Format read: ebook provided by the authors Formats available: Trade paperback, ebook Genre: paranormal Series: Cowboy and Vampire #1 Length: 408 pages Publisher: Midnight Ink Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository
Reporter Lizzie Vaughan doesn’t realize it, but she has 2,000 years of royal Vampiric blood coursing through her veins. Neither she nor Tucker, her cowboy lover, has any idea that Julius, the leader of the undead, has a diabolical plan to reign over darkness for all eternity–with Lizzie at his side. Lizzie battles for her life–and her soul–as she and Tucker find themselves caught up in a vampire war, pursued by hordes of Julius’ maniacal, bloodthirsty followers. Who will be left standing when the sun rises?
To use the western vernacular that the cowboy-hero of this tale wears like a second skin, this dog should not hunt, but somehow, it does. It should buck the reader off like a ride on badly broken bronco. Instead, you stick with the tale until the bloody and bittersweet end. It’s a compulsion. Lizzie and Tucker were mis-matched when she was just a New York magazine writer and he was the man she dubbed “The Last Cowboy.”
By the end of the story, they should be even wronger (and yes, in this story that IS a word) for each other, but they have earned a little bit of peace.
Their enemies will be back. After all, I read The Cowboy and the Vampire to get ready for Blood and Whiskey, the second book in the series (review and interview with the authors on Thursday).
There’s more mystery than romance in this story that the authors subtitled “A Darkly Romantic Mystery” and with good reason. When the book opens, Lizzie and Tucker are already in the middle of their love affair. Their only problem is that Lizzie has gone back to NYC, and Tucker is in LonePine (all one word) Wyoming. Their worlds don’t normally intersect. Only they do. They just can’t figure out how to make anything long term work, no matter how badly they want to.
Then Lizzie’s heritage rises up to bite her. Literally. And there’s the mystery. And the solution to Lizzie’s and Tucker’s relationship problem, as well as the cause of a few zillion more problems. As the deep, dark secrets of Lizzie’s past, and her potential future, are revealed, she turns to Tucker as the only person she can trust when her world turns upside down. In life, or in death. And whatever comes after that.
Escape Rating B+: The idea that vampires have their own biblical-type texts and their own version of the creation was kind of cool, and more than a bit twisted, in a neat way. Also that one of the leaders of the opposing vampire camps was THE Lazarus. Eternity seems to make for twisted politics yet again, and this set of vamps was wackier than the usual run.
Tucker’s family and friends were an absolute hoot. Lenny as the crazy cowboy version of James Bond’s Q was beyond priceless, but he’s just who you’d want in this situation, not that anyone half normal would ever be in this situation.
I enjoyed the differences between Tucker’s internal thoughts and his actual words, he was always more sentimental inside than what he said out loud.
Julius, the evil vampire (this is not an oxymoron in context) was a bit overblown and over-the-top. I’d have believed in him as the big bad a little more if he’d been just a tad less out there on the demonic bwahaha scale.
I also sincerely hope that in the next book there will be an explanation of who or what Lizzie’s “voices” are. That one is driving me crazy. Blood and Whiskey, here I come! (The book, not the liquids–maybe I’ll need the whiskey…)
***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.
I can always rely on the Samhain titles to present me with no lack of options for the featured titles. And this July 2012 list of Samhain’s publications is no exception.
Also, as usual, the retro romances didn’t get many new reviews.
But the books that did, really, really did.
The book that was on the most reviewers’ lists this month, by an absolute landslide (which makes it the number one feature this month!) was Dee Tenorio’s The Virgin’s Revenge, (book 4 in herRancho del Cielo series). This one is a combination friends-to-lovers story, and a small-town romance. There’s also a major element of heroine needing to get out from under her overprotective family. Most reviewers remarked about how much they loved the humor of the characters, but with this many reviews (27!) there were a few reviewers who were less than enthralled. For the thumbs up, read The Book Pushers’review; for the lukewarm take, see Dear Author’stake.
The second-place finisher this month happens to be book number three in Moira Rogers’ dark and gritty (also hot and sexy) post-apocalyptic and post-Civil War steampunk western series, The Bloodhounds. I’m talking about Archer’s Lady. The Bloodhounds series is a mix of good werewolves, bad vampires, and crazy chemical experiments conducted by mysterious forces that might be working for good. The Bloodhounds are lone wolves, until they find their mate, and Archer, well, he’s been sent to save a town, or die trying. If he dies, as far as the Bloodhound Guild is concerned, that just eliminates a problem for them. The town schoolteacher helps him eliminate the vampire threat, but that schoolteacher is running from a past that’s just as checkered as his. For steampunk fans, this series is, pardon my very mixed metaphors, catnip.
