective Olivia Wright walks into his life. Olivia doesn’t need saving, but she would love to be his partner.

Two couples who have both fulfilled the first part of the love story equation, in the middle of Nate and Isaac’s investigation of a gang war between their two worst enemies; Cameron Parker, the man who set them up five years ago, and Gabriel de los Rios, the gang leader obsessed with the Silver Maiden coins, and the one who kidnapped the seven young girls in Olivia Wright’s Cold Case files.

At the end of Touching Silver, Nate, Remy, Isaac and Olivia interrupt a ritual Gabriel and his cousin are conducting, a ritual designed to bring back the original Silver Maiden. Gabriel and his cousin Marisol may be crazy, but six girls are still missing, and Remy knows that this ritual is building up the same kind of power that sent her back in time. She stops the ritual by throwing herself into the ritual circle, and finds herself jumping time again, this time back to Los Angeles in 2000. Her only hope is to contact Isaac and Nate in that time, while they were still both LAPD, and try to get help without screwing up her own personal timeline.

Nate is still back in 2010, and is devastated almost beyond repair. He tried to go through the circle before it closed, and Isaac stopped him. Their friendship, their brotherhood, is in tatters. Olivia is also linked to the Silver Maiden coins: Gabriel and Marisol both say that she a “Keeper”, a part of the coins in her own right.

When Gabriel and Marisol’s agendas diverge in their desires to use (or abuse) the Silver Maiden’s power, Gabriel kidnaps Olivia and uses her “Keeper” power to send her back in time to fix the things that he believes Marisol has broken, while he holds Nate hostage in 2010 for her “good” behavior. It’s a wild race to the finish.

Escape Rating B+: I was up until after 2 am trying to finish this. I was that caught up in it. The characters do make references to being caught up in a Doctor Who episode, and that’s pretty appropriate. There are a certain amount of “timey wimey” bits involved. But definitely in a fun way.

I will say that enjoying this story depends on having read the other two. This is the third book of a trilogy, and it assumes prior knowledge. It does wrap up all the loose ends very nicely. Justice is served, and the good guys get their well-deserved happy ending.

If I have piqued your interest in the Silver Maiden Trilogy, here are my reviews of Chasing Silver and Touching Silver so you can get the complete picture.

Touching Silver

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | book reviews

Touching Silver is the second book in the Silver Maiden Trilogy by Jamie Craig. When I finished Chasing Silver, the first book in the trilogy, my review implied that I wanted three things from the next book; I wanted Isaac’s story, I wanted to know more about the Silver Maiden coins, and I wanted more story and less sexual mechanics. I’m pleased to say I pretty much got what I wanted. I love it when that happens.

Touching Silver is definitely Isaac’s story. Isaac McGuire was Nathan Pierce’s partner, back when Nate was a cop with the LAPD. Isaac is still Nate’s partner, except Nate isn’t a cop anymore. And Isaac isn’t willing to let anyone else close enough to become another partner, so Isaac has been working alone ever since. And that’s going on five years since.

But since Remy Capra dropped into Nate’s life, Nate has managed to move on from the betrayal and clusterfuck that took him out of the LAPD. It’s time for Isaac to move on, too.

Enter Detective Olivia Wright from the Cold Case Squad. One of her cold cases has not only warmed up, it’s intersected with Isaac’s long-standing hunt for Gabriel de los Rios.

A young woman, missing for five years, has turned up alive and traumatized. Gabriel de los Rios was one of her captors. Gabriel normally operates in gang territory, where witnesses are thin on the ground, and manpower to investigate is hard to come by. But kidnapping and holding a clean-cut, All-American girl who is still underage after five years in captivity? That charge will stick.

Isaac wants to take the formerly cold case and add it to his own caseload, but Olivia Wright won’t let it go. She wants in on the investigation, and won’t take “no” for any answer, no matter who she has to work with, including a former cop and his girlfriend who looks like a hooker.

