Review: The Yard by Alex Grecian

Posted on June 7, 2013July 6, 2013 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | A Reviews> book reviews

Format read: paperback ARC picked up at conference
Formats available: ebook, paperback, hardcover, audiobook
Genre: Historical mystery
Series: The Murder Squad, #1
Length: 432 pages
Publisher: Putnam
Date Released: May 29, 2012
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

1889, LONDON.

JACK THE RIPPER’S REIGN OF TERROR IN FINALLY OVER, BUT A NEW ONE IS JUST BEGINNING.

Victorian London—a violent cesspool of squalid depravity. Only twelve detectives—The Murder Squad—are expected to solve the thousands of crimes committed here each month. Formed after the Metropolitan Police’s spectacular failure in capturing Jack the Ripper, the Murder Squad suffers the brunt of public contempt. But no one can anticipate the brutal murder of one of their own…

A Scotland Yard Inspector has been found stuffed in a black steamer trunk at Euston Square Station, his eyes and mouth sewn shut. When Walter Day, the squad’s new hire, is assigned to the case, he finds a strange ally in Dr. Bernard Kingsley, the Yard’s first forensic pathologist. Their grim conclusion: this was not just a random, bizarre murder but in all probability, the first of twelve. Because the squad itself it being targeted and the devious killer shows no signs of stopping before completing his grim duty. But Inspector Day has one more surprise, something even more shocking than the crimes: the killer’s motive.

My Review

Jack the Ripper changed the world. He wasn’t the first serial killer, but he was the first one to create the kind of worldwide media frenzy that we are only too familiar with today.

The Ripper created the type of spectacle that the media loves, in an era when the newspapers (think of that, newspapers) were only just discovering the power of the press to sensationalize.

When Jack wasn’t caught, that frenzy turned on the Metropolitan Police. The late 1880s were the very dawn of forensics and investigative techniques. No one was prepared to profile a serial killer. But the press howled for a scapegoat, and the public lost confidence in the police.

(If you’ve ever watched the TV series Ripper Street, this is the same time period. Not only does it give you a terrific picture of the setting for The Yard, but Ripper Street is just plain awesome. Dark, but awesome.)

The story of The Yard is a murder investigation. After the Ripper killings, this Scotland Yard created not merely what 21st century police would call a Homicide Division, but a Major Case Squad within that division. In other words, a “Murder Squad”.

Their first serious case is the murder of one of their own: a Detective Inspector is found stuffed into a steamer trunk in Euston Station, with his eyes and mouth sewn shut. It is going to be Detective Inspector Walter Day’s first major case since he was promoted to Inspector and moved to London from Devon.

No one is sure he is up to the job, including himself. Because the killer is after him. At least, one of them is.

Escape Rating A: The Yard is an amazingly well put together story. It’s a historic mystery, and it’s a police procedural at a time when that police procedure was being invented. Forensics compared to what we know now were pretty minimal. Reading the story of this “Murder Squad” being created as it solves its first cases is awesome.

As a police procedural, this is a “cop shop” book. Grecian brings the work of the police to life. Even though this is a different era from our own, they still feel like police. A lot of the grunt work is the same, even when technology is non-existent.

The characters were people that you wanted to follow. In this story, those are mainly the men, because women weren’t police in the 19th century, but the glimpses of their backstories have depth. One of the fascinating characters is the pathologist, Dr. Kingley, who seems to be running the entire forensic pathology department as a one-man-band on his own time and his own dime (or shilling).

But the two members of the Murder Squad itself are the people whose eyes we see through. Walter Day, who is new to London and isn’t sure if he should be there, and Constable Hammersmith, who got himself out of the coal mines and was made to be a copper.

Not only are the characters incredibly well-drawn, but the research into the period is meticulous. Grecian has brought the gaslight era back to life in The Yard.

Right now, I’m trying to figure out why I let the ARC of The Yard sit around since last June. It was on my 2012 most anticipated list, but when I got it I didn’t get around to reading it until now. I’d be kicking myself harder but Murder Squad #2, The Black Country, just came out this month. I can jump right in!

If this sounds like your cup of tea, or if you’re interested in an alternative investigation of the Ripper case itself, try Lyndsay Faye’s Dust and Shadow.

***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.

Review: A Riveting Affair by Candace Havens, Lily Lang, Patricia Eimer

Posted on June 6, 2013December 1, 2013 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | 2 1/2 Stars> 3 Stars> 4 1/2 Stars> book reviews> Originally published at Book Lovers, Inc.> The Rocket Lover

Book Blurb:

Beauty and the Clockwork Beast

Rose Verney wants to fulfill her father’s dying request: to complete construction of the teleportation device he designed. Knowing just who can help her succeed, she seeks out Sebastian Cavendish, her father’s brilliant former student.Sebastian hasn’t left his home since he returned from the Civil War. He’s a broken man, his prosthetics a reminder of the terrible destruction his inventions brought to the battlefield. He wants nothing to do with Rose and her father’s masterpiece, but when she barges into his abandoned lab and begins construction, it’s everything he can do to resist getting involved. Especially when she charms her way into his monstrous heart.