The final featured book this week is a secret. That doesn’t mean I’m not going to tell you. That means Sierra Dean has done it again. Keeping Secret by Sierra Dean, the fourth book in her Secret McQueen series, has clawed its way into the third and final featured spot for this week. Secret is half-vampire and half-werewolf, and this story is all about her trying to get herself to her wedding to a werewolf king. But her royal werewolf uncle does not approve (in a major way). And there’s a love triangle involved. Well, there’s always a love triangle involved. Oh yes, and an assassin. Family dramas at weddings are standard. Assassins, not so much. Unless you’re Secret McQueen, and someone has a contract on you.
So this time out we have a very mixed bag of featured titles: a contemporary romance, a steampunk western, and an urban fantasy. The one thing they do have in common is that they are all part of ongoing series. Building an audience really counts!
And now, my ERC audience, I will bid you farewell until next week, when we’ll come back to take a look at all of the publishers in the Hexapost (Amber Quill, Astraea, Curiosity Quills, Liquid Silver, Red Sage and Riptide).
I found the t-shirt with the “so many books, so little time” image. This classic version is by Edward Gorey, he of the marvelously creepy Masterpiece Mystery intro. The t-shirt image isn’t creepy at all, unless the poor boy is crushed by his pile of books. As mine often used to threaten me, before the advent of ebooks.
This week at Reading Reality, in addition to Monday’s regular Ebook Review Central (this week it’s Samhain) I’ll be having two special guests, and a treat!
Wednesday and Thursday are the guest days.
Wednesday’s guest will be Regan Walker, and she’ll be here to talk about her new book, Racing With the Wind. Racing is historical romance, and it’s all about spies and shadow warfare between England and France in the years after Napoleon is finally defeated for the second time. The hero and heroine are very interesting, because neither is willing to settle for someone who can’t accept all of what they are, when all of what they are is very, very secret, and dangerous.
Thursday my guests will be Clark Hays and Kathleen McFall. Kathleen and Clark are the co-authors of the Cowboy and Vampire series as well as husband and wife. The second book in the series, Blood and Whiskey, came out earlier this year, and I’ll be talking with them about how they got these two genres, the western and the vampire, to play well, or not so well, together.
On Saturday it’s blog hop time again at Reading Reality. My good friend and fellow blogger Nat at Reading Romances is hosting the Naughty or Nice Blog Hop, from September 22-29, and Reading Reality is part of the hop. Does that make me a hopper or a hoppee? I’ll be giving away an Amazon gift card, so the winner from Reading Reality can pick their own book, naughty or nice.
What else am I reading for the next couple of weeks? Well, I also have reviews scheduled over at Book Lovers Inc. I’ll be reviewing Suzanne Selfors’ The Sweetest Spell at Book Lovers Inc this week, and at Reading Reality next week (hint: that sweet spell is all about chocolate) and there will be giveaways both times!
To keep teasing, I’ll also be interviewing Sheila Roberts in a couple of weeks about her latest book, Better than Chocolate, about a chocolate company. I’m still not sure there’s anything better than chocolate, but the book is yummy.
Does just the mention of chocolate cast a spell on you? Mmm, I think I’ll go see if we have any.
This was one of those weeks when I tried to be good. Only 12 books.
Three comments. I’ve already reviewedDelusion in Death, the new J.D. Robb. Got it Tuesday, finished it Wednesday. It was terrific to see how everyone at the NYPSD is getting on, but this wasn’t one of the “great” cases in the series. I still ate it up like candy. <sigh> Now I’ll have to wait until February, 2013, when Calculated in Death comes out for my next Eve and Roarke fix.
Beyond Shame says it’s by Kit Rocha, but it’s really by Moira Rogers. I adore their Bloodhounds series, so when I saw that this was them, I grabbed it from NetGalley. The authors are labeling it as “dystopian erotic romance”. Obviously not intended for the faint of heart, but based on their previous work, I’m definitely interested.
One of the fun things about video games is hearing actors where I have no idea what they look like. Then I see someone and “wait, I’ve heard that voice before!” I finally started watching Buffy (I know, what took me so long?) and realized that Ripper’s old pal Ethan Rayne, well, I’d heard that voice before. Frankly, I’d listen to Robin Sachs read the phone book. But hearing him read John Gardner’s The Return of Moriarty is definitely perfect casting. He’s reading the Godfather of London criminals, Sherlock Holmes’ nemesis. Cool and calculating. Marvelously chilling. Oh, the book is pretty good, too. (Ironically, the video game character I first heard him voice is a good guy).
