Dead of Winter, Review for Gotta Write Network
Title: Dead of Winter Author: Patricia Parkinson
Publisher: Samhain Publishing
ISBN: ISBN: 1-59998-012-6
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Length: 236 pages
Publishing Date: 2006
Cost: $5.50
When Kate Madison finds her friend Harley Wilson dead behind his house she immediately suspected foul play. Although murder in Windy Creek, Montana is not the norm she just knew things weren’t right. Harley had become the father she’d never had - in her heart he was her true Dad. She is determined to find out what happened to him, no matter what the local Sheriff says. She’s a mystery writer who thinks she knows a thing or two about investigations and she doesn’t need his permission.
Sheriff Steve Lambert has only been in town for just over a year but his heart had skipped a beat from the minute he had seen Kate. This isn’t to say he was going to let her play detective while he was trying to track down a murderer. Keeping her safe is his utmost priority. When Kate started noticing him as more than just a sheriff his priority became trying to keep his hands off of her long enough to solve the case.
When Kate admits to Steve about a mistake she made in her past, he’s not sure he can get beyond it. When a stalker goes after he learns his heart might not survive if she’s not around.
Dead of Winter is a great story about the many people we allow into our hearts, whether by blood or familial ties or just bound by something inexplicable. The suspense is real and you are constantly guessing about the suspect and changing your mind all the way through, although once guess seems pretty obvious and I wish it was less so.
There are many characters scattered throughout the pages of this novel and Ms. Parkinson did a great job of keeping them all real and making them fit into the storyline. The reader is really able to feel the small town and get to know its inhabitants.
The romance between Steve and Kate was nice and their moments together believable and tension filled when necessary. All in all I’d say this is the perfect book to grab a cup of hot chocolate and cosy up next to the fire with. It’s comfortable and warm like that.
I give it 4 Grizzly Bears Labels: Rating 4
Not Quite Dead, Review for Gotta Write Network
Title: Not Quite Dead
Author: Sela Carsen
Publisher: Samhain Publishing
ISBN: ISBN: 1-59998-184-X
Genre: Paranormal Romantic Comedy
Length: 83 pages
Publishing Date: 2006
Cost: $3.50
Sabine Harper is hanging out in a cemetery watching her niece play at being a witch when all of a sudden it appears to work. Standing beside her is a vampire and a dead man seems to be walking out of a grave. When she later tries to console herself to the fact that she might be hallucinating or perhaps mildly psychotic the dead man appears at her door, claiming it’s his house. Other than being dirty, he seems nice. Plus, he’s gorgeous. Willem Breaux has been dead for about one hundred and twenty years. He’s been given a short amount of time to avenge his murder with his deceitful fiancé, Rose, and his ex-best-friend, the vampire. He mistakes Sabine for Rose at first and then finds she’s a whole lot better, in many ways.
Can Sabine and Willem find love even though one of them is Not Quite Dead?
Not Quite Dead is an often amusing, well-written, romp of a read. It carried me from beginning to end with lighthearted touches, genuine feel-good romance and even some centuries-old evil. The only thing that held me back from giving this a full five marks is that the wrap up with Rose seemed a bit abrupt. There was a love scene that went on for two chapters but not a lot of attention paid to what turns out to be a pivotal point to the plot. I think a bit more back story about Rose, not a lot, but just something more that made me think yeah, that makes sense. As it stands though the ending was a nice surprise and Ms. Carsen pulled it off well.
I think my favourite thing about this story was Sabine character. Even though she describes herself as solid, level-headed and without the looks of her family she is feisty and fun and frankly, someone I’d love to hang out with.
If you are looking for a fun, quick read that’s a bit quirky and sentimental too, I’d suggest Not Quite Dead.
I give it 4.5 Gravestones.
Labels: Rating 4.5
The Last Thing I Expected, Review for Gotta Write Network
Title: The Last Thing I Expected
Author: Heather Rae Scott
Publisher: Samhain Publishing
ISBN: ISBN: 1-59998-028-2
Genre: Contemporary Romantic Comedy
Length: 83 pages
Publishing Date: 2006
Cost: $5.50
Grace Adams believes she is cursed. She has bad luck with men and things in her life are always going wrong but a mother of one of her students gave her a simple ceremony to perform to make it all right again. Unfortunately, the ceremony involved fire and Grace used a coffee can with paint thinner in it as her receptacle.