Demon Express

Professor Maisy Clark, professional demon hunter, is on the trail of an evil scientist responsible for the deaths of hundreds. Julian is worse than the monsters he creates, but he’s also obsessed with Maisy and willing to kill anyone who gets too close to her. Just when she thinks she has Julian cornered, the sexy marshall Jake Calloway insists the investigation is his, and everything goes to hell. Maisy came to Texas to corner the scientist whose macabre experiments have taken so many lives, and Calloway is just another distraction she doesn’t need. Julian is her responsibility, one she’s not about to share. Even if Calloway can help, Julian will know Maisy is falling for the marshall, and she’s not willing to risk his life.

The Clockwork Bride

When engineer Aida Mulvaney attends a masquerade ball at the home of a staunch Luddite earl with a personal vendetta against her father’s company, she doesn’t expect to end the night married to the earl’s son Julian Capshaw, a brilliant engineer in his own right. The marriage will allow both of them to pursue their love of science, without interfering parents and ridiculous social stigmas. Though they escape to the Continent to start new lives, Julian’s father will have none of his heir’s disobedience. Before long, a marriage begun for the sake of convenience becomes a union of passion, but will it survive the machinations of an earl determined to destroy everything they love?

My Thoughts:

Beauty and the Clockwork Beast by Lily Lang

This retelling of “Beauty and the Beast” was definitely my favorite story in the book! For one thing, this one was just the right length, not too long and not too short (more on that later). It began and ended within its frame.

This is a redemption story, as all the best reworkings of Beauty and the Beast generally are. Sebastian feels that the only way he can repay the world for all the killings done by his war machines is to suffer physical and mental anguish and to never create or use another machine again. Rose needs him to be her partner, to help her finish her father’s legacy. She remembers how he used to be when he was her father’s student. She doesn’t care about how he looks, what she cares about is his spirit, his desire to create and invent…the sharp mind that was the equal of her father’s.

Rose engages his mind, and brings him back to the land of the living. She brings his house back to life, too. They become partners first, and friends. Even though the very first scene is Sebastian being extremely beastly, in the end, they fall in love because they know each other well.

The story never drags. I almost got sucked into reading it again writing the review!

I give Beauty and the Clockwork Beast by Lily Lang 4 and ½ stars

The Clockwork Bride by Patricia Eimer

Master Engineer Aida Mulvaney reluctantly goes to a masquerade ball with a friend and ends up eloping with Julian Capshaw, the son of a Luddite Earl,who also happens to be an engineer. Their fathers also happen to be long-standing enemies, to the point that maybe the M and C last names could be Montague and Capulet instead of Mulvaney and Capshaw.

And this is Victorian-era steampunk, so anti-Irish prejudice is in full-flower. You guessed it-Aida Mulvaney is Irish, or her family certainly is. The elopement part was actually fun, they don’t pretend this is a love match. But when things go downhill, Capshaw’s father’s schemes and machinations come off as too bwahaha evil when we don’t know enough about his motives.

Julian and Aida’s stay in poverty because of said machinations took up too much story, especially since we don’t know enough. That part of the story dragged. Then a whole lot of melodramatic froth got ladled on at the end.

I give The Clockwork Bride by Patricia Eimer 3 stars

The Demon Express by Candace Havens

When I read The Demon Express I had the feeling that I had been dropped into the middle of a story that had been started somewhere else. It felt like there was a whole lot more story going on than what I was reading in that one story. I want the rest of it.

I was left with a lot more questions than I had answers. Actually, the story didn’t end so much as it stopped. Maisy is clearly more than human, but in what way? Julian is some kind of monster, but what kind? What happened between them? More important, how does he track her? Does he really know what she’s feeling, or is he just a master manipulator?

The Demon Express felt like the teaser for a “real” story that I hope is coming later. I don’t like being teased this way without knowing that there is a full-length novel on the horizon. For certain.

I give The Demon Express by Candace Havens 2 and ½ 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.

Sneak Peak at The Blooding of Jack Absolute by C.C. Humphreys + Giveaway

Posted on June 6, 2013June 1, 2013 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | Guest Posts

Today I’d like to share with you a sneak peak from The Blooding of Jack Absolute by C.C. Humphreys. The author is also giving away three copies of the marvelous first book in this series Jack Absolute (Escape Rating A review here)! Look for the Rafflecopter at the end of the post.

Chapter 2: Reunion

Jack came along the track at a steady lope, thinking about Time. The Papists had won, it seemed, despite Englishmen expressing their displeasure, in flame and riot, the length of the land. Time had stood still. So though Jack had been hiding for near three weeks now, by some trick only ten days had passed on the calendar. He and Treve, his only contact, had scratched their heads a lot, especially when considering if they were now younger than they’d been. If that was true, it was not good. He needed to get older as fast as possible, for with age would come size and strength and these were requirements for the hard life promised.

Or mayhap it was the lack of food that was curbing his reason. It had been a day and a night since last he’d rendezvoused with his friend and Treve had brought what little his mother Morwenna could spare. Since then, Jack had made do with a fish he’d found washed up on the beach. That had made him sick, probably because he’d been unable to cook it properly.

