Tag: vampires

In My Mailbox #5

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | In My Mailbox

If you remember the photos from last week’s In My Mailbox post you’ll understand why I tried to restrain myself this week.

I didn’t completely succeed. Hopefully someone will give me an “E for Effort”?

I subscribe to a few (several) newsletters about forthcoming books and the book trade. Shelf Awareness, Early Word and Publishers Weekly all cover books, bookselling, and publishing, but from different angles. Shelf Awareness is slanted a bit towards Indie Publishing, Early Word is aimed a bit a libraries, and Publishers Weekly, well, what they cover is pretty clear from their name!

Their email newsletters also offer contests for Advance Reading Copies in their sidebars. Every so often, I win one.

I won a print ARC of A Simple Murder by Eleanor Kuhns from one of the above. It’s a historical mystery set in a Shaker village in 1796. So neat setting, interesting premise. This book won an award from the Mystery Writers of America for the Best First Crime Novel. So it might be good. And the author is a librarian. Of course I’m interested!

 

Book Lovers Inc. sent me a request I couldn’t resist. I confess I didn’t read Kim Newman’s Anno Dracula when it came out. It’s just my kind of book, too. Alternate history with vampires! But it never quite made it to the top of the towering TBR pile. Kim Newman is re-issuing the sequel, The Bloody Red Baron, and asked BLI for a review. When the request was passed to me, I said I would, if I could get copies of both Red Baron and Anno Dracula. I got.

The only problem with alternate history is that doing it justice usually takes a lot of pages. Those two books are not short books. Either one. Oy!

The other night I was looking for something light and fun to read. So instead of wading through my TBR piles, I bought myself a treat-a copy of Stacey Kennedy’s Supernaturally Kissed. All the reviews I’ve read said it would be just the ticket. The next day I joined Stacey Kennedy’s Street Team and because I couldn’t resist the temptation to get a review copy of the next book in the series, Demonically Tempted.

I’m a tour host for Goddess Fish Tours, and I asked for review copies of books for two tours I’m hosting in May and June. Seized, an urban fantasy by Lynne Cantwell, and Dark Inheritance: Fallen Empire, a Regency romance/alternate history by K. Reed

 

Finally, I admit it, I gave in and bought Fifty Shades of Grey. I listened to myself dissing a book I’d never read and realized that I wasn’t being fair. I needed to either shut up, or read the book. I read the book. Now I have dissing rights. Which doesn’t mean I’m going to totally use them. You’ll see.

 

 

 

On My Wishlist #2

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

 

On My Wishlist is a fun weekly event hosted by Book Chick City and runs every Saturday. It’s where I list all the books I desperately want but haven’t actually bought yet. They can be old, new or forthcoming. If you want to know more click here.

So what’s on my wishlist this week?

Sherlock Holmes is back, and he’s being chased by two assassins. Surely I’m not serious.

I try very hard not to be serious too often, and Shirley is my mother.

Sherlock Holmes and the Swedish Enigma
Barry Grant
April 1, 2012
Severn House
Mystery
Before the BBC brought us a 21st Sherlock Holmes in the form of Benedict Cumberbatch, Barry Grant tried a totally different approach in The Strange Return of Sherlock Holmes. He postulated that Holmes fast-froze when he fell over Reichenbach Falls, only to be medically thawed in the 21st century, and brought back to rather astonished and astonishing life in the present day. Strange Return, and the second book in the series, Sherlock Holmes and the Shakespeare Letter, were actually quite good. The latest in the series, Sherlock Holmes and the Swedish Enigma, comes out in April. I’m curious to see if the author can keep this thing going.

I’ve just realized something. This Holmes has a Watson, of course. His name is James Wilson. Just like in the TV series House. And Gregory House is a modern-day Holmes, brilliance, irascibility, addictions and all. The homage is homaged.