There’s nothing like a small explosion and the smell of smoke to bring a fire fighter running. Eddie Mancilla isn’t any ordinary fireman either. He’s the big hunk of Grace’s high school dreams less a lot of the weight he used to carry. He was always saving her hide in high school but never dreamed a popular girl like her would be interested in an overweight guy like him. Though the years had changed Eddie physically, he is now buff and brawny, mentally he is still the poor overweight guy in love with the girl he thought he could never have.
Grace liked Eddie in high school and she likes him now but she’s not willing to bring him into her cursed and crazy life and he’s decided that a career as chief firefighter is more important than being hooked up. Can these two look beyond their past and see that the future they could have would be so much brighter together?
Right from the start I liked this book. Grace and her two good friends reminded me of myself and my best friend. When we get together who knows what’s going to happen – it’s all heartfelt talks, zaniness and giggling. Ms. Scott described all of this perfectly. I loved that Gracie was, all at once, ditzy and smart, helpless and feisty.
I also enjoyed the hero, Eddie Mancilla, a lot. It isn’t often that we see the overweight boy turning into the buff man – usually in romances it is the woman who’s transformed herself. Eddie is written as tough and vulnerable and I adored him. I wanted to crawl into his arms myself, and stay there! I’ve got friends from large Italian families, who are firefighters no less, and the description of Eddie and his family and the way they interact was dead on.
If you are looking for love, laughter and heartfelt warmth then this is the book for you.
I give it 4.5 Red Strings out of 5
Labels: Rating 4.5
Ninja, Review for RORR
Ninja by Racy Li
Loose ID
Liz Blackwell, leads a double life. The face she shows the world is all attorney but in her spare time she helps the FBI. The new world is full of superheroes, demons and secret spies all tangled up in a web of organized crime.
Kent Alistair is an ex-dotcom exec who seems happy as Liz’s secretary – the one she thinks is a geek. Ninja is the fantasy superhero who rescued her from the bad guys. He’s the one she wants to get all hot and sweaty with.
Will she discover that Ninja and Kent are one and the same? Or will the game of deceit they are both playing be their undoing?
Ninja by Racy Li is hot, hot, hot. Whew. Did I say it was hot? Kent Alistair is like a future combination of Spiderman and Superman (he’s even named Kent) with martial arts and mystic thrown into the mix. He’s hot. Yes, ok, everything about this book is hot.
From the very start we are aware that this is going to be a very sexual, sensual read. Thankfully, there is a plot in between all the sex scenes and a pretty darned good one at that. Although, trying to keep track of the various sides (who was a good guy and who was not) did get a bit confusing at times. The only other thing that bothered me, and it wasn’t a huge thing, was the whole lift up Ninja’s mask and kiss him on the mouth scene reminiscent of that of Spiderman and Mary Jane. Plus, just as with those superhero movies, I have a hard time believing a mask would keep anyone from figuring out that the hero is really mild mannered “enter name here”. However, I choose to believe Ms. Li was going for the old-fashioned superhero effect and she nailed it.
If you are looking for a kick butt, sexy rompin’ read with a superhero who is rock hard (yes, I said that!) then snap up Ninja by Racy Li – you won’t be disappointed. Ms. Li has created an interesting world that I’m eager to learn more about. I suspect we will be seeing more of Metrocity and Ms. Li.
I give it 4 Ayres
Labels: Rating 4
Gone Missing in the Underground, Review for RORR
Gone Missing in the Underground (A Jessica Tyson Mystery)
by Jerol Anderson
Whiskey Creek Press
Special Agent Jessica Tyson is called in when four people in separate incidents from the Seattle Underground Tour. Jessica sets up home base in the area where the Underground Tour starts, and where a large number of homeless gather.
With the help of a teenager, who’s been in the homeless world before, Jessica is able to see beyond what is really there to capture her suspect. The perfect crime is perfect no longer when the suspect gets caught up in a web of his own deceit.
Gone Missing in the Underground could have been spectacular as the premise was intriguing and one that could have been layered and built to its final conclusion. Instead, I found, that this story was one dimensional and meandered all over the place.
