Ravings of the Semi-Lucid

Title: Thunder and Roses
Author: Mary Jo Putney
Genre: Historical romance
Grade: A-
Reason for Reading: You know, I'm not really sure why I originally got this book, except that the title is kind of cool. When I read the plot synopsis and the prologue, though, my interest was piqued.

Synopsis: Nicholas Davies, the latest earl of Aberdare, is the only one who can do anything to improve the lives of the villagers in Penreith, in Wales. Clare Morgan, a Methodist schoolteacher, knows this and seeks Nicholas's help. He strikes a devil's bargain with her--he'll aid the village if she lives with him for three months and let him claim a kiss every day, thus ruining her reputation. Furious at his audacity, Clare accepts his challenge, and gradually finds herself struggling with her growing fascination for Nicholas.

My Thoughts: A lot of Regency-set historical romances have similar plot premises. There's invariably a rogueish rake of a hero and a supposedly intelligent heroine who likes to help others and be a martyr. And there seems to be a trend in the books I've been reading where the rake has a group of friends who are all confirmed bachellors with ridiculous nicknames.

Fortunately for me, Mary Jo Putney's Fallen Angels series was one of the first with the whole rakes club thing, and a wonderful gift for storytelling and highly relatable characters makes it so that I believe in these people and can see them as something other than archetypes.

I really loved the main characters. Nicholas is a strong, forceful man, but he isn't an arrogant jerk and he is that rare breed of romance hero that has a sense of humor. He mistrusts people, because lots of bad things have happened, but I bought his emotional struggles and he wasn't really an idiot about them. Clare is also anb interesting character. I loved that she struggled with her faith, and didn't just give lip service to the whole "Oh, I really want him to kiss me, but it simply isn't right" hand-wringing that often happens in this sort of story. I really felt Clare's angst about whether or not she should let Nicholas seduce her was justified.

As for the secondary characters, well, it's obvious that Nicholas's friends are sequel-bait, but Putney did a good job of giving each of the three men his own distinct personality. I really want to see what she does with them in the rest of the series, especially with the intense, war-scarred Michael and the shrewd Lucien, who plays the dilitante well but has hidden depths.

My quibbles are fairly minor. The suspense subplot was kind of cheesy, and the villain practically wore a sign on his back reading "I am the villain! Ph34r me!" There were also a couple of moments near the end where, to bring off a climax, Clare went haring off into danger. But aside from that, I really did enjoy this book and would definitely recommend it.

Title: Miles Errant
Author: Lois McMaster Bujold
Genre: Science Fiction
Grade: A
Reason for Reading: I've fallen in love with the Vorkosigan series, and I think this is the last Vorkosigan omnibus there is. After that, it's all individual books.


Note: I normally like to write slightly more detailed reviews that contain less fangirl squeeing, but, really, I love this series to distraction so that's impossible.

( Read the rest of the review )

Title: Dream Man
Author: Linda Howard
Genre: Romantic Suspence
Grade: B-
Reason for Reading: One of my Yahoo groups chose Linda Howard as our author of the month, and since I'd never read her before, I chose a book on my librarything recommendations to get started.

Synopsis: Had she finally met the man she longed for...or was she dreaming?
Marlie Keen was trying to lead a quiet, ordinary life. She thought the
knowing
-- the clairvoyance that allowed her to witness crimes as they happened -- had been
destroyed in the nightmare of her past. Then one night it returned with a vengeance,
and she desperately needed to find someone to make it stop.
Detective Dane Hollister of the Orlando police department had never met anyone like
Marlie. He had doubts about her clairvoyance, but there was no doubt how much he
desired her. Her soft, sweet scent set his blood afire, and he wanted to wrap her
in his arms and chase the sadness from her eyes. To Marlie, Dane was all heat and
hard muscle, and he made her body come alive as it never had before. But not even
she could foresee where their passion would lead: a hungry quest for the elusive,
dreamy ecstasies of love...and a dangerous journey into the twisted mind of a madman
who would threaten their happiness and their lives....
-
My Thoughts: I really liked this book. It manages to score some points with me by being a romantic suspense novel that doesn't feature the world's most retarded heroine. In fact, both characters were well-drawn, and I thought Dane was hot, except for the times where he acted like the romance novel hero that he is. There were also some fun secondary characters, too.

Unfortunately, I'm not sure whether it was the book or just me, but I never felt fully engaged in the story. The characterization should have worked for me, but didn't entirely, and I set the book down several times and wasn't in any great hurry to resume reading.

That being said, romantic suspense is not my genre, so it was nice to read a book this pleasant so I'm willing to give it the benefit of the doubt and give it a slightly higher grade.

Title: Sword of Ice
Author: Mercedes Lackey, various
Genre: Fantasy
Grade: C
Reason for Reading: This was 1 on my librarything suggester, and an anthology was pretty much perfect for me during these last few weeks, since I could stop to read a short story when I needed a break.

A couple of years ago, I decided I needed to go on a rereading bender, revisiting the Valdemar series by Mercedes Lackey. I didn't make it through the series because shiny things distracted me, but I've always had a soft spot for the Valdemar books, since they were perfect for my dreamy teenage self, all full of romance and adventure and empathic animals and life bonds. Unfortunately, time has made me jaded and the gloss has worn off of Valdemar. But it's still very much a place I would like to visit, so I thought reading a collection of Valdemar short stories would be fun.

Since these stories are significantly shorter than, say, the offerings in a romance anthology, I'll keep my summaries to a minimum.