What have you added to your stacks this week? A little? A lot? Anything special?
It was just another after-work happy-hour bar downtown, where business professionals unwound with a few drinks . . .until something went terribly wrong. And after twelve minutes of chaos and violence, eighty people lay dead.
Lieutenant Eve Dallas is trying to sort out the inexplicable events. Surviving witnesses talk about seeing things—monsters and swarms of bees. They describe sudden, overwhelming feelings of fear and rage and paranoia. When forensics gives its report, the mass delusions make more sense: It appears the
bar patrons were exposed to a cocktail of chemicals and illegal drugs that could drive anyone to temporary insanity—if not kill them outright.
But that doesn’t explain who would unleash such horror—or why. And if Eve can’t figure it out fast, it could happen again, anytime, anywhere. Because it’s airborne. . . .
The near-term future looks pretty bleak in the rear-view mirror of Robb’s 2058. Between our now and Eve Dallas’ then lurks the devastation that goes by the seemingly innocuous name, “the Urban Wars”.
There are two types of Dallas and Roarke stories, ones where the case seriously delves into the skeletons in one or both of their closets, and there are plenty, and the current case rattles loose a lot of personal trauma. New York to Dallas was one of those, and it was a terrible beauty, as my review indicated.
The other kind are those where the murder investigation is the point of the exercise. Those type are necessary to keep the whole series from slamming the willing suspension of disbelief into the dust. Not even with Dallas and Roarke’s troubled pasts could they manage to survive the kind of emotional crash that making every single case personal would mean. Some murders need to be just murders, no matter how awful.
One of my favorite books in the series, Fantasy in Death, was an “ordinary murder case” type story.
While Delusion in Death is not one of the truly personal cases for Dallas and Roarke, the murders are anything but ordinary. Their roots lie in the murky dark of the Urban Wars. A time that Summerset remembers all too well. He and Eve call a temporary truce to their domestic hostilities, because a bio-terrorist weapon from those bad old days has re-surfaced in New York, and Summerset’s contacts might have information that will lead Dallas to the killer–before he makes another venue full of innocent people into raving lunatics that turn on each other in a murderous rage.
Escape Rating B: I re-read my review of Celebrity in Death, where I said Celebrity needed a few more bodies to give it flavor. Delusion in Death has all the bodies it needs and then some. What this one needs is a clearer motive for the killers.
The Urban Wars have always been a bit mythic in the timeline for the In Death series, so it’s difficult to bring them out of the deep, dark as the motivation for the ultimate evildoer in this story. This person stays too deep in the background, and the history has been too shadowy. I accept that this person was the puppet-master, but I don’t totally understand the reasoning. The mastermind is less awe-inspiring (even in a bad way) when you don’t buy into what makes them masterful.
***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.
A sought-after expert in criminal pathology, Charlie regularly sits face-to-face with madmen. Obsessed with learning what makes human monsters commit terrible crimes, Charlie desires little else from life—no doubt because when she was sixteen, she herself survived a serial killer’s bloodbath: A man butchered the family of Charlie’s best friend, Holly, then left the girl’s body on a seaside boardwalk one week later.
Because of the information Charlie gave police, the Boardwalk Killer went underground. She kept to herself her eerie postmortem visions of Holly and her mother. And even years later, knowing her contact with ghosts might undermine her credibility as a psychological expert, Charlie tells no one about the visits she gets from the spirit world.
Now all-too-handsome FBI agent Tony Bartoli is telling Charlie that a teenage girl is missing, her family slaughtered. Bartoli suspects that after fifteen years, the Boardwalk Killer—or a sick copycat with his M.O.—is back. Time is running short for an innocent, kidnapped girl, and Bartoli pleads for Charlie’s help.
This is the one case Charlie shouldn’t go near. But she also knows that she may be the one person in the world who can stop this vicious killer. For Charlie—whose good looks disguise a world of hurt, vulnerability, and potent psychic gifts—a frantic hunt for a madman soon becomes a complex test of cunning, passions, and secrets. Aiding Dr. Stone on her quest to catch a madman is a ghostly presence with bad intentions: the fiery spirit of seductive bad boy Michael Garland who refuses to be ignored, though in his cat and mouse game they may both lose their hearts.
Dr. Charlotte Stone sees what others do not. And she sees the Boardwalk Killer coming for her.