I could connect to any of the characters until the introduction of Melinda, the niece of Jessica’s boyfriend/fiancé. She was the only one who had the depth to draw me in and make me feel for her. Jessica herself is a Special Agent brought on to the force because she can “see” things. And that’s exactly how she describes her own talent, she sees “signs”. The word “signs” is always in quotation marks as if it is something not real. If the heroine really believed in herself and her gifts would she describe it that way? I never get a feeling that Jessica is actually gifted and she really only has two “signs” or sights or whatever you want to call them in the whole book. Which is fine except that is the reason she’s on the case.
Other than not a whole lot happens in the case, or what does happen doesn’t make my heart pound in excitement, nor does it make me care that they have a suspect. There is nothing that makes me want to figure out who did it or even care why. I spent most of the book trying to figure out why Jessica is freaked out about homeless people (and the answer at the end of the book when Melinda asks the same question is not very satisfying), why her boyfriend/fiancé David seems to assume that Jessica should take time off to care for his niece ( a niece that he never even told her he had from a sister he also denied), and how come she seemed so close to Sam (the suspects girlfriend) who she barely even knew at the start of the case and the dealing they did have weren’t that close. These were the things I thought about instead of caring about “who dunnit”.
I believe this book may be second in a series and perhaps if I’d read the first I’d understand more but it needs to stand alone. Gone Missing in the Underground isn’t a bad book, unfortunately there was just nothing in it that spoke to me and pulled me in to the story. It was just there, like a road that runs parallel to the highway but doesn’t actually go anywhere. However, as a dissertation on the plight of the homeless in Seattle I would say it is excellent - I really felt for them. The author has clearly researched both this issue and the area that this story is set.
I give it 3 Ayres
Labels: Rating 3
Chosen Prey, Review for Romance Divas
Chosen Prey by Cheyenne McCray
St. Martin’s Paperback, March 2007
Lyra Collins has been running for five years.
Running from a man, Neal, who is the head of a cult called the Temple of Light.
They believe that Lyra is the chosen one who will produce the new Messiah.
She is supposed to become Neal’s new First Wife.
She is determined to never let that happen.
Dare Lancaster is the PI that unwittingly leads The People, members of the cult, straight to Lyra’s door. An ex-cop, who watched his partner murdered years before, he is determined to make it right by Lyra. To protect her now that he’d broken her cover. The fact that he finds her hot and irresistible only adds to that determination.
Will Lyra trust Dare to protect her when nothing has ever stopped The People before? Will she ever be able to stop running or will Neal find her no matter where she goes?
I was very excited when I read the blurb for this book as it sounded really good and right up my alley. Chosen Prey starts off right in the midst of the action which was a good hook, but seemed rather sudden. I found the head hopping, which started after the first couple of scenes, very disconcerting and spent a lot of time being pulled out of the story trying to figure out who’s point-of-view I was reading. In fact, it was like this throughout the book. There would be scenes and chapters where there was no head-hopping at all and then all of a sudden there it was. Now this is something that might be taken care of in final edits, I’m not sure, but usually at that point they are just fixing grammatical errors.
While the story was definitely action-packed, and the plot interesting, I just didn’t feel the connection between Dare and Lyra. It just seemed to me that if she was so scared and on the run from this cult she wouldn’t trust him and/or feel the sexual feelings she had for him so quickly. Maybe I’m just cynical but I felt there needed to be much more of a trust build up. Even though she ran away from him she sat in a car with him, alone, and went to his house, alone, even though she really had no idea who he was. He was just “the man” or “the cowboy” – why would she trust him after all she went through when she lived at the commune? Plus, I found it odd that, after establishing their interest in each other, Lyra went on and on about how hot Nick, Dare’s partner, was. I get mentioning it because that’s reality but I don’t think it needed mentioning more than once. I almost started thinking there was a ménage a trois going to happen. Add to that the fact that Lyra was a virgin who sustained some pretty harsh sexual/emotional abuse at the hands of the cult and I just can’t see her being up to the level of sexual interaction that is provided in this book.
There were some parts of the book where I found I was quite gripped by the tale, especially the interaction between Neal and his people, as well as between Neal and Lyra. Unfortunately, the rest didn’t connect for me.
I give this 3 kisses.