The Outcast Blade
Jon Courtenay Grimwood
March 26, 2012
Little, Brown
Alternate History, Fantasy

Last year I read (and recommended) a brilliant sad, mysterious alternate history version of Venice with assassins, vampires, witches and werewolves controlling courtly politics and performing deadly deeds in the dark of night. Serenissima, the city of Venice, was every bit as much of a character in The Fallen Blade as any of the human or supernatural characters who walked her streets. The second act of The Assassini has finally appeared. I want to sink my teeth into The Outcast Blade and savor every page.

Broken Blade
Kelly McCullough
November 1, 2011
Penguin
Dark Fantasy

Speaking of blades, I just read a terrific review of Kelly McCullough’s Broken Blade over at Flames Rising. I loved her WebMage series, but this is her first fantasy noir. Let me say again, I really loved her WebMage series, which mixes cyberpunk with urban fantasy with more than a touch of mythology. If any of that appeals, WebMage is the first book. But Broken Blade with its assassin-hero looks much more like dark fantasy or sword and sorcery. Both of which I like to begin with. And I like McCullough’s style. Sounds like a winning combination to me.

 

Hunter’s Prey

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | book reviews

Hunter’s Prey (Bloodhounds, Book 2) by Moira Rogers has all the ingredients to cook up a terrific wild-west romp. Take one former hooker with the requisite heart of gold. Add one former spoiled party-boy who got caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, and feels like he’s been turned into “Beast” from Beauty and the Beast.

Then again, sometimes Hunter literally does turn into a Beast. A Bloodhound, that is.

The Bloodhounds, and the steampunk-flavored post-Civil War alternate Wild West they prowl, were introduced in Wilder’s Mate, book 1 of this series. Not only do a lot of the characters from Wilder’s Mate reappear in Hunter’s Prey, but the first story provides a chunk of useful information about Bloodhounds and their world.

Not to mention, it’s a darn good book!  (See reviews at Fiction Vixen, Book Lovers Inc, Smexy Books, and of course, Reading Reality)

Hunter’s Prey takes up where Wilder’s Mate left off. Hunter was rescued by Wilder, found in a cage in a vampire’s lair. Hunter was changed against his will, and not made by the mysterious Guild.

The story is all about Hunter’s first month of freedom as a bloodhound. Whether he can accept himself as he is now, and not as the man he used to be.

Bloodhounds are ruled by the moon. During the full moon they crave violence. Hunter had no problems dealing with that urge. A camp of 50 or so vampires near the Deadlands border made for easy pickings.

But it’s the insatiable sexual hungers of his Bloodhound nature that Hunter isn’t certain how to handle. Bloodhounds fall prey to three days of mindless lust during the dark of the new moon. Hunter is afraid to inflict the violence of his new nature on any woman, even the prostitutes who make very good money from the Bloodhound Guild every month. They volunteer for this service. The Bloodhounds need to satisfy their lovers, and they are damn good at it.

Even in the short time Hunter has been free, he’s already become attached to a woman, and he didn’t intend to.

Hunter’s Prey isn’t just Hunter’s story, it’s also Ophelia’s story. Ophelia runs the Guildhouse in Iron Creek. She keeps all the Bloodhounds fed, sees to any guests, hires and fires the help. She keeps the pantry stocked. And she listens to everyone’s troubles. Ophelia used to run a bordello. Except for the nature of the business, running a Guildhouse isn’t much different. She’s tired of managing other people’s houses and other people’s lives. Ophelia wants a place of her own.

But Hunter is just the kind of trouble that draws her in. Ophelia knows she shouldn’t get involved with him. Not because he’s a Bloodhound, but because he isn’t ready to accept that his dreams of a respectable life are over. Bloodhounds aren’t respectable, they are violence incarnate.

However rationally Ophelia decides that she shouldn’t be involved with Hunter, fate has other plans. So do a whole bunch of ghouls and a vampire drug lord.

With the deck stacked so high against them, will Hunter and Ophelia survive long enough to find out that they belong together?

Escape Rating B: Even though Hunter is the title character, Ophelia is the person who really made the story work for me. I could understand completely why she felt the way she did, both about running the house, and why she was thinking of leaving.