Jack halted. The track plunged into a gully whose steep sides, lined in thick bramble, would be hard to scramble up. He might need to for two reasons. Firstly, the effects of that fish made frequent halts a necessity and he didn’t want to be stuck with his breeches down on a track this close to Absolute Hall. Secondly, Treve had warned that Craster was once again hunting him, after the period of restraint that had followed Duncan’s funeral. Treve’s dad, Lutie, and many of the others had tried to persuade his cousin that Jack was gone, had joined the fishermen in Penzance or even set out for the clay pits over Austell. But Craster was determined. A warrant had been sworn, blaming Jack for his father’s death. In fact, since that day, it was said that Craster Absolute had changed, had taken on attributes of the dead man. His voice had settled deep, he cursed Jack day and night, and he had begun to drink.

Jack’s bowels calmed, enough to shift his feelings to his stomach and its emptiness. He hoped that Treve lay up ahead with perhaps a pasty or another of his mother’s Figgy Hobbans. The memory of that last one—three weeks, or ten days before, whichever it was—now made up his mind. He hastened down the gully.

Rounding the bend, he saw Treve there before him. But his joy in the sight died fast as he saw that his friend was not alone.

“Seize him!”

Continue reading “Sneak Peak at The Blooding of Jack Absolute by C.C. Humphreys + Giveaway” →

Review: Jack Absolute by C.C. Humphreys

Posted on June 6, 2013May 27, 2013 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | A Reviews> Book Lovers Inc.> book reviews

Format read: ebook provided by NetGalley
Formats available: ebook, paperback
Genre: Historical fiction
Series: Jack Absolute, #1
Length: 276 pages
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark
Date Released: May 7, 2013 (U.S. edition)
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

The year is 1777. As the war for American independence rages across the sea, London is swept off its feet by Jack Absolute, the dashing rogue in Richard Sheridan’s comedy The Rivals. That is, until the real Jack Absolute, former captain of the 16th Light Dragoons, returns after years abroad to discover this slander of his reputation.

Before he can even protest, he is embroiled in a duel over an alluring actress of questionable repute, and his only escape is the one he most dreads: to be pressed again into the King’s service—this time, as a spy for the British in the Revolutionary War.

My Review:

Jack Absolute’s character is written in a way intended to make the reader think of an 18th century James Bond. One of the later Bonds, at the point where he’d begun to get a bit tired of the game and developed some self-reflection.

I certainly got some of that. Jack is a member of a very old profession: he is a spy for the English crown during the American Rebellion. He’s been a spy before, and he is pretty much dragooned into doing it again, in spite of his stated views that us Americans do have some justifications for our actions.

If you’ve ever seen Sheridan’s play The Rivals, you’ve already met Captain Jack Absolute, and it’s quite possible that you have seen the play. It’s famous for the character who gave us the word “malapropism”. That’s right, Mrs. Malaprop supposedly guards the virtue of the heroine in this classic romantic comedy/farce.

Jack Absolute is the romantic hero of the play. In the book, Sheridan the playwright is one of Jack’s friends. He made a hit out of trivializing and romanticizing a real incident in Jack’s life.

Jack’s own life is not a romance, not that he hasn’t played the part of lovesick fool on more than one occasion. As a spy, he’s played whatever role suited the occasion best in order to fulfill his mission.

John Burgoyne by Reynolds — Portrait of John Burgoyne by Joshua Reynolds c 1766

This mission is in big trouble from the start. General John Burgoyne has been led to believe that there are thousands of Loyalists ready to take up arms against the Rebels as soon as he gives the word. And that equal numbers of Native allies are eager to march with the British Army for the usual inducements.

As history tells us, those assumptions were wrong. Jack didn’t have the advantage of history, but what he did have was several years of experience living in America, including living with the Mohawk. He knew those beliefs couldn’t be right.

Jack had a secondary mission; find the spy within the British command staff, codenamed Diogenes. He thought he was looking for a military officer, not the woman he loved.

Escape Rating A: I did think of James Bond, but mostly I thought of Jamie Fraser and Lord John Grey.

The incredibly, marvelously immersive work of historical fiction that is Jack Absolute kept me flipping pages long past bedtime. The author does a fantastic job capturing the sights and sounds of Colonial America, and of 18th century life. I felt I was there and didn’t want to leave.

Plan of battlefield of Saratoga — Plan of the battlefield of Saratoga

The depth of the portrait of life in the British military at this time period was reminiscent of Diana Gabaldon’s Lord John Grey series. Same period, similar perspective and eventually, place. Also, Jack Absolute and Jamie Fraser (Outlander) both knew, and fought with, General Simon Fraser of Balnain. Jack and Jamie (read An Echo in the Bone if you’re curious) were both at the Battle of Saratoga, on opposite sides.

As an American, it is always interesting to read about the Revolution from the perspective of British. The histories written by the victors glorify the Revolution. The British called it a Rebellion. Perspective is everything.