Marlene: This was…different. And not always in a good way. It’s like there were three competing tropes going on. The “I See Dead People” psychic trope, the ghost-romance, the ultimate bad-boy romance, and the catching serial killers angle. Okay, make that four tropes. There are more, but that’s enough to start with.
Lea: I have to agree with Marlene regarding this read being different. As Marlene indicates, there are a number of themes in play up to and including Dr. Charlotte “Charlie” Stone’s romantic life….or lack thereof. This is a third person narrative told from Charlie’s perspective and I will say I had a good understanding of what was happening with all the characters at any given time. A word of caution, there is a prologue in this book that opens with a grisly murder scene and shows readers the trauma and horror that Charlie witnessed. There are more than one such scene in the story so it is best to caution that The Last Victim is not for the faint of heart.
Marlene: While the idea that Charlie took her teenage trauma and used it to forge a career as a criminal pathologist makes fictional sense, the idea that the FBI would scoop her up and put her back in harm’s way with the Boardwalk Killer again didn’t. She was the only surviving witness, and serial killers supposedly don’t like to leave loose ends. In spite of her expertise, protective custody would have made way more sense than exposure.
Lea: I didn’t have a problem with the FBI approaching Charlie to assist with the investigation given her background and expertise, however there were aspects of the team’s management of her safety that did bother me. And, in the same vein, Charlie is a brilliant woman who is intimately aware of the inherent dangers posed by a sociopathic serial killer, she has made these monsters her life’s study for goodness sake. Further, this is a woman who has lived like a nomad her entire life, moving from one destination to the next depending where her research takes her. Charlie knows the fact she has never settled anywhere is because she has looked over her shoulder since experiencing that horrible trauma as a teen. There is this prevailing, “he’s out there somewhere and could get you at any time” feeling that would cause a lesser person to become a committed agoraphobic but Charlie has channeled her fear in a positive direction, which is good. I did feel sorry for her though, she has no close girlfriends, her life has been devoid of passion, her one goal is to use her expertise to help devise some type of early serial killer detection system. Granted, she reticently steps into the devils sight when the FBI comes to call, but still… I did empathize with her need to do whatever she could to try and save another young girl’s life if at all possible. I didn’t dislike this heroine, but at times I couldn’t help but ask: What the hell is she doing?
Marlene: Lea, you’re right. I empathized with Charlie’s desire to help, but the management of her safety was lacking, to say the least. There were other ways the FBI could have consulted with Charlie without putting her in front of the press, even inadvertently. The case was so high-profile, the press were going to find out eventually, after all. Speaking of the FBI, Agent Bartoli accepts Charlie’s psychic gifts way too easily. On the other hand, Agent Kaminsky is skeptical of Charlie, even as a psychiatrist, to the point of being rude and dismissive. Police departments routinely use psychiatrists or psychologists to profile serial killers, so Kaminsky’s hostility went over-the-top to the point of unbelievability. The agent couldn’t have gotten as far as she had within the Bureau if she “played” that badly with professionals who would regularly be utilized by her team.
Lea: Bartoli’s awareness and acceptance of Charlie’s psychic abilities didn’t bother me. As for Agent Kaminsky? Yes, she did get on my last nerve at times and I agree with Marlene–her attitude toward Dr. Charlie Stone was unprofessional and degrading. I did enjoy it when Charlie starts giving Kaminsky back some of her own, and Charlie’s come-backs are great, she is a psychiatrist after all. I also couldn’t buy into Kaminsky’s personal issues with, and feelings for, fellow team member Agent Buzz Crane. I don’t personally know any FBI Special Agents, but given what I’ve previously read, these individuals are no nonsense and brooding relationships resulting in sarcasm toward fellow team members would be strictly verboten.
Marlene: And then there’s Garland. OMG my eyes started rolling and didn’t stop. He may have been killer gorgeous, but he was also in prison as a convicted serial killer who preyed specifically on women. Charlie was righteously afraid of him when he was alive, but she falls in love with him once he’s dead and his ghost is “attached” to her? The fact that he’s now a ghost and can’t harm her is supposed to make her forget the rest of his character? Or are the hints that he drops that maybe he wasn’t guilty intended to make the reader believe he isn’t as bad as he’s painted? He lied to get his victims into his clutches. He could be, most likely is, lying to Charlie. She should know better.
And ghost-sex by astral projection? Give me a break. Please!
Lea: Michael Garland is certainly intriguing and as the plot progressed I couldn’t help but feel the author had much more to reveal to readers about this guy–particularly given what happens during the conclusion of the story. As for Charlie’s sexual relationship with Garland, yeah, “weird, sister, weird”. O_o I felt the astral projection was a contrived device to get the two of them in the sack.