And I could definitely see her misgivings about a relationship with Hunter. Until he accepts who he is now, there’s no future. He has to stop looking backward at who he was, and accept himself for who he is now, however that came about. I do love watching a relationship build; the chase should be every bit as much fun to watch as the catch. This was scorching.

I did find myself going back to see where the villain went. The ending was fast and furious, but we didn’t see a whole lot of the bad guy before the take down. On the other hand, I did like the hints that the Guild is going to feature more in later books. They are infernally and internally mysterious. I want to know more about them, so I’m looking forward to that!

 

Ebook Review Central, Amber Quill, Astraea Press, Liquid Silver Books, Riptide Publishing, January 2012

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Ebook Review Central> ebooks in libraries

And another month ends here at Ebook Review Central. As I searched for reviews for the January titles from Amber Quill, Astraea Press, Liquid Silver Books, and Riptide Publishing, I had a few moments where I feared that January was going to be going out with more of a whimper than a bang.

No wait, it’s March that does the in like a lion, out like a lamb thing.

The issue is that I have good news, and I very nearly had bad news.

The good news was that this list came closer than ever to 100% of the titles getting reviewed. Only two books out of all the lists were missed, and they were from different publishers. This is excellent and is a testament to the hard work that the review coordinators are doing.

On my now infamous other hand, until nearly the end of my search, I was afraid that the reviewers were still sleeping off their holiday excesses well into January. Almost every title received a review, but, and you knew that but was coming, almost every title received just that, a, meaning one, review. Occasionally two.

That doesn’t give me enough to pick a feature on.

Just as I was reaching the end of the lists, the featured books practically jumped out at me.    These three titles not only had more than just one or two reviews, they each had several very enthusiastic reviews!

The other interesting thing about this set of featured titles is that they are all male/male romances. Because this group of publishers has titles all over the romance spectrum, I never know what types of romance will capture reviewers’ attention in any month. This month, it was all m/m romance.

The first two featured titles are both from Amber Quill’s Amber Allure imprint, and from their Hot College Daze series.

The title that generated the most reviewing heat is Tailor Made by Josephine Myles. This is a story about how a good man can make a bad boy change for the better, and not just when it comes to love and sex and sleeping around. College is about growing up, and the two young men in this story start out as complete opposites, but by the end, grow towards each other, in spite of their differences. One reviewer summed it up by saying “this story just left me smiling when I finished it”.

Number two on the hit parade is Lou Harper’s Academic Pursuits. Academic Pursuits is slightly different. It’s told from the first-person perspective, and reads like someone’s diary, or as if someone is telling you a dirty story from their college days. And it’s pretty naughty story about a very charming guy who likes to chase, and seduce, supposedly straight guys. Life is working really well for him in college until someone new starts chasing him. Reviewers mostly found this book amusing, but opinions divided depending on whether or not the reviewer liked the main character.

Riptide Publishing, with only two books in January, still managed to get one into the featured books this month. Rhi Etzweiler’s Blacker than Black ghosted into the number three slot with this paranormal tale of vampires who feed off the life energy of other beings. Black and Jhez are Nightwalkers; they turn tricks in order to bring fresh victims for the vamps, and in return, they get to live. Until one vamp wants them to spy on his own kind. Then the vamps start dying, and all hell breaks loose. Well, looser than it already was.  Energy vampires in an urban fantasy setting. No wonder the reviewers thought this was cool. It just plain sounds cool.

That’s a wrap on another edition of Ebook Review Central. We’ll be back next week with the first February ERC. We’ll see what Carina Press published in February 2012, and what the reviewers had to say about it.

Merrick’s Destiny

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

Merrick’s Destiny (exclusively available at All Romance Ebooks) by Moira Rogers is book 1.5 in her Bloodhounds series. It’s a very short and extremely steamy story that takes place between Wilder’s Mate and Hunter’s Prey. It stands alone well enough to serve as an introduction to this series, but it works even better if you’ve already read Wilder’s Mate!

Merrick Wood returns to consciousness in either the best of all possible worlds, or the worst. There’s a pretty woman straddling him, and he knows she’s his mate. On the other hand, there’s a crashed airship on fire about a hundred yards away.

