Month: December 2011

Men Under the Mistletoe

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

As far as this reviewer is concerned, all ebook novella anthologies should be published the way that Carina Press has published their three Christmas collections. I know the whole point of a collection is to get readers to try an author they haven’t tried before. And novellas just aren’t long enough to print by themselves, so in the print world, grouping them made sense. But this isn’t the print world. Grouping them at a discount as an incentive to try new authors, and giving readers the option to buy just the one story they want if, say, they only want the one by Josh Lanyon in this collection, that’s the freedom of ebook publishing.

Now about those stories…

The stories in Men Under the Mistletoe are all about second chances. Not just second chances at love, but second chances at love with the one that got away. In every story, past lovers re-unite to try one last time in an attempt to re-kindle the spark between them during the Christmas season. Will they succeed? Let’s see.

My True Love Gave to Me by Ava March is the only historical in this collection. Set during the Regency period, this story concerns two very young men who are just not ready for the consequences of loving each other in a world where discovery means not just social censure, but possibly prison. At 19, they are both too young to deal with maintaining the multiple layers of identity required to be homosexuals in the ton and still keep their families unaware. Alexander Norton can handle that part, what he can’t handle is Thomas Bennett’s rejection of their first chance to spend a night together. Thomas doesn’t just run from Alexander, he runs away to America. When he returns four years later, neither of them is the same as they were. Can they find a way back to each other?

Escape Rating C: This was the weakest story in the collection. There was too much teenage angst and not enough story. If the author is going to spend most of the story in someone’s head, I want to know what they’re doing, not just what they’re thinking.

Winter Knights by Harper Fox gave me chills. Think of it as Dickens’ A Christmas Carol meeting Camelot, only spookier, and you’ll get the idea. Gavin Lowden is a historian. He is in Northumberland for Christmas, researching the origins of the Arthurian legends. He hopes to find the factual basis for those legends, that Arthur really existed, as a historic leader just after the Romans bugged out of England. He also hopes to find evidence that the bond between Arthur and Lancelot was romantic, not just brothers-in-arms. And, he hopes that his own lover will finally tell his very conservative Catholic family that he is gay. The night he spends under the hollow hill gives him more than he could have ever dreamed, but not in any way Gavin could ever have imagined.

Escape Rating B: This story relies on a lot of myths to make it work. The Arthur myth, the spirit of Christmas, and a certain willing suspension of disbelief. I’m not sure it would work at any time other than Christmas. And it’s a ghost story, I just liked it, but then, I’m a sucker for King Arthur stories, and this kind of is one.

Lone Star by Josh Lanyon is a story that would work any time of the year. Mitchell Evans’ always dreamed of becoming a great dancer with a major ballet company. In order to achieve his dream, he needed to leave the rural Texas town he grew up in. Web Eisley always wanted to be a Texas Ranger. He could achieve his dream right where he grew up. Web and Mitch were each other’s first loves, but their dreams took them 1,800 miles apart. When Mitch returns home for Christmas 12 years after he left, can they find a way back to each other? Can they find a way to reconcile their dreams?

Escape Rating A: This is simply good storytelling. And the theme is universal, which is part of what makes it so good. Mitch’s dreams demand that he leave, and Web is solidly rooted in their Texas hometown. He would be miserable in New York, where Mitch has to go to get the training he needs. They have to part, although Mitch didn’t have to run away. There’s some anger to get past, but this is what happens to people. But the situation is what it is. Can they find a way to be together now? Great story.

The Christmas Proposition by K.A. Mitchell was a tree farm story. (There was one in the Holiday Kisses collection too). This story is better. Mel Halner runs his family’s Christmas tree farm in Epiphany, PA. He also works shifts at a local diner to make ends meet. The Christmas tree farm business isn’t all that great. He’s supposed to be taking a two week vacation in the Caribbean to watch his sister get married, but he gets a phone call. The wedding planner ran off with everyone’s money. Can Tiffany have the wedding at the farm? Of course she can. Mel is not just disappointed about losing his family’s money, and his lost vacation, and his sister’s wedding disaster. There’s more. His ex, Bryce Campion, is his soon-to-be-brother-in-law’s best man. Mel was hoping to see Bryce after they got to St. Thomas, when he could pretend to be tanned and devil-may-care about the whole thing. Instead he would still be in Epiphany, covered in slush and surrounded by reminders of why he should have escaped his small town with the rich and handsome gas company owner. Three years ago, Mel and Bryce let each other get away. Can they catch each other this time?