But when Olivia finds one of the Silver Maiden coins at a crime scene, her reaction to it has her believing in things that are way, way outside of a cop’s normal jurisdiction. And her attraction to Isaac has her doing things that break all of the rules that she ever set for herself when she became a cop. But some rules are made to be broken, and what you believe in your heart is more important than what used to be cold, hard facts.

Escape Rating B: Touching Silver is a much better book than Chasing Silver. There is more story in it. Isaac and Olivia both have good reasons for not getting deeply involved, and the author shows them struggling with why they shouldn’t, but then groping toward the realization that they are better together than they are apart. Isaac needs to eat a major serving of crow to get there, and it tastes pretty awful going down, as it should!

Remy and Nate take a trip to South America to find the origins of the Silver Maiden. Finally, some background! It’s a little murky, but at the reasonable point. The coins are old, and the origins are somewhat lost in the sands of time. But Gabriel knows how to work them, or thinks he does, which means there is information to be found. If someone in the story knows it, then the reader should get to learn it. We do.

The one thing about trilogies that always bugs me is that there has to be a middle book. Middle books end in one of two ways. They either end on a downer, or a cliffhanger. This one does both. I’m starting the final book, Revealing Silver, right now!

Sleight of Hand

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

Sleight of Hand, the first book in the Stolen Hearts series by Kate Kelly, brought a smile of recognition to my face from the very first page. Not just because Chance Spencer reminds me, just a little, of John Smythe, who drives Vicky Bliss to distraction in Elizabeth Peters’ series. But mostly because I’ve been to the Gardiner Musem. The real one. It’s the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, the theft occurred in 1990, and the crime is still unsolved. The spaces where those 13 paintings used to hang are still empty. The image sticks with you, so updating that crime and using it as the basis for Simple Simon was simply brilliant.

In this story, Chance Spencer’s father was the curator of the Gardiner Museum when a similar crime took place. Chance’s response to his father’s subsequent suicide was to go on a one-man reverse crime spree, stealing the paintings back from the black market collectors who purchased the hot properties. As the infamous art thief “Simple Simon,” Chance robbed the robbers, then dropped the paintings off in FBI offices all over the US. He was notorious, but he never profited from his “talent”. The FBI was certain Chance was the guilty party, but they had no hard evidence. Chance was very careful–until he met Sarah O’Sullivan.

Patrick O’Sullivan was Chance’s business partner. Now Patrick is missing, along with several original pieces of art. Chance is certain that Patrick will contact his daughter, and Chance needs to find Patrick–before the FBI figures out a way to blame him for the crime. Chance knows the FBI would just love to get him for art theft, and as far as the Feds are concerned one art theft is just as good as another if Chance is close enough to it.

So Chance lures Sarah to Ashley Cove, Nova Scotia with the bait that her father has been near that small town. Chance starts out wanting to find his partner to get the FBI off his back before they find out all his secrets. Sarah wants to find her father to warn him that the FBI is after him. Neither of them count on Ashley Cove Art Museum hosting an Ansel Adams traveling art exhibition, or that it houses the collection of some local grand masters.  Add in a visit from Chance’s “favorite” FBI agent, Sarah’s stalker from New York, and even more art thieves, and you have a recipe for more trouble than Ashley Cove has ever seen.

As Chance and Sarah discover that they have only each other to count on, is it any wonder that they are unable to resist their attraction for one another? Even though Chance believes that he can’t possibly be worthy of a woman like Sarah, and in spite of Sarah being sure that Chance is just another rambling man like her father.

Escape Rating B: There were a lot of things about this story that I liked. Chance was looking for redemption, and was afraid to let anyone close until he found it. Sarah was looking for a family, because no one ever stayed with her. The one element I didn’t get was why her dad didn’t make a home with her, even if it meant traveling a lot, since at the end you find out it wasn’t money. There’s a piece of that story missing.

Adapting the story from the real Gardner Museum was cool. It added some deep background. I know that story has been used before, and will be again, but that’s okay. Sometimes the truth really is stranger than fiction.