That blazing inferno will act like a beacon to vampires for miles around. And there are plenty of vamps, since the ship crashed in the middle of the Deadlands. Merrick just has to get himself and his mate to safety before the new moon compulsion drives him out of his mind for three days.

Of course, if the lady is willing, it could be a very enjoyable three days–if the vampires don’t find them first.

Paralee Colton is an airship pilot. She’s always loved her freedom more than anything else in the world. Merrick just might make her rethink a few things if he can convince her that he wants her for herself, and not just a convenient female to spend his moon madness with.

Merrick needs to remember how or when or why she became his mate. Then he needs to convince her that she’s his destiny.

Escape Rating A-: This is a very fun, hot, short read. That being said, for a short story, it really does wrap up all the loose ends. One of the things that usually drives me crazy about short stories is that either the loose ends aren’t all tied up, or that I don’t find out enough backstory to understand how things got the way they are. Rogers ties everything up very well, and because this is book 1.5 in the series, it builds on some material established in Wilder’s Mate.

I picked Merrick’s Destiny initially because the cover absolutely floored me. The model, whoever it is, is dead-ringer for Jonathan Frakes from his days as Commander Riker in Star Trek Next Gen. The picture at the right is from the movie Generations, and the Enterprise-D is about to crash into a planet. But the resemblance to Merrick is startling to say the least.

Wilder’s Mate

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

Wilder’s Mate by Moira Rogers turned out to be the perfect story for reading on a chilly winter’s night. Not only is this first entry in Rogers’ Bloodhound series a terrific blend of romance, steampunk, and steamy sex, but the hero is even described as having a higher than normal body temperature!

But the story of Wilder’s Mate starts with the “mate” in question. Her name is Satira, and she’s the apprentice to a Guild inventor named Nathaniel. The only problem is that Nathaniel’s just been kidnapped. Satira wants to assist whichever Bloodhound the Guild sends to recover him. One tiny detail: she’s trapped in the elevator.

Nathaniel’s inventions, including the steam-powered elevator that was currently vexing Satira, were the reason he was kidnapped by the vampires inexorably taking control of the very wild West in this steampunk version of the post-Civil War United States.

The vampires represent the lawless, and the Guild represents the law. In order to combat the powerful vamps the Guild has created a weapon of their own, creatures known as Bloodhounds. The Hounds used to be mere men, but alchemy has transformed them into powerful beings that can hunt and kill vampires with terrible speed, as well as claws and fangs. Bloodhounds are werewolves, the traditional enemy of the vampire.

These Hounds have a weakness. Not the traditional one. They don’t change into wolves at the full moon. They change into wolves at will. But at the new moon, they must have sex. A lot of it. For three days and nights. The Guild pays a network of brothels to be available for the Bloodhounds, and they pay well for the service.

The Bloodhounds also have a secret. Like wolves, they mate for life. If a Hound finds his mate, he has to protect her at all costs. If she dies, he follows within months. The alchemy that created the Hounds was not intended to pull this particular rabbit out of its hat, but there is no denying the fact that it has. The Guild doesn’t want the Hounds to find their mates, but when it happens, there’s nothing they can do.

Satira knows a lot about Hounds. Her mother lived with an old Bloodhound named Levi for about a dozen years. Levi helped to raise Satira, and Levi found her the place with Nathaniel before he died. Satira never knew that her mother was Levi’s mate. Her mother probably didn’t know either. But when her mother died, so did Levi.

Satira also enjoys the heat, the adventure, the roughness of sex with a Hound. She just doesn’t understand why none of the Hounds who have ever shared her bed have never come back. She thinks there’s something wrong with her.

But the Hound who pulls her out of that busted elevator knows exactly why none of those other Hounds have ever stayed, because it’s taking every ounce of restraint he has not to take her the moment he sees her. And Wilder Harding isn’t ready to do that until Satira understands exactly what’s at stake for both of them.

Because Satira is his mate.

Escape Rating A-: Wilder’s Mate is one of those stories where you just buckle up and hang on for the ride. This was an absolute blast from beginning to end. The story is very, very steamy, but there is a story and there is a romance and a happily-ever-after.