Escape Rating B+: The description of this story doesn’t do it justice. The story is much better and deeper than the description. This isn’t about Bryce making Mel see what he missed out by passing on the high-life his riches can offer. Instead Mel makes Bryce see what Bryce misses by not being part of a family and having roots in a community. They meet in the middle and make a true partnership.

Selecting the best romance ebooks of 2011

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | best book lists

Last week I volunteered to select the best romance ebooks of 2011 for Library Journal. The article that resulted from the endeavor was posted at LJ this morning under the title: Librarian’s Best Books of 2011: Ebook Romance, with my picture and everything. Yes, I’m rather chuffed about the whole thing, as the Brits would say.

How did this come about? I review ebook romances for Library Journal. I am a librarian, and I asked to be a reviewer when they started their ebook romance review program this summer. LJ has, like every book review source, been posting their “best of 2011” lists this month. They’ve also been posting “Librarian’s best” guest posts. Since they have only been reviewing ebooks since August, they didn’t have a full year of ebook romance reviewing to work with. When I volunteered to write one for them, they were happy.

But about the books, and the selecting of them. They had to be ebooks, they had to be romances, and I could only pick five. And they had to be 2011 books. I stretched a couple of those definitions just a tad. There was no requirement that they be books reviewed in LJ. Actually, that was the point. LJ wanted me to go through my archives and find stuff I knew about that they didn’t, because I cover more of the ebook “waterfront” with Ebook Review Central, and I’ve been reviewing ebooks longer.

I chose the books in order by time, earliest to latest, plus the one I snuck in and hoped it would stick, which it did. It’s not generally thought of as a romance, but well, some of us think it is.

1. Goddess with a Blade by Lauren Dane, published by Carina Press. Reviewed on June 20, 2011. Urban Fantasy. Escape Rating A.

Goddess was one of the first books I reviewed for NetGalley. And I remembered it in detail six months later.  Every time my editor at LJ asked me if there would ever be a starred review of an ebook (before Serenity Woods’ White-Hot Christmas finally got one) Goddess with a Blade was always my example. Absolutely terrific kick-ass heroine, and great urban fantasy world-building. I hope there are more.

2. Turn it Up by Inez Kelley, also published by Carina Press. Reviewed on August 10, 2011. Contemporary Romance. Escape Rating A.

I reviewed a similar book for LJ, but Turn it Up was just so much better that I cited Turn it Up in my review as the one people should read instead! This was a marvelous “friends-into-lovers” story. And very, very funny.

3. Queenie’s Brigade by Heather Massey, published by Red Sage Publishing. Reviewed on October 10, 2011. Science Fiction Romance. Escape Rating A.

Queenie’s Brigade is terrific science fiction romance. When I wrote my review, I got sucked into reading it a second time, and I’d just finished it! The last rebel spaceship escapes to the last prison planet to try to turn convicts into soldiers. Sort of like the Dirty Dozen in space. Except nowhere near that easy. If you like science fiction romance, get this book.

4. Divide & Conquer (Cut & Run book 4) by Abigail Roux and Madeleine Urban, published by Dreamspinner Press. M/M Romance, Mystery/Suspense. Featured on Ebook Review Central, Dreamspinner October Books, November 28, 2011. Ratings from 4/5 to 5/5 at 8 reviewers.

I crowdsourced this selection to Ebook Review Central. The reviews weren’t just positive, they were glowing. And not just for this book, but for the whole series. It made me put the first book in the series, Cut & Run, on my TBR list. There are paperbacks available for this series, so I was stretching the ebook-only definition just a bit, but no one minded.

5. Beekeeping for Beginners by Laurie R. King, published by Bantam. Mystery. Discussed in the post The Beekeeper and his Apprentice on July 6, 2011.