Chasing Silver

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

Chasing Silver by Jamie Craig is a time travel romance of the very hot and steamy variety. I really liked the gutsy heroine who, as she says, “doesn’t do damsel”, and the hero who hasn’t let himself feel anything in way too long. The device that started the whole time-travelling jaunt in the first place, well, let’s hope there’s more explanation for that in book two (or three) of the Silver Maiden trilogy.

The year is 2085. Remy Capra is running for her life from Kirsten Henryk, Senator Henryk’s daughter and paranoid enforcer. Kirsten does have something to enforce in Remy’s case. Remy is a gang member and small-time thief, and Remy has just stolen something important from the Senator’s house in DC: one of the coins known as a Silver Maiden. In what Remy was sure were the last seconds of her life, Remy clutched the coin as wished for safety.

The year is 2010. Nathan Pierce, ex-cop and bounty hunter, is in a warehouse in Culver City, chasing down a bounty jumper known as Tian. He almost has him, when a severely injured woman falls out of the sky, raining blood, glass and small explosions. His bounty escapes, and Nate is left with Remy Capra bleeding all over him, trying to pretend she isn’t so wounded she can barely stand.

Neither of them wants to go to the cops. Nate’s lost his bounty. Again. Remy has no ID in 2010. She won’t even be born for 50 more years. And she doesn’t know yet whether Kirsten is still after her or whether she has a chance to make a fresh start. Neither of them starts out willing to trust the other, even a little bit. Nate was set up and betrayed by the last woman he trusted. Remy is a child of the gangs in the DC she comes from. And would anyone believe her story? But their attraction to each other proves stronger than their doubts and fears.

When Kirsten does follow Remy, using another Silver Maiden coin as passage back in time, Nate, Remy and Nate’s partner Isaac must set aside all their misgivings about each other and their past, whenever that past might have been, in order to fight for a chance, any chance, at any future at all.

Escape Rating C: This story was either too long, or too short. On the one hand, we don’t get enough about why Kirsten was so gung-ho to wipe Remy out. There was definitely some old, bad blood between those too, but we don’t know enough. There was something personal on Kirsten’s part. Remy was trying to survive.

I empathized with both Remy and Nate as characters. They had both been to dark places, and they understood that about each other. They had a chance to make each other better, but neither was made out of sweetness and light. And they wouldn’t have worked together if they had been.

I’m very glad that one of the later books is Isaac’s story. He deserves a happy ending of his own. And I really want to know what his deal is.

The reason I said the books might be too short is that the legend of the Silver Maiden coins, what they do, why they do it, how they work, who knows about them, is still unclear at the end of the book. Remy and Kirsten both made them work. The coin reacts to Nate. Gabriel, another baddie, knows about them. But the readers need more details!

On the other hand, the reason the books might be too long is that there are probably too many detailed sex scenes. I had to think about why I thought this. Romance is interesting, because it’s a story. How did they meet? How long did they resist the attraction? What made them give in? Unresolved sexual tension is interesting because how and why they resist is a story. The first time a couple kisses or has sex or makes love in a romance is note-worthy. Possibly even the second time, since it should be different. In a story, the first time there are emotions involved and not just body parts is definitely note-worthy. Break-up and make-up sex, but because of the emotions, not the “tab a goes into slot b”, no matter how you dress it up, or undress it.

The only romance writer who has been able to successfully write an unlimited number of sex scenes involving the same two partners is J.D. Robb. And only because she talks more about how Dallas and Roarke feel than about what they do.

Steam & Sorcery

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

When I went looking for something to read purely for fun, I indulged myself by picking up Cindy Spencer Pape’s Steam & Sorcery. My journey through the steampunk world of Pape’s Gaslight Chronicles was utterly fantastic. And eminently enjoyable!

Sir Merrick Hadrian is a Knight of the Order of the Round Table. Except in this alternate version of the Victorian Era, the descendants of King Arthur and his knights hunt monsters using not just swords, and now pistols, but also arcane talents. Merlin’s descendants serve the order as well as Gawain’s and Lancelot’s.