The story elements reminded me of several bits I’ve read before, but since those were all things I’ve liked, I didn’t mind. Satira’s situation is similar to Jaines Cord in Shona Husk’s Dark Vow, the woman apprentice to a steampunk-type gunsmith because women aren’t allowed to be master gunsmiths. The Bloodhounds mating-for-life compulsion being an unexpected side-effect of their change has some eerie similarities to the Breeds in Lora Leigh’s series. But it definitely works in both series!

For a short book, Wilder’s Mate wrapped all its loose ends very nicely. Great story and fantastic beginning to a series. I’m definitely looking forward to more!

Stainless

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

Stainless by Todd Grimson has the subtitle “A Modern Romance.” I’m not sure I’d call it a romance. I would definitely call it a tale of obsessions. Both obsessive love and obsessive hate played a role in this story. And compulsion. I certainly felt compelled to finish once I’d started.

Human beings have found a surprising number of addictive substances to cure their addictions. Morphine was once thought to cure alcoholism. It was a case where the cure was just as bad as the original disease, since it replaced one addiction for another.

Stainless opens with Keith, a former junkie, describing how he was cured of his heroin addiction. A vampire bit him. Justine needed a human to take care of her house during the day, to drive her around looking for people to bite at night. In other words, Justine needed a Renfield. She picked Keith because he clearly had nothing to lose. Vampire bites are addictive, but it’s a much more functional addiction than heroin, at least if the vampire chooses it to be. It can also, of course, also be fatal.

Keith used to be lead guitar player for a hot rock bank, SMX. But just because the named sounds like “smacks” doesn’t mean he actually used to do smack. The drugs came later, after his girlfriend killed herself and her other boyfriend decided it was Keith’s fault. So he sent his goons over to break Keith’s hands. Without his music, Keith finally did descend into the drugs that everyone thought he’d been doing all along. And that’s where Justine found him. Doped up, strung out, and on the edge of suicide.

She saved him because she needed a pretty “Renfield” who wouldn’t give any more of a damn about life or death than she did. After 400 years as a vampire, Justine was nearly as strung out as Keith. But her survival instinct was a bit stronger. Being an apex predator will do that. And Justine has managed to forget a whole lot more than she remembers of her 400 years of “living.” It makes things easier.

But because Keith doesn’t care whether he lives or dies, he doesn’t pass judgements on Justine’s behavior. Slowly, these two extremely wounded creatures build a shaky bridge towards each other, based on mutual need. They need each other to have a reason to go on living. People have found love in stranger places.

Love makes everyone vulnerable. Even vampires.

And there’s a new vampire in town. Someone from Justine’s past. Who is so, so very good at exploiting vulnerabilities. Human vulnerabilities and vampire vulnerabilities. And he’s been waiting years to strike back at the vamp who made him. His time has come.

Escape Rating C+: I got sucked into this book. Pun both intended and not. The story started out slow, but once it picked up steam, I couldn’t let it go, or it didn’t let me go. The ending was inevitable, but it was the right, true and correct ending. Some stories are like that, there’s just no other way for them to go.

Stainless had to be set in LA, because the Hollywood movie myths played a part in the story. The evil vamp’s history in the shady background of Hollywood was definitely integral to the plot. But I also kept thinking that the whole “live fast, die young, leave a beautiful corpse” concept served as a kind of meta-background in my head as I read.

As interesting as all the obsessions were, there were just a few too many points of view. Not just the action, but the actual point of view kept switching from Keith to Justine to David (the bad vampire) to different members of his minions, to the doctor who wants to use Justine’s “blood” as a healing agent, and around and around. It was too easy to get lost among the shifting POVs.

And speaking of David…the bad vamp was not just born during the Hollywood of the 1920s, he was over-the-top melodramatic like a Hollywood set from the 1920s. Or at least he was to my tastes. Yours may vary.

For more of my thoughts on Stainless, head on over to Book Lovers Inc.