I got swept away by this book, and not just because I found the period details enthralling, although I did. Jack was one of those characters who kept getting more and more fascinating as the book went on, because he was complex. He thought about what he was doing, he didn’t just obey orders. He was tired of the spy game and thought about what it meant, but he was good at his job. His relationship with the Mohawk people, and especially his blood brother Até, is not just a true brotherhood, but is also used as a way to explore the British and American relationship with the Native peoples and the devastation that is inevitably coming.

This review originally appeared at Book Lovers Inc.

***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.

Interview with Author Seleste deLaney + Giveaway

Posted on June 5, 2013June 2, 2013 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | Author Interviews> blog tours> Book Giveaway> ebook giveaway> Giveaways

Today I’d like to welcome Seleste deLaney, the author of the tremendously fun contemporary romance Gaming for Keeps (read my review here).

Marlene: Welcome Seleste! Can you please tell us a bit about yourself?

Seleste: Hi! Let’s see… I’m a former lab rat turned high school science teacher turned stay-at-home-mom turned author. It’s quite the pedigree, but I assure you there’s a marginally logical progression from one career to the next. I’m in the process of moving to the Detroit metro area with my two crazy kids and two very loyal attention hounds (er…my dogs. The kids are attention hounds too but in a different way.)

Marlene: Describe a typical day of writing? Are you a planner or pantser?

Seleste: I’m a…a…an in-betweener? I call what I do road-mapping. I know where I start and where I’m going to end and I plot a couple sights to see along the way, but I wing how I get from one to the next and sometimes what order they happen. Every once in a while I veer completely off the map too. Luckily that happens less now since my editors like me to stick to the synopses I give them.

A typical day? (We’ll go with pre-summer-vacay since typical is about to fly out the window.) Mornings are generally for taking the kids to school, working out, running errands and doing business-y stuff like emails and whatnot. Afternoons I either do blog posts/interviews or try to get some words in. Once I pick up the kids, it’s a wash as to whether or not I get work done until their bedtime. Generally my most productive writing hours are after the two of them are in bed and quiet. I like to turn off most of the lights and disappear into my laptop.

Marlene: Gaming for Keeps has a lot of marvelous geeky, nerdy in-jokes. What’s your favorite science-fiction universe?

Seleste: Firefly. Whedon is my god and if I could afford to make another movie happen, I’d hand him the multi-million dollar check personally.

Marlene: Are you a gamer? What do you play?

Seleste: I played EverQuest and EQ2 for quite a few years. It became like a drug for me though and I had to quit. I heard about a game (Bioshock Infinite) at a convention (Up in the Aether) recently though that makes me want to start playing again. I’m just terrified that it will eat into my writing time. 🙁

Marlene: ConDamned reminded me of a lot of cons I’ve been to. Was it modeled on any particular experience of yours?

Seleste: Not really. One of the things I didn’t want to do was make it a specific con (that I hadn’t ever attended) and end up getting things wrong. So it’s bits and pieces of my experiences at ConFusion, FanExpo (in Canada), and even RT (the Romantic Times Booklovers Convention). I mushed it all up, shook it like a martini, poured and hoped for the best.

Marlene: Would you like to introduce us to your hero and heroine in Gaming for Keeps?

Seleste: Penelope (Megara) is almost a quintessential geek girl. She’s a computer guru who works at a college library, a book lover, and a gamer. Her luck with men has been shoddy at best and her last boyfriend has been screwing up her gaming life since they split. She’s gunshy to say the least.

Cal (Lohonas) is geek, but he’s also an incredibly sexy spy for an organization called TRAIT (they take all the “rejects” from the FBI, CIA, etc). He’s a gamer (which is how they first “meet”) and also heavily into cosplay since he likes to “disappear” at cons.

Marlene: And what’s your favorite scene from the book? And why?

Seleste: There is a shower scene that was added in edits that I love. The exchange between the characters is so fun, and the situation so real that I giggled every time I worked on it. It’s the drama, sexy, and silly all rolled up into one scene.

Marlene: Will there be more books in this series? What is next on your schedule?

Seleste: I have more for the people of TRAIT in the works and will share news as soon as I can! As far as other books, the second in my steampunk series (Clockwork Mafia) just came out at the end of April. And I have a new book in Entangled’s Brazen line (Seducing the Enemy) as well as the next book in my urban fantasy series (Kiss of Life) coming before the end of the year for sure.

Marlene: What was the first book that made you love reading?

Seleste: The very first book I remember devouring over and over again (my parents had to buy me a new, hardcover, copy as a kid because I ruined the previous one) was The Velveteen Rabbit. To this day, it’s a favorite of mine and I’ll occasionally snuggle up with it. I think it was the combination of tragic beauty and magic that drew me in and kept me coming back for more.

Marlene: Please name a book that you’ve bought just for the cover.

Seleste: Oh wow. This is a tough one. Scott Westerfeld’s Leviathan is one that was sort of like that, but I’d read The Uglies and enjoyed it, so that’s not a horribly fair answer. I will say that the cover for Eclipse always snagged my attention and made me pick it up, but I ended up buying the Twilight books more to see what all the fuss was about and never actually ended up reading Eclipse.