This was the one that was the sneak. Technically, this isn’t a romance. But the Sherlock Holmes/Mary Russell concept definitely is. And anyone who can read what he did for her and say he hadn’t already started to love her, even if he didn’t know it himself, doesn’t have a romantic bone in their body.

I loved creating this list for LJ, but because they had to be all ebooks, there were lots of things that I read and loved this year that were ineligible. Why?  Because they were really “p as in print” books. Or they were older books I finally got around to this year (hello, Elantra!) So later this month I’ll do a personal “best of 2011” list.

Ebook Review Central for Amber Quill, Astraea, Liquid Silver and Riptide for October 2011

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Ebook Review Central

This multi-publisher issue needs a shorter title!  This issue covers Amber Quill, Astraea Publishing, Liquid Silver Books and Riptide Publishing for October 2011. That’s a lot to swallow in a single post, but we’ll get to that later. Also, this is the last issue that covers October, next week cycles back to Carina Press, but we’ll move along to November books.

Riptide Publishing made a huge, huge splash in October. Their multi-blog launch parties created major buzz for this new ebook-only publishing house devoted to M/M romance. In spite of their launch date being the very end of the month, their books generated tremendous interest. Every title received multiple reviews. Almost all were positive, but not 100%. And that’s not the point. Readers will always have different opinions about what they read. The point is that people cared enough about this new venture to post all those opinions. Keeping the conversation going can only be good for the company. Because of all the buzz and all the reviews their new titles generated, Riptide books nabbed two of the three featured slots this month.

On the other hand, there were a significant number of Astraea Press books that were not reviewed anywhere that I could find, not even on Goodreads or Amazon. (The Amazon links are to the book in that case) One of the purposes of Ebook Review Central is to provide a guide to where reviews of ebooks can be found. If there are no reviews to find, that purpose is just not served. Unless readers of this post indicate strong interest in seeing me continue to cover it, this will be the last time that Astraea Press is covered by Ebook Review Central.

As promised two of this week’s featured titles are from Riptide Publishing’s debut list.

Grown Men by Damon Suede is book one in Suede’s HardCell series. This is science fiction romance, with emphasis very much on the science fiction side of the equation according to most of the reviewers. In fact, the two men don’t seem to reach the romance part of the book until very near to the end of the story. On the other hand, every reviewer was very positive that any reader who likes a lot of science fiction in their SFR is going to love this book, and that the world-building is particularly good. There is also a free short story, titled Seedy Business, available from the author. I love the tagline for this series, “Every future has dirty roots”. Sounds like good, gritty science fiction to me.

Cat Grant’s Once a Marine received the highest and the lowest reviews, but everyone had a very strong opinion. The two heroes of this romance are a former marine with PTSD and a writer of male/male romance who is making ends meet by waiting tables. The writer is also a military brat who happens to have a thing for men in uniform, even men formerly in uniform. Most of the reviewers thought that the story of these two working through their issues and towards each other made for a powerful romance.  Try it for yourself and see.

The final featured title is another trip to hell. We went there last week and we’re back. The third book in Eve Langlais’ Princess of Hell trilogy is Hell’s Revenge. Published by Liquid Silver Books, this book, following Lucifer’s Daughter and Snowballs in Hell, sounds like a really fun, and funny book! Muriel is the Princess of Hell. She’s Lucifer’s daughter, and she’s actually a good girl. So good, that she makes Lucifer a laughingstock in Hell because she’s not bad enough. Take this concept to it’s nth degree, and you’ve got a series. I think I’m in! This sounds like it might be a good one for fans of MaryJanice Davidson’s Undead series.

Tune in next week for the Carina Press November titles!

What’s on my (mostly virtual) nightstand? 12-11-11

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Virtual Nightstand

I realized something important this week. Ebooks allow someone like me to be a book hoarder without all the unsightly piles that normally betray one’s terrible addiction to accumulating one’s drug of choice. NetGalley may even be enabling this, I can acquire even more reading material without spending money. A book looks interesting and ZAP! another book in the queue.

The whole ebook thing helps an awful lot in one dimension though. Literal dimensions. The movers are coming on Friday to pack. Ebooks don’t have to be packed, because I never let my iPad out of my sight. The 2,300 print books we have on IKEA Billy Bookcases (and yes, the Library Thing measurements are accurate!) do require real packing, real moving, and real unpacking.