One night, Sir Merrick is in the London stews facing more vampyres than he counted on and finds that his only available allies are a group of street urchins–led by a teenage boy with all the talents of a budding Knight. After the battle, he brings all five children into his bachelor household only to discover that all of the children are uniquely talented: not just the unclaimed Knight, but also a mechanical genius, a highly powered medium, one who can see the future, and one who is simply a genius.

Sir Merrick and his Aunt Dorothy, who shares his household, need a governess for the children. Enter Miss Caroline Bristol. Caroline is intelligent, pretty, opinionated and out of a job without a reference. Again. After having vigorously defended herself from yet another employer’s rather importunate advances and being turned out.

Dorothy is certain that Caroline is the perfect governess for the unruly brood. Caroline is less than convinced. She has a secret of her own. Anything mechanical breaks when she touches it, including her new charge Wink’s fantastic mechanical inventions. Caroline’s other secret–she finds her new employer, Sir Merrick Hadrian, positively irresistible.

Meanwhile, there are vampyres infiltrating London high society. They have banded together in order to get their claws on a formula that will finally allow them to blend in with mortals, at least at night. And they seem to have a spy somewhere in the Knights organization!

As Merrick and Caroline try and fail to resist their increasing attraction to one another, Merrick must also figure out who among the Knights has been suborned to the vampyre cause, all while adjusting to the utter disruption of his formerly placid bachelor life. The game is afoot!

Escape Rating A: I stayed up until after 1 am reading this, finished, and then I was sorry it was over. I looked at the time, decided “oh, what the heck” and read Photographs & Phantoms before I went to sleep. I hope the author returns to this world. I’d like to see Tommy’s story and Wink’s. There were hints that those might be interesting!

Meanwhile, Steam & Sorcery was an absolute hoot! I loved Merrick’s adjustment from having a bachelor household to having a family. His failure to resist was portrayed with a lot of gentle humor. You know he’s going to succumb, but it’s still fun to watch. The tutor either had a bit too much of a stick up his arse or he had a bit too much of a conversion by the end, I’m not quite sure which.

The romance between Merrick and Caroline was terrific. Neither wants to get involved, but they are the right people for each other, and it’s very clear in the story. It’s easy to root for them to get their happy ending.

Lord of the Wolfyn

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

Lord of the Wolfyn by Jessica Andersen is an interesting twist on the old Red Riding Hood story. It is also the third book in the Royal House of Shadows series. The fourth and final book, Lord of the Abyss by Nalini Singh, will be out in November.

Dayn was the second prince of Elden.  The Crown Prince Nicolai’s story was told in Lord of the Vampires (reviewed here). When the Blood Sorcerer attacked, Dayn was outside the castle with a hunting party. Not just because hunting dangerous beasts who roamed near the castle was part of his duties, but because he was angry with the King and Queen, his parents, for telling him he had to marry a princess instead of the continuing to dally with whomever he pleased. Their argument was the last time they ever spoke before their deaths at the hands of the Blood Sorcerer.

Their final spell saved his life, as it did the lives of his siblings. His father’s spell for revenge, and his mother’s spell for him to survive. Their spell created a vortex and bound his life with the wolfyn he was chasing at the time of their deaths. It transported him to the realm of the wolfyn and gave him the power to transform into one of the powerful werebeasts. But Dayn was also vampire, like his brother and father, and the wolfyn realms hated and feared with vampires. Dayn spent the next 20 years pretending to have “vortex sickness,” hiding all his gifts from the wolfyn he lived among by pretending to be only a human traveler with a small amount of magic.

Dreams and visions told him that he would be visited by a guide when the vortex began opening again. He waited 20 years for that guide, never expecting a woman from Earth with no belief in magic or vortex travel would be the one supposed to guide him back to his kingdom, or back to his true self.

Reda Weston has been haunted by the tale of Red Riding Hood since she was a little girl. Not the Disney version, but a very special version, from a “one-of-a-kind” illustrated edition of the story that her mother used to read to her. In Rutakoppchen, the wolf seduces Red first, then he enslaves her, then he plays with her until he gets bored, and then, and only then, does he finally eat her all up. Her mother told her this as a bedtime story?