Marlene: Tell me something about yourself that I wouldn’t know to ask.

Seleste: I actually had to go to Twitter for this, so I’m going to answer all the questions they presented.

What color panties are you wearing? White with tiny black leopard prints.
What is directly to your left? A wall. After rearranging my office to sell the house, a blank wall is all I’ve got 🙁
Dream cosplay? If I could get a group together for it, I’d love to do steampunk versions of all the bad girls from Batman. I know it’s been done, but I love it every time I see it.
If someone wrote a fanfic with your characters, what characters do you think the author would pair up? Not from this series, but I’m pretty sure there’s probably Remy fanfic out there somewhere, and if he’s not with EVERYONE in it, I’d be horribly disappointed 😉
Can I have a video of you singing “Gitchee Gitchee Goo” on Youtube? No. In fact, hell no. Unless someone clandestinely films that while I’m at a con and being silly. Then I might have to kill them.
Can you swallow an entire…bottle of water without putting it down? 😉 I see what you did there. And the answer is yes. Apparently there will now be a test of this at RT next year.
Something about corsets…? Okay, I have mad love for corsets, but my normal daily uniform is jeans and a t-shirt, preferably with some sort of character on it. (Today, it’s an Avengers one.)

Marlene: Are you a morning person or a night owl?

Seleste: Definitely night owl. I prefer people don’t talk to me or even look at me funny in the morning. I was at that convention I mentioned earlier and had a 10:30 panel on Saturday. I had…imbibed late into the night on Friday. One of the girls I’d been hanging out with (who had imbibed less) saw me on my way to the panel in the morning and basically said hi. I had to check myself otherwise I might have snarled at her. From now on, I’m putting in a “no panels before noon” request when I sign up for cons.

About Seleste deLaney

Seleste started on her career path as a young child. Stories of talking animals soon gave way to a love of superheroes and science fiction. Her first foray into the world of romance came at age twelve when she envisioned a sweeping epic love story of two people thrust together and torn apart again and again by fate. As she recalls, the plan was for them to admit their love on his deathbed. But, as is often the case with pre-teen girls, a story of that depth gave way to other pursuits, and sadly it is completely lost other than vague memories.After that, she occupied herself with short stories for a while, and then poetry until after she had earned a degree in chemistry, spent time as a high school teacher, and became a mother of two. Then she delved into writing fiction once more.

She never lost her love of the fantastic, and her stories now always reach into other realms. The worlds and people she creates occupy as much of her time as the real world, and she is most fortunate to have a family that understands her idiosyncrasies and loves her anyway.

To learn more about Seleste, visit her website and blog or follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

GIVEAWAY

One ebook copy of Seleste deLaney’s Gaming for Keeps will be given away to a lucky winner. To enter, use the Rafflecopter below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Review: Gaming for Keeps by Seleste deLaney

Posted on June 5, 2013June 1, 2013 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | B Reviews> blog tours> book reviews

Format read: ebook provided by the publisher
Formats available: ebook
Genre: Romantic suspense
Length: 112 pages
Publisher: Entangled: Ever After
Date Released: June 10, 2013
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo

Pen Holloway’s done with men—in real life. Guys in game are so much less drama. But when her partner from　Heroes of Fallen Gods　invites her to the convention of the year, she panics. What if he’s another jerk? What if he’s not?

Cal Burrows is living his dream of being a spy. One of TRAIT’s misfit spies, but still a spy. It’s the perfect job… until an arms dealer with a taste for blood invades his not-so-secret geek haven. All Cal wanted from ConDamned was to meet his on-line girl. Now, with the threat of mass murder looming, he’s forced to choose between keeping his mission a secret and protecting the girl of his dreams.

Despite their attraction, Pen can’t help but suspect Cal’s hiding something. She also can’t shake the feeling he’s not as much of a stranger as he seems.

My Review:

For a gamer and sci-fi geek, reading Gaming for Keeps was sort of like reading crack. I loved the in-jokes and con jokes. The whole idea of a science fiction convention romance was a trip down memory lane, and then to add on the whole spy game gone bad on top of the romance was just sheer bliss.

Games are the black holes into which weekends fall. It’s true for a lot of real-life gamers, and it’s also true for Pen (short for Penelope) Holloway. She’s been spending too much of her non-work life playing the MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) Heroes of Fallen Gods. It used to be fun, but since she broke up with her ex-boyfriend–but still fellow guild-player–Aaron, gaming isn’t what is used to be.

Enter Lohonas, well, sort of. They’ve never met in real-life, only in-game. In-game he’s a sweetheart, always saving her when Aaron (nearly) lets her die. Pen (known in-game as Megara, from, you guessed it, Disney’s Hercules) has spent hours online talking with Lohonas, but has no idea who he might be in real-space.

He might be ugly. He might still live at home with his mother. He might be another girl, although that wouldn’t be so bad, at least she’d have made a friend.

Then he invites her to meet up with him at ConDamned, the con of the year. They could become more than friends. Or it could be a complete disappointment, and she’d lose her gamer-buddy.