Then there was Charlie’s possible, maybe, perhaps, not sure, that was a meh/nice kiss, relationship with Bartoli? THAT I found eye-rollingly painful.
Marlene: All I can say is, poor Bartoli. But you’re right, Lea. I can see that the author is planning to reveal more about Garland, but Charlie doesn’t know that yet! And even if Garland turns out not to be a villain, or at least not a serial killer, he’s still dead. Which should carry its own red-flag warning in the romance department. Except for that astral projection thing. OMG that one still makes my head hurt!
Verdict:
Marlene: In spite of everything, I couldn’t turn my reader off. Possibly in the way of watching a train wreck, but just the same, I had to find out how this thing ended. The serial killer does get found, and it both is, and isn’t, a copycat. But a love triangle between a criminal psychiatrist, a dead murderer’s ghost, and a live FBI agent has nowhere to go but heartache. And Charlie should know better about Garland. (For a more satisfying ghost romance, I liked Stacey Kennedy’s Supernaturally Kissed much better (my review here) although the BLI reviewers thought differently. At least the hero is a good guy from the beginning!)
Lea: There were aspects of The Last Victim that I really liked, parts that dragged and finally there was the “OMG this is ridiculous”. However, despite the negatives it was compulsively readable, I had to know how Karen Robards was going to solve the case and kept turning the pages to discover what was going to happen next regarding what can only be described as a vicious, heinous killing spree. There are surprising plot twists. This book is the first in a series, I’m still pondering whether I’ll read the next one. Call me a masochist but I can’t help but want to read the next book to find out more about Michael Garland. LOL
Marlene gives The Last Victim 2.5 Stars
Lea gives The Last Victim a very tepid 3 Stars
***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.
About Marlene:
Marlene is a librarian, ebook advocate, science fiction fan, and RPG fan who lives in the Atlanta suburbs. She and her husband are owned by four cats, just ask them. She’s a geek and a nerd and proud of it. She’s also an avid reader of everything, including the back of the cereal box, and has been blogging since April 2011 at Reading Reality and is a reviewer at Library Journal as well as active on Goodreads. She is also the publisher of Ebook Review Central.
I wish I had a dollar for every person who sent me a link to the New York Times article about paying for book reviews. You know the one, “The Best Book Reviews Money Can Buy” from August 25. There’s a slight irony in the NYT publishing it, since no one really knows exactly how they compile their bestseller list, but I digress.
The things that keep circling in my mind about the whole “paying for reviews” thing go like this:
1. It feels like there are more books out there than ever
2. It is definitely harder to get people’s attention for anything than it used to be
3. Most people pick the next book they are going to read because they’ve already read that author (96% based on the Goodreads May Newsletter) so how does a newbie author get on readers’ radar?
4. Book Blogging is a labor of love, getting the blog to pay for itself (hosting fees, giveaways, etc.) is difficult enough, and blogging takes a lot of time and energy
Two things happen. (Okay, a lot more things happen, I’m only going to deal with two).
One of those things is the one that the New York Times article highlighted. Maybe low-lighted is a better word. Todd Rutherford made a tidy living for a while selling rave reviews on Amazon and Goodreads to authors. Not just authors whose names no one ever heard of, either. It turns out that part of John Locke’s self-publishing success is owed to purchased reviews.
Although the Times made a big deal about “exposing” this pay-for-play company, it’s a)out of business and b)not the only game in town.
Two companies, Blue Ink Review and Kirkus Book Reviews both offer a paid review service for independent/self-published authors. The difference is both cost much more (approx $400) and they each send the book to one reviewer who provides one review. Neither guarantees a good review. What they both offer is that if the author doesn’t like the review, the author has the option to not have it published. How often that happens, who knows? Also, they don’t blanket Amazon and Goodreads with multiple five star reviews.
(As a librarian, I will say that Kirkus has a lot of history behind them. They’ve been in the reviewing business for a long, long time. Since 1933. I used to get their reviews when they went into a three-ring binder, which dates me as much as it does them. Their reviews were always long and thorough. What selling their services in this way does to their street cred in the long run remains to be seen. Their newsletter is available free online and for anyone interested in books it’s definitely worth a read.)
And then there were the ChicklitGirls, who are also out of business. After all, if Kirkus Book Reviews can charge $400+ for a book review, why shouldn’t a book blog charge a much more reasonable fee, oh say $95 for a book review? Just like Kirkus (well, sort of) they did disclose in their reviewing policy that there was a fee for a review. Unlike the more reputable publication they cited as their excuse, the “Girls” threatened to sue an author who complained about their practices. For a full report, take a look at the terrific summary over at Dear Author.