 

What’s on my (mostly virtual) nightstand? 1-15-12

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Virtual Nightstand

Martin Luther King Day is tomorrow. No mail. No school. It’s a day off for a lot of people. But I’ll be working, Galen will be working. There’s no rest for the wicked, as my mom usually says to me. (And I fully recognize the implication!)

Mid-January in this library household means one other thing–the impending doom of the American Library Association Midwinter Conference. January 20-24, this year in Dallas, Texas. At least it might be warm? (2010 was in Denver, 2013 will be in Philadelphia, this point is very much NOT moot.)

ALA Midwinter is a major household disruption. We bring out suitcases. The cats hate suitcases. The suitcases take their people away! They might have to train new staff. This is very bad.

But the conference represents major headaches all the way around. In June in New Orleans, our hotel did not have connectivity in the rooms, so I only posted once, using Galen’s iPhone as my net connection. Not fun. This conference, I admit I’m going to queue up as much as I can, just in case connectivity is a tad “iffy”.

On the one hand, plane rides are still a terrific opportunity for reading. Not to mention that lovely extra two-hour wait ahead of the flight for “security”. On the other hand, ALA conferences are a sea of Advance Reading Copies, unfortunately all print. What’s a girl to do?

I have four books to read on the airplane on my way to and from Dallas, because these are scheduled for release January 24. Except I really only have three.

Heiress Without a Cause by Sara Ramsey popped up on NetGalley as a historical romance debut that just sounded interesting. According to the blurb copy, it was selected by Barnes & Noble for an exclusive release on the NOOK beginning Jan. 23rd.

The Stubborn Dead by Natasha Hoar was featured in January 2012 print issue of RT Book Reviews as one of the five debut authors not to miss in 2012. So I couldn’t resist picking up first book, about a “rescue medium” when it appeared on NetGalley. Whether this is urban fantasy or paranormal romance or a combination, it looks like a terrific start for this new author.

Daughter of the Centaurs by Kate Klimo is the first book of the Centauriad. It’s YA and it’s something I pulled from NetGalley when I was researching YA genre lit for a table talk I did for the South Carolina Collection Development mini-conference. Since this is definitely fantasy, I’m going to give it a try.

Banshee Charmer by Tiffany Allee is the last book on my calendar for January 24. I had downloaded it from NetGalley because I liked the premise, an urban fantasy about a half-banshee detective solving a serial killer murder. Sounded cool. Then Book Lovers Inc asked me to review it for them. Cool beans, I already had it.  I’ve read it, loved it, and written both reviews already, one for my blog and one for BLI. Done and dusted. I just can’t queue anything up here until the BLI review is posted.

And now for putting the cap back on the old recap.

My review of Nick Marsh’s Soul Purpose is already scheduled to post on Tuesday. I’ll get to Past Tense after I come back from Dallas. BLI says I can have two months. I promise I won’t take anywhere near that long! Besides, Soul Purpose was too much fun for me to wait that long to read the sequel. I want to see what happens next.

And I received an unstained copy of Todd Grimson’s Stainless this week. Woo-hoo! I take one “dead-tree” book with me on the plane, so I have something to read for those horrible minutes when they make me turn off my iPad. Stainless might be it.

I also finished A Lady Awakened and Don’t Bite the Messenger from last week, so reviews for both those books will be part of this week’s postings.

Reaching back, to the Christmas Nightstand, I’m in the middle of J.L. Hilton’s Stellarnet Rebel. As a blogger, and a science fiction fan, I’m caught up in the story on multiple levels. I mean wow, living on a space habitat, kind of like Babylon 5 or Deep Space 9. And, earning your living by being a blogger, live, full-time pretty much, total life immersion blogging. 3,000 posts or 3 years until she can go back to Earth. And will she want to?

Going even further back, I took a look at the 12/17/11 Nightstand and read Forever Mine, the prequel novella to Delilah Marvelle’s Forever and a Day. Yes, I’m a completist. I have to read the whole series.

That’s all we have time for in this pre-conference madness issue of the Nightstand. We’ll see you next week, live from Dallas, hopefully not blogging from the hotel lobby. The bar, on the other hand…

Tomorrow will be the Carina Press December 2011 edition of Ebook Review Central. And it will seem like Christmas all over again.