It’s just too bad that Cal Burrowes, AKA Lohonas, can’t tell Megara, the girl of his dreams, that he suddenly has to work that weekend, and get her to stay away from the con. Because Cal is a real-life, not in-game, spy. And the forces of evil are planning to commit mass mayhem and murder in the middle of thousands of unsuspecting (and unarmed) science fiction fans.

And he’s just lured the woman he wants to fall in love with into the middle of the destruction.

Escape Rating B: I’m not sure how much of this story would work if you didn’t understand either the in-jokes or anything about either gaming or cons. And it’s too short to get the backstory on Cal’s (Lohonas’) government agency or why he’s got problems working in the field. There’s obviously something not quite right on both those fronts, but I didn’t get enough to figure it all out.

That being said, for someone who is into everything, the story is a blast! It read a lot like a superhero story, with Lohonas being Cal’s alterego or secret identity. And I wouldn’t mind finding out more about TRAIT, his agency, or seeing more stories about the other agents. Gaming for Keeps ended up being super geek fun!

***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.

Review: Deadly Games by Lindsay Buroker

Posted on June 4, 2013June 2, 2013 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | A Reviews> book reviews

Format read: ebook purchased from the author
Formats available: ebook, paperback, audiobook
Genre: Fantasy, Steampunk
Series: The Emperor’s Edge, #3
Length: 328 pages
Publisher: Self-published
Date Released: November 10, 2011
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

When you’ve been accused of kidnapping an emperor, and every enforcer in the city wants your head, it’s hard to prove yourself an honorable person and even harder to earn an imperial pardon.

That doesn’t keep Amaranthe Lokdon and her team of outlaws from trying. When athletes start disappearing from the Imperial Games, they may finally have an opportunity to show the emperor that they’re on his side. If she and her comrades can get to the bottom of such a public mystery, they’re sure to get the credit.

But plans go awry when Amaranthe’s own men start plotting against each other, the new ally she’d hoped to acquire tries to turn her in, and her best fighter–and closest friend–disappears.

Maybe getting involved wasn’t such a good idea after all…

My Review:

Deadly Games gets off to a slightly slower start than the first two books in the Emperor’s Edge series (see my reviews of The Emperor’s Edge and Dark Currents) but it’s the same type of slowly as those last few feet of clanking you hear on a roller coaster just before it gets dragged over the top of the first, highest peak on its track and goes careening down the other side in near-freefall.

Once this story gets going, the stomach-clenching, twisting and turning action never stops. The reader can also feel the places where the story kind of “bends” onto a slightly different path, and the whole fantastic construction of the series shifts from just being a glorious adventure to something more serious and, well, deadly.

In the background, you see the long game being played. Amaranthe and her band may be pawns on someone else’s chessboard. We won’t know until the future books play themselves out.

But in this story, there is an event like the Olympics, and people are being kidnapped. Athletes who otherwise have nothing in common besides the games are turning up missing. Amaranthe gets involved because it’s the right thing to do, not because there’s a job in it.

Speaking of games, someone is impersonating Sicarius, and drawing what you would think would be life-limiting attention from the Enforcers.

Oh, and Maldynado keeps trying to set Amaranthe up on a blind date with one of his warrior-caste friends. Not only is Amaranthe embarrassed by this matchmaking assistance, but her “date” keeps trying to get her arrested. There are a couple of bright spots that come out of this particular charade.

The question, as usual, is whether Amaranthe will live long enough to enjoy them.

Escape Rating A-: This installment in the series takes a bit to really get going, possibly because it starts while the gang is on vacation, so there’s a flavor of “getting the band back together” after downtime.

Also, it felt like more of the action than normal took place with the group split into different factions, and the narrative had to switch back and forth. I think this was intended as Basilard’s story, or it felt that way. His issues with his past are the ones that get resolved in this book, even though the long arc is Amaranthe and Sicarius’ story.

The focus this time is on Amaranthe and Sicarius strangely developing relationship; on Basilard’s acceptance, or lack thereof, of the things he had to do to survive; and on Maldynado’s continuing to be Maldynado. Mal may also be growing up a bit, although that’s a really long journey. It’s probably longer than Amaranthe and Sicarius getting to the point of having a relationship, and that’s saying something!

Books and Akstyr take a backseat in this book, and that’s okay. This story has a lot to juggle without keeping all of them in front all the time.

There was no easy solution this time. They solved the “case”, but found as many questions as they did answers. The ending left me chomping at the bit to start the next book, Conspiracy.

I have a nasty feeling that they will have more than one conspiracy to deal with. Their luck just seems to run that way. Bad. Awful for them, but compelling to read.

***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.

Review: South of Surrender by Laura Kaye

Posted on June 3, 2013December 1, 2013 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | 4 Stars> book reviews> Originally published at Book Lovers, Inc.> The Rocket Lover

South of Surrender by Laura Kaye Format read: ebook provided by the publisher
Series: Hearts of the Anemoi, #3
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Release Date: May 28, 2013
Number of pages: 400 pages
Publisher: Entanged Select
Formats available: ebook, paperback
Purchasing Info: Author’s website | Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Book Depository US | Book Depository (UK) | Publisher’s Website

Chrysander Notos, Supreme God of the South Wind and Summer, is on a mission: save Eurus from his death sentence and prove his troubled brother can be redeemed. But Eurus fights back, triggering vicious summer storms that threaten the mortal realm, dangerously drain Chrys, and earn the ire of the Olympic gods who ordered Eurus dead.