But isn’t what happened over at ChicklitGirls (minus the lawsuit threat, that was just bad behavior) part and parcel of the same thing? They saw a way to make money, same as the New York Times article exposed (no pun intended) by charging authors for reviewing their books. And they tried to make money off what is otherwise a very labor-intensive what, hobby, addiction, drug-of-choice for most of us? Yes, I’m talking about book blogging. Which doesn’t otherwise pay.
We often get the books we review for free. But not always. Some of us buy them. Some people borrow them from the library. Often it’s a mix. Many blogs have affiliate links from Amazon and/or Barnes & Noble and/or The Book Depository. If we’re lucky we take in enough to pay the hosting fees for our sites and the cost of any giveaways. We probably all spend way more time than we ever imagined. Book blogging should probably be the dictionary definition of a labor of love. We love sharing what we read, so we blog.
But what happens when you get paid for reviewing a book? If you blog and you sign up for a tour, you might have faced a piece of this dilemma. You’re part of the advertising for the book, even though you’re not getting paid. You hate the book. You know the author doesn’t want a bad review as part of the tour. What do you do when it happens?
If you’ve been paid to review the book, then what? You really are part of the advertising. Your review is an ad. Ads are supposed to be positive. So, if a review is paid for, is it a review, or is it an ad?
As a lover of science fiction romance (over at Book Lovers Inc. I’m The Rocket Lover because of it!) I’m absolutely thrilled to welcome Heather Long to Reading Reality today. She’s here to talk about her fantastic (see review) new SFR superhero romance from Carina Press, Yesterday’s Heroes.
Marlene: Heather can you please tell us a bit about yourself?
Heather: I live in Texas and nearly every animal I have is a stray or a rescue. I’m a freelance writer and copyeditor, I am a mom, a quilter, a reader, and a friend. But at the heart of all of these things, I’m an author. I’ve always written, and when I was little, my grandmother used to read me Harlequin romance novels by Penny Jordan and Nora Roberts. I’m always working on my next project, and I fall a little bit in love with every hero I write.
Marlene:Yesterday’s Heroes is a little bit science fiction, a little bit time-travel, and a lot superhero romance. What inspired you to come up with this mix of genres for Yesterday’s Heroes?
Heather: The In Death series. The X-Men. The Teen Titans. The Avengers. Batman. Terminator. Time Cop. Star Trek. Changing the past is a provocative challenge, never mind the inherent paradox that exists when you travel into your past. If you recall from H.G. Wells The Time Machine — the reason he could never save his wife is that saving her would have negated the creation of the time machine itself. So these elements create a tapestry of conflict–internal and external — that I just couldn’t leave alone.
Marlene: What did it feel like when you got the call from Carina Press that they were publishing Yesterday’s Heroes?
Heather: I actually wrote about that call for an anthology, because I was in a changing room trying on bras when I got the phone call. I was over the moon thrilled and almost speechless, which never happens to me. It was an awesome feeling.
Marlene: Were you thinking of any particular superheroes when you put together the mix of powers that make up the Boomers?
Heather: Not exactly–I took elements that I enjoyed from different variations on different superheroes over the years — the elements that made me reach for those comic books over and over. Most of the Boomers then introduced themselves to me one at a time.
Marlene: Who are your favorite superhero movies or TV shows?
Heather: The Avengers blew me away when that came out – in fact, I have been over the moon with all the Marvel products in the last few years. As a writer and a fan, it’s amazing to see how well they’ve folded the worlds together with each film and then Whedon’s Avengers just knocked it out of the park. I watched Smallville for the entirety of its ten year run and prior to that I watched Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman and even the Superboy series in the late 1980s. I enjoy Nolan’s Batman – even if I think they went far too dark and at the same time I wanted to see more with the internal mythology of that series.
Marlene: Who first introduced you to the love of reading?
Heather: My grandmother. She read for years and she used to read to me from Harlequins when she was little.
Marlene: Who influenced your decision to become a writer?
Heather: I’ve wanted to write since I fully grasped reading, so it would have to be my grandmother.
Marlene: What book do you recommend everyone should read and why?
Heather: Read Yesterday’s Heroes — it’s one of the best books I’ve ever written – and I can’t wait to spend more time in this world.
Marlene: Will there be more books about the Boomers? Can you tell us a little about your upcoming projects?