What’s on my (mostly virtual) nightstand? 1-8-12

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | book reviews> Virtual Nightstand

And it’s January! Post-holiday doldrums anyone?

I live in the Atlanta suburbs, so let’s call it the South, more or less. I have for the last four years. But I grew up in the Midwest, and spent most of my adult life either in Cincinnati (OH) or Chicago, with the exception of three years in Anchorage Alaska. To me, winter is supposed to be cold, and sometimes snowy. (It doesn’t actually snow lots and bunches in Cincy). Winter in the South is like autumn everywhere else I’ve ever lived. Not that I miss the snow!

The weather is just not as conducive to curling up with a good book as a Chicago blizzard. But I make do.

I have books from some very different sources this week. In December, back when I thought I had a breather (silly me!) I volunteered to become an occasional reviewer for Book Lovers Inc. I received my first book from them over New Year’s, and it looks really neat.

Past Tense by Nick Marsh is described as Doctor Who with a dose of Being Human, with a slice of All Creatures Great and Small thrown in for body. I’m wondering if that might be a literal furry body somewhere down the line, since the hero is a vet. The opening scene has the boring anatomy lecture he’s attending temporarily getting hijacked either into Alien or the Cthulhu Mythos. Howsomever, his return to the real brought my attention to the fact that this is book 2 in a series. I begged the author for book 1. He sent it.

Which means that I now have Soul Purpose by Nick Marsh to review for Reading Reality before I can finish Past Tense and review it for Book Lovers.

I am also on the hook to Book Lovers for Todd Grimson’s Stainless, but I don’t have a date for reviewing it yet. They only have print ARCs, and their last shipment seems to have been dropped in sake, so they don’t have any to send me. (I’m not making this up, that’s really what I was told)  Yes, there is a pun in there, and I’m ashamed to say I wasn’t able to refrain from making it to the publicist.

I have seen a absolute ton of reviews for Cecilia Grant’s A Lady Awakened. I had to find out for myself, and this was available on NetGalley, so I grabbed it. None of the reviewers are neutral because there’s no way to be neutral about this one. Can you have a romance where the sex isn’t any good for the first half of the book? You can if there’s a reason for it. I’m more than halfway through, and it all does make sense. This is very character driven, and it is working for me.

Mea Culpa. I should have listed this last week. Stephanie Rowe’s Hold Me If You Can is on my list for January 1, 2012 and it got lost in the shuffle for the holidays. Almost literally. This is the third book in her Soulfire Series, which starts with Kiss at Your Own Risk and continues with Touch If You Dare. I have paper copies of both Kiss and Touch somewhere in a box, because I was able to get them cheap from Powell’s, but heaven knows which box. I was also able to get Kiss really cheap for my iPad, because Sourcebooks was having a sale on first books in series.

There’s one truly new book on the list. Don’t Bite the Messenger.

Don’t Bite the Messenger by Regan Summers is a Carina Press book I got from NetGalley about vampires living in Anchorage, Alaska, and one human courier who seems to be resistant to their charms. Vampires in Alaska? What do they do in the summer? Even in Anchorage it never gets completely dark, and believe me, I know. Fireworks on the Fourth of July are a real problem.  I read Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Dance with the Devil. Zarek mostly suffered in the summer. I’ll have to read this book to see what these vamps do.

Looking back keeps me honest. Or it makes me suffer as much as those vampires in Alaska in the summer, take your pick. But I did make progress.

I found the box with Demi-Monde: Winter in it. I put it in one of the boxes marked for my office with “VIP Papers” marked on them. I obviously should have left myself better notes.

My new book from last week, P. Kirby’s The Canvas Thief, has not been doing terribly well on the review circuit. But I still need to get to it.

Looking back at the Christmas Nightstand, I finished Marissa Meyer’s Cinder. That review will be posted this week. It was pretty good, but I wish she hadn’t tried quite so hard to hit every single point of the Cinderella story. Or something like that. It didn’t quite live up to the hype.