Laney Summerlyn refuses to give up her grandfather’s horse farm, despite her deteriorating vision. More than ever, she needs the organized routine of her life at Summerlyn Stables, until a ferocious storm brings an impossible—and beautiful—creature crashing down from the heavens.

Injured while fighting Eurus, Chrys finds himself at the mercy of a mortal woman whose compassion and acceptance he can’t resist. As they surrender to the passion flaring between them, immortal enemies close in, forcing Chrys to choose between his brother and the only woman who’s ever loved the real him.

My Thoughts:

South of Surrender falls somewhere between north and west. Yes, I know the compass points aren’t laid out that way.

However…

I’m talking about Laura Kaye’s Hearts of the Anemoi series, and the way the books feel/read, at least to this reader. YMMV.

North of Need was positively luminous. Sunlight sparkling on new-fallen snow shiny. Not just original, but absolutely awesomesauce (review at Reading Reality). And it set the bar incredibly high for the rest of the series.

West of Want left me (actually us, see Stella’s and my dual review here at BLI) definitely wanting. Insta-love, not enough world-building or relationship-building, and very much of a multiple deus-ex-machina ending.

Now that we’ve reached Chrysander Notos, the god of the south wind and summer, the story and the storm are both starting to come to a climax.

Something is horribly wrong with Eurus, the god of the east. He’s responsible for all the bad stuff that has happened in the story so far. The question is, what’s the matter with this dude? It sounds like he has one heck of a lot of “daddy issues”, but we don’t get much of an explanation. What we do know is that the pack on Olympus have sentenced him to death for his evil in West of Want.

Meanwhile, the story starts with him pounding Chrys into godlike bits, the same thing he’s been doing all summer. Eurus has managed to steal a ring from their father that has power over all the wind gods. The fact that their father Aeolus created such a ring may be a tiny part of the explanation for the aforementioned “daddy issues”.

Aeolus is not a candidate for father of the millennium, or even the year, let’s put it that way. But we don’t quite get enough to explain Eurus’ brand of bwahaha evil. He’s pretty far out there.

We do get a love story between Chrys and Laney Summerlyn, because he falls unconscious through her barn roof at the end of one of his epic stormy battles with his brother.

Two things are different about this, Laney has retinitis pigmentosa, so she’s nearly blind (see Tanya Huff’s Blood Ties for the last time I’ve seen this used in paranormal romance) and Chrys has lost so much control he crashes as a Pegasus.

Laney may be mostly blind, but she knows that the horse she cared for during the night had wings, and that when she woke up in the morning in the horse’s stall, she lay cuddled with a man. A man who disappears when her ranch foreman comes to check on the damage.

Chrys just knows that Laney is the first person he’s been able to let touch him without panicking. And we’re never clear on exactly why he panics, only that he’s been doing it for centuries. So yes, we have the insta-connection thing going on.

Verdict: While it added more dimension to Laney’s character that she was dealing with her blindness, the romance still hinged on the insta-connection between Chrys and Laney as well as his issues with not being touched. Which weren’t explained. I liked them as a couple, but I just didn’t get what his original trauma was.

There was a lot more action and downright plotting and planning going on in South of Surrender than in either of the previous books. Chrys, Zeph (West) and Boreas (the actual North Wind) have to take care of Eurus before he either takes care of them or comes into his own season. Or before the Olympians just plain kill him. The whole god-plotting and double-crossing was more interesting than parts of the romance.

South of Surrender ends with a bang that pulls out all the stops, tissues and heartstrings. I am looking forward to East of Ecstasy, because I want to see whether Eurus goes down or gets redeemed.

I give South of Surrender by Laura Kaye 4 sunny stars!

Q&A with Author Linda Lael Miller + Giveaway

Posted on June 3, 2013May 31, 2013 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | Author Q&A> blog tours> Book Giveaway> Giveaways

I’d like to welcome Linda Lael Miller author of the Parable, Montana series (and many other western romances) to Reading Reality. Her Parable series is one of the first western romances I’ve read, but I’ve enjoyed them so much, (review of Big Sky River here and review of Big Sky Summer here) that I’m sure they won’t be the last! Linda is also giving away a print copy of Big Sky Summer (U.S. only); to enter, please use the Rafflecopter at the end of the post.

Q: What made you choose the Montana as the setting of your newest series? Do you know Montana well? What about the landscape really stood out for you?

A: Montana is my mother’s home state; she was raised in Choteau. Her brother, Jess, made saddles and built fireplaces and was just all-around creative. I don’t know Montana as well as I’d like to, but I’ve been there plenty of times, and I love its mountains and lakes and immense stands of timber, as well as its vast prairies and, of course, that amazing Big Sky. Parable is, in fact, Choteau, thinly disguised.