My virtual nightstand may not have much drop off of it this week. Or maybe lots. It all depends upon the stress level.

One thing will get read this week. Absolutely. I am hosting the Unacceptable Risk blog tour on December 18, so Jeanette Grey will be guest posting on the 18th, and I will also have a review of her science fiction romance Unacceptable Risk. There will also be a giveaway.

What new gems are piling onto the reading queue? Just two. And both look like sex dreams. Or sex steams. Something along that line.

I have two Carina Press titles listed for December 19.  Lady Seductress’ Ball by Eliza Night and One Perfect Night by Rachel Johns. Lady Seductress is historically steamy, and Perfect Night is contemporary, but they both look like very fun, and very hot stories of the “mind candy” persuasion. Probably just perfect for a week when my real life is turning topsy-turvy.

Looking back at my last week’s “to be read” list, I’m not sure whether Santa would put me on his “naughty” or his “nice” list.

Hellsbane, Deadly Pursuit and A Clockwork Christmas all got checked off the list. After writing a complete review off all the stories in A Clockwork Christmas, I couldn’t resist the impulse to write the same kind of review for Holiday Kisses, so I did.

But, then my impulses led me astray. I liked the format of Carina’s holiday anthologies so much, I got Men Under the Mistletoe from NetGalley, and finished it last night. I’ll be posting my review this week.

And I bought Robin D. Owens Hearts and Swords and immediately inhaled it, so I reviewed it too. I love Celta. I think it is one of the science fiction/fantasy words that I would actually like to live on.

I read a lot. We also watched the entire sixth season of Bones this week. I sleep sometimes. Did I mention we’re moving again? What didn’t happen was reading any of the fantasies. My reading “palate” wasn’t set for them this week. Which is going to be a problem if I don’t get them read soon.

Tomorrow is another day. And tomorrow is Ebook Review Central. This week is the miscellany week. Which means the Review covers Amber Quill, Astraea Press, Liquid Silver, and the debut of Riptide Publishing!

 

Hearts and Swords

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

I pre-ordered Robin D. Owens collection of Celtan novellas, Hearts and Swords, because I love this series. When the book auto-shipped itself into my iPad at midnight on Tuesday, I dropped what I was reading and dived right in. I’m glad I did. (And this is what I love about ebooks!)

The first story in the collection is Heart and Sword. It doesn’t actually take place on Celta. It’s about the discovery of Celta, and takes place on Nuada’s Sword, one of the colony ships. Which is both off-course and way overdue, in a manner of speaking. The three-ship expedition planned on being in space for about seventy-five years. A century-and-a-half tops. Instead, when the Captain’s Exec wakes Kelse Bountry from cryo-sleep, it’s been 250 years, and Kelse has a mutiny on his hands. And all three ships are running out of critical supplies. Like food. And fuel.

Kelse has been woken to make the life-or-death decisions, because that is his psi-power, his Flair. Everyone on board all three ships has Flair. They ran from Earth because they were being persecuted for their psi. The mutineers believe that a nearby wormhole will return them to a civilized Earth that has hopefully gotten over its prejudices. The loyalists don’t want to take that risk, they remember the psi purges all too well. The last planetary probes tell Kelse that the system just ahead has a planet that should support human life, but the approach path will use up the last of every ship’s fuel.

What does the good Captain choose?

Escape Rating A: This is a fantastic foundation story for the series. It reminded me, quite favorably, of Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Darkover Landfall, and a even little bit of Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonsdawn, the establishing stories for those beloved series. Robin Owens couldn’t ask for much better company.

There are three other stories in this collection. All concern characters who have appeared in earlier books, and whose stories just needed telling.

Noble Heart is particularly compelling for long-time readers of the series. Members of the Clover family have appeared in many of the stories. Mitchella Clover married into the nobility by marrying Straif Blackthorne in Heart Choice. On Celta, everyone has expected the Clovers to test into the nobility for some time. Their Flair has been increasing with each generation. And unlike the inbred nobility, the commoner Clovers have a LOT of generations. Mitchella’s cousin Walker Clover has been young Nuin T’Ash’s tutor and bodyguard. Walker is not an ambitious man. But Walker’s family has been keeping a secret from him. Walker’s mother is not Fen Clover, but Latif Heliotrope, a noblewoman his father had an affair with just before he married Fen.