A post at The Galaxy Express about Superhero romance reminded me that I had a book about superheroes, although not a romance, in my long backlog. The Black Stiletto by Raymond Benson is the story of the birth of a very human caped crusader. It’s fascinating the way the story is told. The woman’s son is reading her diaries, because the Stiletto herself is in a nursing home with Alzheimer’s. And yet she lives again. See my review on Wednesday.

Well, that all we have time for this week. See you next week for another exciting edition of “what’s in that box?”

Don’t forget, tomorrow is Ebook Review Central‘s turn at the last of November 2011. We’ll see Amber Quill (really that’s Amber Allure publishing at the moment), Astraea Press, Liquid Silver and Riptide Publishing.

 

Midnight Reckoning

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

Midnight Reckoning by Kendra Leigh Castle is something to read when you want a paranormal romance that takes all the standard elements and throws them in a blender! The mix that pours out makes for a very enjoyable read, while adding a few interesting twists to the usual recipe.

We met both the hero and heroine of Midnight Reckoning in the first book of Castle’s Dark Dynasties series, Dark Awakening (reviewed here). And when they met, they pissed each other off.

Lyra Black is a member of the Thorn, a werewolf pack. But Lyra is much more than just a member of the pack, she’s the Alpha’s daughter. And she’s an only child. Lyra wants what’s best for the Thorn, and she knows that her cousin Eric isn’t it. But the wolves have always chosen their Alphas through a physical contest, based on who is the strongest, fastest and cleverest. Females may be fast and clever, but they just aren’t as strong as the males. Traditionally, they don’t fight to become Alpha. But Lyra believes that Eric is so tradition-bound that he will lead the Thorn back to the human-enslaving dark ages, and in the 21st century, those days are long gone. Lyra has declared herself as a challenger for the right to become the Alpha’s Second, her father’s named successor. Being her father’s daughter will not help her. Her father wants her to mate with someone strong enough to fight in her place.

Wolves mate for life, and all that is required for the mating bond is sex. It doesn’t even have to be willing sex. Rape will cause the mating bond to lock into place. Lyra is being hunted.

Jaden Harrison threw Lyra Black out of a vampire sanctuary the first time he met her. Not so much because she was a werewolf, although there is that whole vamp/werewolf rivalry thing, but because he wanted her. Bad. And because there was no way he should feel that much desire for a wolf. Any wolf. He wanted her as far away from himself as possible, so he threw her out of the sanctuary. But he never forgot her.

So when he found her in his clan’s territory again, but this time threatened with rape, he helped her kill her would-be rapists. But he didn’t expect Lyra’s gratitude. He expected what he got. She took his head off. But only verbally. And only after stumbling into him and revealing, just for a second, that she wanted him as much as he wanted her. Even if it was inappropriate. And impossible.

She left behind a necklace, a talisman, under the body of one of the wolves that Jaden had killed. Since she had been protecting the talisman, Jaden chose to go into Thorn territory to return it.

Why? Because he was delaying decisions about his own future. His newly-formed vampire clan, the Lilim, wanted him to become Chief of Security. He wasn’t sure he was ready to become an officer, when he had so recently been a slave of the Ptolemy clan of highborns.

But when he returned the necklace to Lyra, he was faced with another, and much more tempting offer. Teach Lyra to fight wolves, so she could take her own place in the Alpha challenge.

Why would a werewolf ask a vampire to teach his werewolf daughter to fight other werewolves? And what temptations will Jaden and Lyra face as teacher and student? And what is really going on within the werewolf pack? So many questions, and so little time to find the answers when threats come from all sides.

Escape Rating B: The action in this was even more fast and furious than in Dark Awakening. But I think the story probably works better if you’ve read both books, although that’s far from a hardship. I liked Dark Awakening, and I would recommend for paranormal romance fans. Midnight Reckoning a fun and very fast read.

I am really starting to want some more information about the Shadows. They are clearly moving events and people behind the scenes, and their motivations are murky to say the least. I hope more of that is in the next book. Since the next book is titled Shadow Rising (July 2012) maybe I’m going to get my wish!