Q: Do you find it’s harder to write the male or female characters, and why? The men in your books feel as multi-dimensional as the women. Walker is as complex—and likeable—as Casey. How do you manage to make everyone seem so real?

A: I’m not sure how I do that, but I’m honored that you believe I do. I guess I’m a “method” writer; I try to get inside the person I’m writing about, whether they’re male or female, and see the world and the situation through their eyes. I try to feel what they’d feel and think what it seems to me they’d be thinking, and the rest of it just seems to come to me as I go along.

Q: There’s always a lot at stake when kids are involved. Did you find it complicated to write about Walker and Casey’s romance knowing that their choices would impact two teenagers?

A: Yes, writing about kids is challenging—I haven’t been one for a long, long time, after all—but I love it just the same. Kids are so honest, and so literal. As for a lot being at stake, well, that’s certainly true of kids—they are the future.

Q: You write a lot of sexy men—Walker Parrish is pretty hot!—but they still seem real. What character traits do you think make for the most interesting male leads in your books?

A: I admire strength in a man, courage, integrity, and follow-through. You can count on a cowboy to do what needs to be done right now—for instance, when it’s freezing out, cowboys will get out of a warm bed to build the fire or turn up the heat. They’ll wade through deep snow to get the rig started, and sometimes even put the coffee on to brew. If they see an animal or a child in a pickle of any kind, they don’t just shake their heads and say what a shame, they DO something. In creating my characters, I simply incorporate the traits I appreciate most—remembering, of course, that cowboys are human beings and they have faults.

Continue reading “Q&A with Author Linda Lael Miller + Giveaway” →

Review: Big Sky Summer by Linda Lael Miller

Posted on June 3, 2013May 28, 2013 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | B Reviews> blog tours> book reviews

Format read: ebook provided by NetGalley
Formats available: ebook, mass market paperback, large print
Genre: Western romance
Series: Parable, Montana #4
Length: 320 pages
Publisher: Harlequin HQN
Date Released: June 1, 2013
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

With his father’s rodeo legacy to continue and a prosperous spread to run, Walker Parrish has no time to dwell on wrecked relationships. But country-western sweetheart Casey Elder is out of the spotlight and back in Parable, Montana. And Walker can’t ignore that his “act now, think later” passion for Casey has had consequences. Two teenage consequences!

Keeping her children’s paternity under wraps has always been part of Casey’s plan to give them normal, uncomplicated lives. Now the best way to hold her family together seems to be to let Walker be a part of it—as her husband of convenience. Or will some secrets—like Casey’s desire to be the rancher’s wife in every way—unravel, with unforeseen results?

My Review:

The second book in the Parable, Montana series began with a busted wedding. Hutch Carmody stopped his wedding to Brylee Parrish when the poor girl was halfway down the aisle, because he finally got up the gumption to tell her that the marriage would be a terrible mistake. Considering that Hutch marries his high-school sweetheart by the end of Big Sky Mountain (see my review here) he was right.

Brylee’s protective big brother Walker Parrish spends most of Big Sky Mountain and Big Sky River (reviewed here) mad at Hutch whenever they meet. Parable is a small town and Brylee was humiliated. Her heart wasn’t actually broken, not really, but her pride and her dignity absolutely took a huge hit.

Big Sky Summer starts with another wedding. Tara and Boone, the hero and heroine from Big Sky River, tie the knot with all of their children participating.

Brylee still hasn’t healed enough to attend a wedding, but Walker is in the audience to watch his friend Boone get hitched. And to watch his own unacknowledged children.

Because there’s the story. In contrast with all of his friends, the men we’ve met in the previous books in the series, Walker is now the only one who appears to be without a family. But he’s finally come to the conclusion that it’s time to claim his.

One of the queens of country and western music, Casey Jones, came to live in Parable a few months ago, bringing her two teenaged children, Clare and Shane, with her. Casey has always claimed that both kids were test-tube babies, but Walker knows the truth. Both children are his, and he wants to be more in their lives than just a beloved uncle.

It’s time for him to finally be their father. If he’s lucky, he may have a shot at being their mother’s husband, that is if there is anything left of their lives after the media bloodsuckers get through with them.

Escape Rating B+: The Parable, Montana series is rapidly turning me into a western romance fan. This is the first western romance series I’ve ever read, but it won’t be my last.

The stories are all character-driven, and the romances are mostly slow-building, slow-burning. But the sexual tension of the chase is sweet and hot. In Big Sky Summer, Casey and Walker have reasons why they’ve stayed apart, and telling their children the truth represents a big hurdle for their family.

My favorite character in the whole series is Opal Dennison. She’s superwoman! She’s been everyone’s nanny, everyone’s cook, helped everyone out of every kind of trouble, is everyone’s organizer of everything, probably knows where all the bodies are buried, and is the town’s unofficial matchmaker. She gets her own wedding at the end of the book to the local minister who is described as looking like Morgan Freeman and sounding like James Earl Jones. Go Opal!

The next book (Big Sky Wedding) is Brylee’s book, and it’s about damn time. I can’t wait to see how she gets swept off her feet.

***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.

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Chapter 2: Reunion

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