But Reda’s father made her sell the book after her mother’s death, and now Reda is compelled to get it back. She’s been dreaming about the Woodsman, and those dreams are the only part of her life that feels real anymore. Reda used to be a cop. But one night she froze when her partner got caught up in a convenience store robbery that went bad, and Reba isn’t a cop anymore.

Finding Rutakoppchen again does more than bring back childhood memories. It opens a door for Reba. It opens a vortex–straight through to Dayn. And the wolfyn.

At first Reba thinks she’s having a really vivid dream. She’s dreamed of Dayn before, and those dreams have always been really good. And really hot. But never in her dreams has the Woodsman turned out to be a vampire. Nor have predatory trees tried to make the ground swallow her alive.

This is Reba’s journey as much, or more, than it is Dayn’s. She needs to find her cop’s courage again so that she can be the guide that he needs in order to help re-take his kingdom. And Dayn needs to find his true self and true purpose in order to be the mate that Reba deserves.

Escape Rating C+: I liked the twist on Red Riding Hood. Dayn turns out to be both the Woodsman and the Wolf. Literally and not just figuratively. Reba comes a long way in picking herself up and taking charge of her own fate. Coming through the vortex lets her grab the missing pieces of herself. It’s clear she’s been letting other people tell her who she’s supposed to be for way too long, and it’s great to see her realize that.

While I enjoyed the parts with Dayn and Reba, even though I wished that Dayn wouldn’t have kept so many secrets from so many people for so damn long, the issue with series like Royal House of Shadows is that chunks of the same story have to be told each time, just from different points of view. The first time it’s new, the second time it’s not so bad (sister Breena’s tale was Lord of Rage—see review here), but by the third time around, it’s too much. I’m more than ready for the conclusion. It’s time for that dark sorcerer to DIE!

 

Dearly, Departed

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

Dearly, Departed by Lia Habel is an excellent read. It’s also absolutely the best YA post-holocaust steampunk zombie romance I’ve ever read. Admittedly, it’s also the only YA post-holocaust steampunk zombie romance I’ve ever read.

Nora Dearly is the daughter of the late Dr. Victor Dearly. As in Dr. Victor Dearly, the recently departed. The title of the book is a pun. Oh is it ever.

Miss Dearly’s world is that of the Neo-Victorians. You see, we screwed up. Climate change happened, and it sucked. The survivors ended up in our equatorial regions, and they were the hardiest of the survivors. They deliberately looked back in history for an era of peace, stability and civilization. What did they choose? The Victorian Era! Even as they recovered our technology, and even surpassed it, their society became further entrenched in the cultural and societal norms of the Victorian Age.  So by Miss Dearly’s time, we have airships, steampower, electric power, digital diaries, parasols, crinoline, and corsetry. In other words, we have steampunk.

The Neo-Victorians are at war with the Punks. The two sides have somewhat different views of how technology should and should not be used. And everybody wants everyone else’s territory. War is like that. But there’s a much bigger, badder threat from the outside, and both the NVs and the Punks are using the war against each other as a smokescreen to cover up who they are really fighting. They’re really fighting–zombies.

There’s a mutated disease out there in the wilds. It’s called “The Laz”. That’s a bit of appropriately gallows humor, as Lazarus was a man raised from the dead. Well, the Laz does that too, sort of. Victims of the Laz may or may not be as functional as the biblical Lazarus when they come back.

Nora’s father, Dr. Victor Dearly, figured out a way to keep victims of the Laz mentally functional and as physically capable as possible for as long as possible. For that, he became Director of Military Health of the Department of Military Health. It’s usually referred to as DoMH, pronounced “Doom”.

With the aid of Dr. Dearly’s research, there are now zombie troops fighting zombie incursions. In secret, of course. Nora knows none of this. All she knows is that her father is the only one who treats her like an intelligent human being, instead of a decoration, which is what girls are supposed to be. Then he dies and leaves her an orphan in the care of a cold-hearted Aunt.