Heather: I hope there are more Boomers — fingers crossed! Also coming is The Lady is a Thief, the third and final installment in the Fortunate Buddha trilogy, Micah & Mrs. Miller, book three of the Fevered Hearts series and No Regrets, No Surrender which is the full length follow up to Retreat Hell! She Just Got Here (Always a Marine series).
Marlene: Morning person or night owl?
Heather: Morning person!
Somebody please tell Carina Press I want more Boomers. Right now! In the meantime, I’ll just have to indulge my guilty little addiction for 1Night Stand books, now that I know Heather’s written a whole series of them. Thanks Heather!
~*~*Giveaway*~*~
As part of her blog tour, Heather is offering ten copies of Yesterday’s Heroes and one copy of Marshal of Hel Dorado.
Rory knows she’s being watched, and she’s not about to let the hunter catch her in his trap. She’ll confront her stalker, a man she suspects is involved in the disappearances of other superheroes—if she can ignore the sensual heat that fills her every time he’s near…
Michael Hunter
Codename: Hard Target
Abilities: expert tracker and sniper
Mission: kill Rory Graystone
One of five desperate men sent back in time to save the future, Michael believes eliminating Rory is the key to his mission. But even as he takes aim, a split second of doubt causes him to miss his shot.
Drawn together by passion, and on a collision course with fate, can Rory and Michael work together to change the future? Or have they set in motion the horrific history the time travelers are trying to prevent?
Tomorrow is yesterday.
It is for Michael Hunter and the men of his Bio-Mechanical Recon Unit. The Boomers. In 2115 this group of men with forbidden superpowers is sent back in time, in order to prevent the future that has branded them worse than outlaws.
In 1969 they start over as sleeper agents, blending in and waiting. Hoping to prevent the key events that their future believes will make a better tomorrow. In addition to the superpowers they were born with, they’ve been given a chemical cocktail to help them heal and survive the 150 years of waiting…while they change the future. Or is it the past.
Telepath, shapechanger, bioweapon, supersoldier, and tactician. A team. With instructions about the key points and people that should make the timeline shift in favor of less retrictions on supers. Heck, less restrictions on everyone.
9/11 was one of those key points. That’s a chilling thought. And it grounds the story in the real. The only problem is that the Boomers weren’t successful in derailing the train to future nightmare city.
Forty plus years after their insertion point, things aren’t going so well. They’ve missed their targets. The bad future is still on course. That’s when the story begins, and the future changes.
The Boomers know who the bad guy is in 2115. Their plan is to wipe him out before he takes power. In order to bring Hans Geiger out of the shadows, the plan is to assassinate his daughter, Aurora Greystone.
But the data is faulty. Aurora Greystone is a super. Just like the Boomers. She thinks they’re responsible for the disappearance of two of her teammates. So instead of a planned hit, this is a game of cat and mouse. Her super ability to sense the probabilities cancels out his tactical skills.
Michael Hunter has to confront the only person he’s ever shot at, and missed. He’s followed her for weeks, and she tempts him beyond all reason. This confrontation, it shouldn’t happen, but he can’t resist.
Rory knows she’s being stalked, and she’s let it happen. She’s told herself it’s to find out what happened to her teammates, but that’s not all it is. She wants to hunt the hunter. He tempts her beyond all sense.
Their confrontation is explosive in a way that neither of them imagined. They should kill each other. Instead, they claim each other. To the point that Michael turns on one of his own to protect Rory.
And his implant, silent for twenty years, comes back to life. Rory might bring the future back on track. Or destroy it.
If they can figure out which before it’s too late.
Escape Rating A-: Mix the Terminator with the X-Men, and add some werewolf fated mate trope for flavor, and you’ve got something like Yesterday’s Heroes. But there’s more.
The idea of traveling back in time to fix the present is definitely Terminator-esque, but what I liked about the way that it gets handled in Yesterday’s Heroes was that knife-in-the-gut twist, that the Boomers might have created the bad history they want to prevent by going back in time.
There’s also the heartbreak that one of the Boomers had a life in the future he wanted to get back to, one way or another. Once Rory and Michael change the path, the future that the Boomers came from will not be the one they live to see, if they manage to live to see it. For Rex, there’s a ton of pain in the new future. His story would be a three-hankie special.
I ended up with some questions. Who is/was Hans Geiger? In the future, he’s the dictator. He’s supposed to be Rory’s father. She says he’s not. She’s being honest, but that may mean that she doesn’t know that he’s her father. Or, since in the future he’s the big bad (he’s also immortal) the whole Boomer project may have been designed to bring about his reign of terror. The whole thing could be a conspiracy.