Nuin’s first Flair Passage triggers Walker’s Passages. All three of them at once. After five days of fever dreams, Walker new Flair power instantly catapults the entire Clover family to GrandLord status. Not first-tier nobility, but second-tier, and vaulting them over the third-tier in one huge leap. The rise in status produces jealousy among the nobles, which is expected. It also produces a near-civil war inside the family, and the older generation that has always run the very-profitable Clover family business thinks that it can continue to run things with Walker as a figurehead.

Walker didn’t want to be the Head of the Family, but now that he is GrandLord Walker, he damn well will be Head of the Family. He was taught to do his duty, and that is now his duty. Whatever it takes.

Escape Rating A: Walker is a very interesting character. He doesn’t want this, but he’s going to do it. He does complain a little, but he should. His entire identity changes in about 15 minutes. There’s also a love story here, but it’s a part of the changes in Walker’s life and status, and his establishment of himself. Very, very well done.

This was a great collection of stories, but I think you need to be a fan of the Celta books in order to really get full enjoyment out of it. The other two stories, Heart Story and especially Heart and Soul, directly relate to events in previous books.If you are a fan, you are in for a real treat! If you’ve never read the Celta books, and you like futurist romance, start with Heart Mate. You’ll be glad you did

 

Holiday Kisses

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

Holiday Kissses from Carina Press is another book in their terrific Christmas anthologies. I say terrific because the formula they use is terrific. They publish the four stories together under one theme, and people have the choice to purchase all four together, or, they’re available separately. This is a terrific solution to the “your mileage may vary” problem usually found in anthologies.

There’s the obvious theme in this collection. Okay, there are two obvious themes. It’s a romance anthology. And it’s a collection of romances centered around the Christmas holidays. But I noticed that all the stories had the additional theme of second chances. In every story, either one of the couple is getting a second chance at life or love, or they are taking a second chance on their relationship. Or in one case, it may be a fifth, sixth or tenth chance. You’ll see.

This Time Next Year by Alison Kent is the story of a woman with a plan for her life, and a man who has given up on all of his. Brenna Keating plans to follow in her family’s footsteps. After one last Christmas with her grandmother in the North Carolina mountains, she’s off to take her nursing skills to far-flung outposts, just as her grandmother did and just as her parents currently are. Instead, a blizzard wrecks her car, and she is snowbound for three days with Dillon Craig, an ex-Army doctor with PTSD who has practically become a hermit. Sharing the cabin forces Dillon to confront his self-imposed distance from the world, and his familiarity with Brenda from his conversations with her grandmother help him begin to break down the walls he has built between himself and others. The sexual chemistry between them is impossible to ignore, being as they are snowbound in a small cabin. But when the roads are clear, has Brenda build enough of a bridge for Dillon to take a second chance at living a full and real life?
Escape Rating A: There was a lot packed into this story. All the characters are multi-layered, including Brenda’s grandmother. Brenda’s family history and her need to establish herself also play a big part in this surprisingly meaty tale.

Jaci Burton’s A Rare Gift is about a crazy idea that works. Calliope Andrews needs to build an addition onto her day care center. Of course, she wants to hire the best construction firm in town for the job. There’s this one problem. The man who owns that firm is her ex-brother-in-law, Wyatt Kent. Not only was his divorce from her sister really nasty, but Calliope has had a crush on Wyatt since the first time he walked into her parents’ house. But Calliope’s not sixteen anymore, and she wants Wyatt for herself this time. All she has to do is get him to see that she’s the right sister for him. And figure out a way to deal with family reunions with his hopefully once and future in-laws.
Escape Rating B+: This was just a fun story. Going after your ex-brother-in-law is a little odd, but it works. Calliope’s maneuvering so that everyone gets closure and can move past the very icky past was a tad manipulative, but necessary in context. This one is just good fun.