Then the zombies come to New London. Opposing forces converging on Nora Dearly. One set to protect her, one to capture her. Nora finds herself whisked away from her home to the base for the NV Zombie unit in the care of Captain Bram Griswold, and her entire universe falls apart and reassembles itself, much like the human body does when it is attacked by the Laz disease.

It should be the end of the world as Nora knows it. A proper Neo-Victorian young lady should fall apart. But Nora is done falling apart. The new Nora kicks aside convention and kicks some serious ass. I like her a lot.

Escape Rating A: This turned out to be a great book. There was a tremendous amount going on, but all the elements were needed to make it work. I couldn’t figure out how anyone could make a zombie the hero/love interest, but it honestly does work in this book. On the other hand, if this were a contemporary book, and Nora actually wanted to have sex, I’m not sure how that would be managed. But since it is totally realistic for her not to even think of going there, it works. Nora wants someone to treat her like a real person and not a decorative object. Bram completely does that. This is about emotion, not body parts.

I’m looking forward to the next book, Dearly Beloved. I can’t wait to see where the story goes from here. I hope there’s a cure. I want Bram and Nora to have a happy ever after. That’s not realistic, but I want it for them just the same. Call me an optimist. Or call me a romantic.

Jingle Hells

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

If Lucifer is capable of true love, is he really such a bad guy? Misty Evans’ Witches Anonymous series keeps teasing me with that question.  Jingle Hells is the second book in the series, and I’m having even more fun following Amy Atwood’s adventures in the town of Eden, as she tries to resist Luc’s charms and stay true to her vow of “no more magic”.

Amy’s boyfriend, Adam the actual first man, is off on a trip to the Middle East to find the location of the Garden of Eden. Amy is lonely for Christmas, and her ex, that old devil Lucifer himself, would just love to worm his way back into Amy’s bed, and into her heart. The fact that Luc really is thinking about Amy’s heart makes me think that Luc isn’t such a bad guy after all, which is a very strange thing to say about Satan. Even romantically speaking.

But while Adam is out of town, Amy has a whole bunch of otherworldly visitors–also of biblical origins. For a girl who has already sold her soul to the Devil, Amy is suddenly receiving an awful lot of signs from the godly side of the street. First both Samson and Delilah burst into her ice cream shop wanting her to solve their millenia-old lover’s squabble. Then two bands of angels arrive, one from above, one from below. And get this, it’s the so-called “good” guys who want to keep Samson and Dee apart! And then there’s this cat…and Luc arranges for a delivery of the Bible, with instructions for Amy to read Genesis, just before Adam returns from his trip.

If you read the last book, you might remember that Amy’s sister Emilia started everything by getting luring Luc into her bed. Well, she’s back. And it’s all her fault.

Java Brownie Chip ice cream is the cure-all for breaking up with your boyfriend. There’s a liberal application of it required in this story.

Escape Rating B: This is fun stuff. I like Amy. She’s someone I’d want to have coffee with. Or better yet, some of that ice cream of hers. There was less of her Witches Anonymous group in this story, which was too bad, because some of them are hilarious, but more clarity about the folks in Amy’s personal life. I liked the backstory on how Amy met Luc, and where Keisha (her partner/coworker) fits into things. Adam’s role was much clearer.

Gabe, AKA Gabriel the manipulative Archangel, made a cameo appearance. He will clearly be back as the man/angel of mystery.

Emilia got off just a little too easy. She needs to feel some serious guilt and remorse for the mess she caused. I hope that comes in the next book, but right now, Emilia’s story feels a tad unfinished to me.

I like Luc more everytime he shows up. Which goes back to my original question. If the devil feels true love, how bad can he really be? Just bad enough to be really, really good?

 

A Vampire for Christmas

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

Who would have thought that a vampire might be a good thing to find in your Christmas stocking? Or even better, helping you out of your Christmas stockings! In the new anthology, A Vampire for Christmas, with novellas from Laurie London, Michele Hauf, Caridad Piñeiro and Alexia Morgan, sometimes a vampire is just what a girl wants Santa to bring her for the holidays.