Labels: Rating 3
Rising Moon, Review for Romance Divas
Rising Moon by Lori Handeland St. Martin’s (paperback), January 2007
Anne Lockhart headed to New Orleans on the trail of her sister, who had been missing for three years. She is a private investigator whose life has been stalled ever since Katie, her sister, disappeared. When the photo of Katie in front of the Rising Moon club shows up she has to follow the lead, wherever it may take her.
John Rodolfo is the mysterious owner and frequent jazz player at the Rising Moon club. He touches a part of Anne she never realized she had and doesn’t really have time for. Between his frequent disappearing acts and weird deaths and disappearances of others all around town, Anne has her hands full. What she doesn’t anticipate is how crazy suddenly becomes reality or that she will fall in love with the man who appears to be the center of it all.
Rising Moon is at turns funny, gripping and sensual. There are times where the tension was so tight I found I was holding my breath and then immediately afterwards I would be laughing. This paranormal romance has suspense to spare and a kick-butt realistic heroine.
There were only two drawbacks to Rising Moon that I could see. One, the heroine seemed to go right towards what you know has to be frightening, in the way of all horror flicks, and you just can’t help thinking, “Are you nuts? Turn back, for God’s sake woman!” However, to be fair, all of the good PI’s all the way back to Nancy Drew did this so you’ve got to think that curiosity is getting the better of them. The second drawback was how quickly it wrapped up in the end. While the resolution was superb, I felt it happened just so quickly in just a few pages, which was slightly disappointing. Maybe it was just disappointing that the story ended at all.
If you are looking for a romantic paranormal suspense that will keep you on the edge of your seat, while managing to make you smile and sigh, then I suggest you pick up a copy of Rising Moon.
I give it 4.5 Kisses
Labels: Rating 4.5
Dangerous Games, Review for Romance Divas
Dangerous Games by Lora Leigh
St. Martin’s Paperback, February 2007
Morganna Chavez has been running after Clint McIntyre since she was a toddler.
She saw past his icy Navy Seal exterior to the man underneath.
Clint, on the other hand, had been running from Morganna since her teens, since he saw through to the woman she would become and the danger to his heart.
Clint is cold as steel and no one will stand in his way. He wants to protect Morganna from life, as only a surrogate big brother should, but when he finds out she is working in dangerous territory he’s not sure he can. Morganna is set to prove she’s made her own life and she’s a big girl. She doesn’t need Clint or anyone to protect her, she can do it herself.
When both Clint and Morganna end up in a high stakes game of hide and seek with a maniac, in an investigation of a date-rape drug, their close encounters are a little hotter than either anticipated, in more ways than one. Will they make it out alive? And will either risk their heart to the only one who can shatter it?
Dangerous Game by Lora Leigh is a fast-paced, high tension romantic suspense that is adventurous in many ways. To be honest there are elements in this book that disturb me and that would have probably made me not choose this book, had they been mentioned in the blurb. I think the blurb is a little deceiving and perhaps that was the point, I’m not sure. This book enters the world of BDSM and while mostly using fringe clubs and probably not really getting in too deeply it is not something I am comfortable with. I am not familiar with this author or her style so have no idea if this is the norm for her; however, the author’s note in the book does talk about the setting and her dominant hero theme for this new series she calls Tempting SEAL’s.
I gravitate towards romantic suspense and this book sounded perfect. I got a bit more than that. However, I was able to put my discomfort aside and read the book because the suspense storyline was very good, if paced a bit fast at times. There was a lot going on but the author handled it adeptly and I think the backtstory for Clint was especially well done. It showed us why he had become the man he had, why he made the decisions he did and why he was called the iceman. I think the heroine was completely suited to him and the author did a great job building the layers of their relationship.
If you are looking for a thrill ride of action, adventure and suspense with over-the-top erotic romance thrown in then Dangerous Games is the one for you. Despite my reluctance with the BDSM theme I am eager to read the next in this series, as Ms. Leigh has created a world and characters where you just need to know what happens next. I need to know what happens next and to whom.
I give it 4 kisses.
Labels: Rating 4
In For the Kill, Review for GottaWrite Network
In for the Kill
By Betty Sullivan La Pierre
SynergEbooksISBN: 0-7443-1284-1Mystery
165 pages
2007, $5.98
Tom Casey, aka Hawkman, is leading a new life under a new name. It has been a long time since anyone has known him as Jim Anderson. When he and his wife, Jennifer, receive a threatening message for Jim Anderson on their answering machine they are immediately concerned. The last time he went by that name he was with The Agency.