It’s Not Christmas Without You by HelenKay Dimon is about a young couple with very different dreams. Carrie Anders and Austin Thomas have gotten together and broken up over and over (and over) again. But this time Carrie thinks it’s for good. She took a job at a big museum in Washington, D.C. because that’s her dream. And Austin, well, he just never really listened when she talked about her dreams. He’s always been sure that her dreams of arranging major museum exhibitions are something she’ll outgrow. Where his dream of working at, and eventually taking over his family tree farm are what’s really important. And Austin is certain they are meant to be together. So he rents the corner lot next to her apartment building in DC to sell Christmas Trees and brings a little bit of their West Virginia country to DC to convince her that she’s meant to come home with him. But it takes a major event at her museum, one that she arranged, for him to finally start to listen.
Escape Rating C: This was the weakest story in the collection.  Austin was too smug for too long for any woman with a spine, which Carrie has, to have forgiven him that easily. It just doesn’t quite work.

Mistletoe and Margaritas by Shannon Stacey is a terrific “friends into lovers” story that happens to take place at Christmas. Claire Rutledge has been a widow for two years. She’s held her life together with the help of her best friend, Justin McCormick. What Claire doesn’t know is that Justin has loved her since the very first moment he saw her, but his best friend Brendan got there first, and married her. But for the last few months, Claire’s been having some “extra-friendly” thoughts about Justin, not knowing that Justin would be more than eager to reciprocate. Until, after a holiday party where they both have just enough margaritas to let their drinks do the talking, they cross the boundary from friends to lovers, at least for one night. The question is, can they be be both? And can they build something new and wonderful without Brendan’s ghost getting in the way?
Escape Rating B+:  Anyone who enjoys a good “friends into lovers” story will love this one.

I love this formula of Carina’s, I hope they do this again next Christmas.

Reviewer’s note. A much shorter version of this review was posted on Library Journal’s Xpress Reviews on December 16, 2011.

A Clockwork Christmas

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

A Clockwork Christmas is a really neat anthology of Christmas-themed steampunk romances from Carina Press. The individual novellas are not only available separately, but they each have their own absolutely gorgeous cover art. Since the big issue with anthologies is that you might like one story and another not so much, I feel compelled to review each one individually. And this way I get to show ALL the covers.

 

Stacy Gail’s Crime Wave in a Corset is the story that contains the most true steampunk elements. It’s also the one that stuck with me. Cornelia Peabody is a thief. A very, very excellent thief, in a Boston that is just different enough from the historic version that airships are commonplace and women learning engineering and technology, while rare, are far from unheard of. Cornelia never steals from people, only institutions. But she made one mistake. She stole a Faberge egg from Beth Coddington, thinking that it belonged to Rodney Coddington’s museum. The egg was the last light in Beth’s eyes, and without it, she lost her battle with a long-standing illness and died.  Rodney Coddington trapped the beautiful thief in revenge for taking away his Beth’s egg, and gave Cornelia seven days to steal it back. A lot can happen in a week, especially the week before Christmas.
Escape Rating: A

This Winter Heart by PG Forte is a story about a Christmas miracle. Ophelia Leonides is not a real woman. Her father made her out of mechanical parts with human skin and a steel skeleton. The woman her father had loved and lost contributed to her genetic makeup. When her father revealed the secret of her origins to her husband, Dario threw them out of his house, and out of his life. Eight years later, Ophelia returns to Santa Fe, bringing with her the news of her father’s death, and the one thing that her husband never believed possible–their seven-year-old and very much human son. Can Dario find his love for her again? Can he believe in this miracle?
Escape Rating: B

Jenny Schwartz’ story of the early days of the development of the Australian republic reminded me of Colleen McCullough’s The Ladies of Missalonghi because of its setting and its take charge heroine. Wanted: One Scoundrel is a fun story about a woman who is the beloved queen of her small community, and thinks she is looking for someone to take her orders, but instead, finds someone to be her match. The subplot involving Australian political shenigans helped the love story along nicely.
Escape Rating: A

Far From Broken by JK Coi was the story with the most loose ends. A spy for the War Office comes home to find that his ballerina wife has been brutally tortured. The only way to save her life is to allow that same office to replace her missing legs, arm and eye with clockwork replacements. She is so traumatized by the torture she endured, the surgery, the pain, and the changes in her life, that she turns everyone away, especially her husband. While she endures all the necessary surgery, he hunts down her torturers. When he returns to the hospital to rejoin her, they face one last battle against the “inside man” who nearly killed her, and to save their marriage.
Escape Rating B: This story left too many loose ends. What was the war about? Who is fighting who? And why? Also, it could easily have been cyberpunk instead of steampunk.