Like all collections, the stories vary in appeal.

Laurie London’s “Enchanted by Blood” is for those who prefer their vamps to come complete with political machinations. Trace Westfalen has already given up his human lover Charlotte Grant once. And wiped her memories. All in the service of preserving the secret that vampires live among us. And in the interests of preserving his possible seat on the ruling council. Not to mention the secret of his nasty cousin’s even nastier habits. However, when he finds Charlotte in trouble, he can’t resist coming to her rescue. When he sticks around long enough to let her fall in love with him again in spite of her memory wipe (he never fell out) their troubles begin all over again. Will Trace decide that love is worth the cost?

Caridad Piñeiro’s entry, “When Herald Angels Sing”, is a Christmas redemption story with a twist. A guardian angel’s assignment is to redeem the soul of a vampire. Little does she know that the vampire’s task is to redeem her heart.

On the other hand, “All I Want for Christmas”, by Alexis Morgan, has a very pronounced urban fantasy flavor. Everyone who frequents Della’s Diner, from the fry cook to the customers to the punks who try to rip her off, seems to be some sort of supernatural creature. Including the cop investigating drugs and disappearances and finding himself wanting to sink his fangs into purely human Della.

My favorite story of the bunch was Michele Hauf’s “Monsters Don’t Do Christmas” for its terrific characters and very unusual take on who is and who isn’t a real monster. Daniel Harrison is a vampire, but he’s not the real monster of the story. The real monster is a purely mortal woman, who just so happens to be a superstar. I loved this story.

Escape Rating B: Collections are always mixed. Some of the stories work for me, and some don’t. But that’s the point, you discover someone or something new. For me it was Hauf’s story. Her take, that the superstar machine creates a person who feels more of a monster than an actual monster, made the entire book.

Witches Anonymous

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

Witches Anonymous, by Misty Evans, is almost as deliciously tempting as the Dove chocolate square that the main character keeps promising herself if she manages to resist all of the other temptations that keep getting thrown her way. Poor Amy, most of us find Dove chocolate difficult enough to resist!

Amy Atwood is the witch in Witches Anonymous, and we meet her as she is about to attend her first meeting of the self-help group. Yes, WA is modeled on AA, complete with 12-step program. Amy used to be perfectly okay with being a real, honest-to-badness witch–up until she caught Lucifer with his devilish hands (and other body parts) all over her sister Emilia.

Until Amy caught them in the act, Emilia had always been the “good” witch, and Amy had always been the “bad” witch. Now the tables are turned. Emilia has turned to the dark side, and Amy has sworn off cursing and hexing and all spell casting. Because as everyone knows, one spell leads to another, and once you start down that slippery slope, it leads right back to having Lucifer in her bed, and Amy is through with him. If he wants Emilia, he can have Emilia. He only gets one sister. Period.

But at her first WA meeting, Amy meets Adam on her way in. Adam, tattooed, Harley-riding, Adam, looks like more than enough “bad boy” to keep Amy happy, even if he is only human.

But nothing is quite as simple as it seems. Adam really is Adam. As in Adam and Eve. That Adam. And the Archangel Gabriel has arranged for him to re-enact that original temptation, with Amy cast in the role of Eve. Gabe is hoping that Adam will resist this time, and that Gabe will get to play God in Eden, the revised edition. But Lucifer has other plans. You see, he really is in love with Amy, and he wants her back. Bad. But can a devil who truly loves actually be all bad?

And Amy’s formerly goodie-two-shoes sister? She really is kind of a demon.

Escape Rating B-: Oooh this was fun! Witches Anonymous is mind candy of the purest form. Which is a really good thing. I giggled all through dinner reading it. This is a “put your ereader in a baggie and read in the bathtub” book. I liked Amy a lot. She’s a fun character. I got less of a handle on Adam, or Luc. I was never quite sure how much Adam, the Harley-riding firefighter, knew about his role as Adam, the first man and possible resetter of the cosmic balance.

But I loved that Gabriel, the angel, was actually the bad guy and Lucifer was actually the good guy. Very cool.