I’d also have liked a bit more explanation of why Michael and Rory literally had the instant chemistry. And it seemed to be actual chemistry. It was necessary for the plot to work, but it never got explained. Was it something about them both being supers? Did it have to do with the chemicals used on the Boomers, and if so, why did it also affect Rory? Or was it part of Rory’s talent for finding the only avenue to survival, and if so, why did it work on Michael?
Too many possibilities, and no way to get answers until the next book. I want the next book!
***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.
I’m very pleased to welcome Lia Davis to Reading Reality today. She’s here to talk about her decadently delicious story from the 1Night Stand series Ravished Before Sunrise (see review for deliciousness)
Now let’s hear from Lia!
Marlene: Lia, can you please tell us a bit about yourself? What do you do when you’re not writing?
Lia: Hi! I’m a newbie author. I have two published ebooks and more on their way. 🙂 I’m a wife to a wonderful, supportive, and loving man. And a mother of two young adults and two furry felines. I have a BSA in Accounting and currently work full time in the Finance/Account department for a vendor management software company. When I’m not working the day job and writing, I spend time with family and read.
Marlene: All of your books are paranormal romance in one way or another. What is it that first attracted you to write love stories for the “things that go bump in the night”?
Lia: I love the creative freedom I have with writing paranormal. I can create worlds that are magical with creatures that excite the imagination. I love the danger, suspense, and mystery that come with the supernatural.
Marlene:Ravished Before Sunrise is part of the 1Night Stand series. How easy or difficult was it to squeeze a whole love story into just one night?
Lia: My average word count seems to be around 40K to 65K at the moment. So it was a challenge to write a shorter story at first. What helped me was that I believe in love at first sight. I have known couples that fell in love in the first meeting and are still together after many years of marriage. I also believe that there is someone for everyone and they meant to be together. And nothing happens by accident.
Marlene: Would you like to give readers a little taste of Ravished Before Sunrise? What can they expect?
Lia:Ravished is a quick and sexy adventure that starts with Emalee wanting a break from her life in hiding from the paranormal world. Her unusual abilities make the supernatural communities leery of her, so she lives in a witch’s coven with her BFF. For her 1Night Stand she chooses a romantic role-playing adventure to hunt a vampire and to be ravished by him.
The vampire, Darian, is a widower who has grown tired of his long-lived life. His loving daughter signs him up for the date.
Marlene: Do you plan everything or just let the story flow? Do your characters ever want to take over the story?
Lia: I start off planning the setting, character profiles, then outline the plot points. Once that is done I sit and let the story flow.
Marlene: Who first introduced you to the love of reading?
Lia: My mom. She loves to read romance. So naturally I picked it up and love it as much as she does.
Marlene: Who influenced your decision to become a writer?
Lia: Not sure if a specific person influenced me. I’ve always loved creative writing and making up stories. I’m just not sure why it took me so long to start writing to be published.
Marlene: What book do you recommend everyone should read and why?
Lia: There are so many great books out there. I’m always discovering a new series I fall in love with. If you are a history of science fan check out A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness. It’s awesome and the first book in her All Souls trilogy. The writing really draws you in. An all around great read.
Marlene: Now can you tell us 3 reasons why people should read your books?
Lia: Suspense and mystery intertwined with paranormal, believable love stories, and lovable characters.
Marlene: What’s next on your schedule? Do you have any upcoming projects you’d like to share?
Lia: I just finished Death’s Storm, the second in my Divinities series, and sent it to my editor. The target release date is November 2012. I am also working on a new series called Ashwood Falls about two shifter packs living together in one community. The first book, Winter Eve, is due to release in December 2012.
I also plan to write more 1NS stories.
Marlene: Morning person or night owl?
Lia: Night owl. It takes me too long to get going in the morning. 🙂
Lia, I’m with you! Instant human, just add caffeine. And Deborah Harkness’ A Discovery of Witches was amazing.
Thanks so much for being here today. I love the giveaway. Everyone needs a little more caffeine in their life!
~*~*Giveaway*~*~
As part of her blog tour, Lia Davis will give away a $5 Starbucks GC, Starbucks Via sample pack, and a swag pack to one winner at the end of the tour.
Format read: ebook provided by the authors
Their enemies will be back. After all, I read The Cowboy and the Vampire to get ready for Blood and Whiskey, the second book in the series (review and interview with the authors on Thursday).
![[Ravished Before Sunrise tour button]](/wp-content/uploads/blog_tours/RavishedBeforeSunriseTour.png "Ravished Before Sunrise tour button")