Tom contacts his old boss to see if they are able to make any kind of connection as to who might be harassing them. Unfortunately, the harassment escalates, people are hurt, vehicles are stolen and Tom and Jennifer's house is lit on fire. What starts out as one P.I. and his wife investigating, turns to the local sherrifs and then the entire County's law enforcement members.
Tom and his wife, Jennifer, seem to have an easy relationship and the addition of Miss Marple as their new kitty adds a new, if sometimes too encompassing, dimension. The action starts off pretty quickly and their suspect is pretty wily which increases the tension right away. I especially liked the buildup from the first incident of a car being run off the road to finding Hawkman in his office parking lot.
I believed the original antagonist, Jack Hargrove, and his reasonings behind his original pursuit of vengeneance against Hawkman. What I didn’t believe was his flip flopping change of heart once Jack's stepson arrived. One minute he was deranged and the next he thought his stepson was going too far and that he had been manipulated. Then he'd go back to the "ok, I'll hang in with you and do the deed." It just didn't make sense to me and I had trouble suspending disbelief pretty much from the point where they met up.
I haven't read any of the other books in this series but the book is fairly stand alone, other than a few references to characters where I had no idea who they were. I found this mystery to be pleasant. While I was not entirely able to connect and thrown myself into it too deeply it was a nice read.
I give it a 3
Labels: Rating 3
Kiss of Midnight, for BE Reviews
Kiss of Midnight by Lara Adrian
Bantam Dell
http://www.laraadrian.com
Gabrielle Maxwell’s life hadn’t started of so well. Apparently abandoned by her mother in a garbage bin, she made her way through a variety of foster homes before she was adopted at age twelve. By then Gabrielle was quite independent and had learned she was “different”. That difference led her take amazing photographs of lonely, deceptively, deserted places. While out at a night club, celebrating the success of a good gallery showing, she witnesses a brutal and bizarre murder and no one believes what she saw.
The murder and her photographs bring visitors to her door. These visitors aren’t from Gabrielle’s world – they are vampires. One of them, Lucan Thorne, wants to protect her and is passionately drawn to her. One of them only wants to use her in a mounting war between vampires, and then discard her as dead.
Lucan is a Breed warrior, sworn to protect his kind against the threat of the Rogues. What he doesn’t know is that the Rogues have a new leader and the battle he is staging is going to be one that they’ve never seen before. He never expected, or wanted, to bind himself to a mortal woman, but Gabrielle is not just any woman. She is a Breedmate, a kind of mortal woman that is able to bear the children of a vampire.
While Lucan and Gabrielle fight against an unknown enemy, as well as their feelings for each other, they discover that fate had brought them together when she was a baby and destiny brought them together now.
Kiss of
Midnight drew me on the very first page and didn’t stop until I was finished.
I eagerly wanted to read each page and each word lead me to the next.
I found all the characters believable and their relationships something I could relate to or at least understand.
Lucan was hot from the minute I “saw” him watching Gabrielle across the crowded dance floor of a night club.
At that point all I knew of him were a pair of sunglasses but I sensed so much more.
Gabrielle had a great mix of independence and loyalty; she had passion for her work and friends to have fun with. Behind all of this I felt an aching in Gabrielle to really belong that I can’t put into words but that I really felt as her characterization was further expanded. When she met Lucan that aching started to diminish and I was knew they were right together. That may sound odd but there are so many times in books where the lead characters meet and I don’t believe it - I don’t believe their relationships or that they were connected so quickly. In Kiss of Midnight I believe all of it.
It takes a true craftsman to layer characterization and build relationships in such an intricate weaving that the reader is drawn in to the tale. Lara Adrian is that true craftsman. Also, even though Kiss of Midnight is the first in a series, which I knew before I started reading it, the book was written in such a way as to show the entourage of Breed warriors without doing it in an obvious “oh yeah, this is heading to a series” kind of way. That usually dulls the reading slightly for me.
All in all, Kiss of Midnight was an excellent read. I am excited to see Ms. Adrian continue on with this series and look forward to the release of Kiss of Crimson. I
I give this a 5
Labels: Rating 5