I want to applaud Carina Press for this concept. They also released two other Christmas anthologies like this, Holiday Kisses and Men Under the Mistletoe. I reviewed Holiday Kisses for Library Journal, and I’m highly tempted to get Men under the Mistletoe just to complete the set.

 

Hellsbane

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

Hellsbane by Paige Cuccaro was not quite the book I thought it would be. It didn’t have near enough romance to make the mark as a paranormal, and was neither gritty enough nor did it have enough of an urban or detective-y enough feel to be an urban fantasy.

The premise was interesting enough. In Jane Hellsbane’s world, there are a few people who are the offspring of human women and fallen angels. Those children are called nephilim. Our heroine, Jane, is one of those chosen few.

Jane has always been a little different. She’s psychic. For real. It’s not that she can see the future. It’s that she can see people’s emotions, especially if they are sitting in the room with her. So, she uses her gift to tell people pretty much what they want to hear, and they pay her. It’s a living.

Occasionally, she feels something really, really strong in the vicinity. What she doesn’t know is that it’s either one of two things. If it’s a good strong, it’s another person like herself. If it smells like rotten eggs, it’s a demon.

When Tommy Saint James knocks on her door when evening, battered and bleeding, of course she lets him in. Eight years ago, Tommy was the high school golden boy. Every girl had a crush on him, including Jane. Tommy didn’t let her see how badly he was wounded until after he got inside her house.

But Jane didn’t listen to Tommy when he told her not to let the mailman in. And Jane didn’t listen to Tommy when he told her not to pick up his sword. But if Jane hadn’t picked up that sword and  chopped off the mailman’s head after it turned into a demon, Tommy would be dead.

Except by picking up the sword, Jane committed the conscious act that changed her from just a nephilim into a full-fledged illorum, a fighter against the demons and their masters, the fallen angels. And it’s a job that Jane isn’t permitted to refuse. According to God, her act of free will committed her to the cause. If she didn’t want to become an illorum, she should have let Tommy die. Now she’s a soldier for the light, until the demons kill her.

Unless…There’s only one way to resign and live to talk about it. She has to find the fallen angel that seduced her mother (and then wiped her mother’s memories) and kill him. In other words, Jane has to kill her father.

Meanwhile, she has to keep the angel that is responsible for training both her and Tommy from falling for her. And then just falling. Period. But when Tommy is killed in the line of duty, all she and Eli have is each other.

Escape Rating C-: The description of this book was better than the execution. I wanted it to be more than it was. Either Tommy should have lived so that this was about their developing relationship while they fought evil, or there should be a way for Jane and Eli to have a relationship without him becoming a fallen angel and becoming evil. The whole thing about the “sins of the fathers being visited on the children” until they kill their sperm donors is way too melodramatic for me.

My willing suspension of disbelief started slamming the walls when it turned out that Eli’s only previous female illorum was Joan of Arc, and everyone started fearing for his soul because Joan tempted him so much that he broke most of the rules for her. And there is foreshadowing all over the place that Jane is some kind of incarnation of Joan.

Jane Hellsbane can be kick-ass without channeling Joan of Arc. I think it would be a better story if she were. Or if that is a necessary plot element, let’s not go there until Jane is established in her own right first.

Deadly Pursuit

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

I absolutely love it when an author gives me what I asked for! Not that Nina Croft and I have ever met. But in my review of Break Out, the first book of her Blood Hunter series, I asked for more world-building, more information about how the situation with the Church and the Collective got started, and were there any others like Rico, meaning, are there any other vampires traveling the space lanes? And I just plain wanted more story.

Deadly Pursuit, Ms. Croft’s second entry in this paranormal science fiction romance series, gave me just what I asked for. Which makes me one happy reader.

Deadly Pursuit picks up right where Break Out left off. The El Cazador and her crew have eluded the pursuing Collective, after breaking Jon the mysterious prisoner out of their clutches just before he was scheduled to be shipped to their maximum security prison planet. What they still don’t know is why Jon and the crew were all supposed to die in the escape attempt. Whatever he knows is so toxic that everyone who gets near him is poisoned. It must be a really big secret.

Jon is a contract killer. The person he assassinated was in the inner circle of the Collective, a man named Aiden Ross. Everyone knows that members of the Collective are supposed to be immortal, and Jon was given the secrets to killing them, so maybe that’s the reason for the big target on his back. It’s certainly not because anyone took Aiden Ross’ death personally. The guy was a bastard, and I don’t mean the fatherless kind.

But the crew has other problems. And so does Jon. Because the cabin boy, Al, isn’t a cabin boy. He’s a she, and she’s not just any girl. She’s the 24-year-old Lady Alexia, the High Priestess of the Church of Everlasting Life. She ran away from her temple 3 months ago, and the Church is just gunning to get her back. Literally.

And Jon has a not-so-big secret of his own. He’s a werewolf. And that whole territory thing about werewolves and vampires? It’s still a problem. And a space ship really doesn’t have enough territory for one vamp and one werewolf to share comfortably.

But the real problem is that Jon’s werewolf has found his perfect mate. And it’s the feisty virgin priestess. But Jon has failed too many people in his life to let himself care about anyone ever again, never mind letting someone like Alex depend on him or care for him. But when the ship’s crew worm their way into becoming his new pack, what’s a werewolf to do?

Escape Rating B+: This was so much fun! It answered so many of my questions from Break Out, and told a great story. The male-bonding between Rico and Jon was hilarious, and the love story with Jon and Alex was sweet without being too syrupy.

I’m looking forward to the next book. Meridian, the drug that grants immortality, well, let’s just say that anything that seems too good to be true is, as usual, too good to be true. Let me put it this way, if you have vampires and werewolves, what other supernatural creatures might you have?

If you like science fiction romance, get Break Out and Deadly Pursuit and just read them both at once. You’ll be very glad you did!

 

Ebook Review Central Samhain Publishing October 2011

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

It’s time for Ebook Review Central to return to Samhain Publishing to look at their October 2011 titles.

And there are some hellish surprises in store, but they are all the good kind. Contradictory? Not really when you look at this month’s featured titles.

Samhain Publishing released 30 ebooks in October, including the start of their new Samhain Horror line which launched in October 2011. But the hottest books this month all featured some link with the “fires down below” and I’m not necessarily referring to sex.

The first featured title is Alisha Rai’s Hot as Hades, and it’s a re-telling of the Persephone myth. So the Hades in the title is exactly who it refers to, the Greek deity himself, Hades. This re-imagining of the classic tale has Hades as the ultimate ‘bad boy’ and Persephone turning to him to protect her from something even worse. This book was reviewed pretty much everywhere, and the reviews were not just positive, but they all agreed that the book was just plain “fun”. This one sounds like a winner.

Mummy Dearest by Josh Lanyon is the second featured title for this month. Yes, I typed ‘Mummy’, this is a paranormal, and it takes place at an Egyptian mummy exhibit in a very small museum.  This is  a Halloween romp where a low-budget cable TV show meets an Egyptology professor at a low-budget museum and tries to get the professor involved in saying there’s a curse on the mummy. Instead, the two men get involved with each other. All of the reviewers, including USA Today and Library Journal, had a terrific time with this one, the start of the XOXO Series. The tag line for this new series, “The truth is out there, Way, way, way out there!”

And last, one of Samhain’s new horror line generated a ton of reviews. Dead of Winter by Brian Moreland is a mixture of horror and western, using Native American myths and folklore to generate its chills. One reviewer said it would be hard to beat as “one of the best books of the year”. Another reviewer compared the work to M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village. Certainly Samhain’s Horror publishing has brought them a whole new audience and this work in particular was reviewed by a large and completely different audience than their previous output. If you’re interested in trying one of their horror books, this definitely looks like the one to pick!

And that chillingly concludes the Samhain Publishing feature for this month. We’ll be back next week with Amber Quill Press, Astraea Press and Liquid Silver Books.