Also, there'll be spoilers for the rest of the Valdemar books interspersed, so you might not want to read this if you're sensitive about that.
( This ran long, so I'm cutting it )

Title: Daughter of the Blood
Author: Anne Bishop
Genre: Fantasy
Grade: B
Reason for Reading: Someone on a Yahoo group I'm on wanted a reading buddy for this one so I figured that, given that this is yet another fantasy series I haven't read, I might as well.

Synopsis: Seven hundred years ago, a Black Widow witch saw an ancient prophecy come to life
in her web of dreams and visions. Now the Dark Kingdom readies itself for the arrival
of its Queen, a Witch who will wield more power than even the High Lord of Hell himself.
But she is still young, still open to influence-and corruption. Whoever controls
the Queen controls the darkness. Three men-sworn enemies-know this. And they know
the power that hides behind the blue eyes of an innocent young girl. And so begins
a ruthless game of politics and intrigue, magic and betrayal, where the weapons are
hate and love-and the prize could be terrible beyond imagining...
My Thoughts: I think that, if there had been a few different stylistic choices made, this book would have been a keeper for me. As it is, I like it well enough that I'll probably continue the series, but there were definitely some issues that I had.

What works for me is that the setting is appropriately grand and epic--a complex world that has obviously been created with diligence and thoughtfulness. And I like political intrigue, of which there was a lot. And I even liked the depths shown by our PoV characters. And there was something in the storytelling that was compelling and kept me reading even when I realized afterwords that I was reading the bastard love child of Laurell K. Hamilton, Christine Feehan and George R. R. Martin.

The setting is very dark, which was an aspect I liked, overall. The people in power are essentially terrified that they're not strong enough to hold it, so they abuse those weaker than themselves. And I have to admit that the concept of a Ring of Obedience brings a smirk to my face.

Unfortunately, though I did enjoy this book, there were flaws. First of all, though our three male protagonists were nicely fleshed out, the female character who is the center of all the drama never quite worked for me. She really is, essentially, a Mary Sue, looked upon by people who generally adore her. That kept me pretty distant from hjer, and so I pretty much failed to see what was so compelling about her.

As for the other secondary characters, most of the women seem to be either evil or brainless, and the men either bow before the awesomeness that is Jaenelle, queen Sue of the Universe or they rape little girls for fun. (No, I'm really not exagerating about that.)

That also being said, I found the struggle of Jaenelle's eventual love interest over his feelings for her a bit squicky, especially at the end, given that Jaenelle is twelve.

So would I recommend it? Maybe. I think I'd have loved it had I not read George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire, which is a lot darker and actually contains a whole cast of multifaceted characters. But it's a nice enough read if you simply want to be taken to a fascinating, original world.

Title: Alien Taste
Author: Wen Spencer
Genre: science fiction?
Grade: A-
Reason for reading: If memory serves, I decided to try these because my reading twin recommended them.

Synopsis: Ukiah Oregon isn’t your average man. He’s not even your average human….
Ukiah Oregon is quickly becoming one of the greatest trackers in the country. Some
call it luck
—
those closest to him call it instinct. Abandoned as a child, he was found running
with a wolf pack. Now, in his job as a private investigator, he puts his nose to
the ground to track down missing persons and fugitives from the law.
A heightened sense of smell and taste
—plus a photographic memory—
make him an invaluable asset to his partner. But when Ukiah kills a crazed young
woman in self defense, he draws the attention of the FBI’s most wanted: a violent
and elusive gang known as the Pack.
And it won’t be long before Ukiah discovers just how much he has in common with the
Pack: a bond of brotherhood, blood…and destiny.

My Thoughts: Wow. This book was exactly what I needed. Everything is just about perfect, from the very well-drawn characters to the setting (which I don't normally pay attention to but which I was impressed with) and the themes explored.

First the characters. I loved Ukiah Oregon. In fact, he may have to supplant Miles Vorkosigan as the fictional character I would run off to live in sin with if he were real. He's a sweet, noble guy who loves deeply and purely and with all that he is. And you know that being raised by a lesbian couple has made him into the kind of man any woman would want to be with.

The secondary characters are also very well drawn. I was especially intrigued by Max Bennet, Ukiah's mentor and partner. I loved watching them interact. Max has also had a ton of crap heaped on him, but thanks to Ukiah, he is slowly beginning to heal. And we know this because we are shown, not told, which is one of the book's other strengths.

I mentioned the setting was well-done. The book is set in Pitsburgh, and it's very clear that Spencer knows about Pitsburgh. In fact, it's sort of amusing that the setting stuck out to me at all, because I kept being reminded of a Mage: the Ascension game I used to play in, which was run by a native of Pitsburgh who mentioned several of the same settings Spencer used in the book, which was cool and added more pleasant associations to my reading.

As for the plot, you'll notice the question mark under the book's genre. I really don't know how to classify this book. It's got a very definite urban fantasy feel for about the first two-thirds, reminding me of a somewhat grittier Charles de Lint (which is, natch, a good thing), but then it takes a left hand turn and goes wandering off into science fiction land.

The sci-fi elements of the plot were definitely not my favorites. They seemed straight out of a cheap B movie, and even though they made sense for the story, some of them seemed beyond preposterous and I had to roll my eyes.

I'm also not sure how well the romance worked for me. I can't decide if I thought it was rushed or if it made sense that Ukiah would fall for the person he falls for so quickly because he just seems to love people so intensely anyway. I think I'm leaning toward the latter, because it is one of the sweetest romances I've read in a while, but I'm not normally a fan of the characters meeting and professing their love mere days later.

Overall, despite its flaws, this was a great book which I highly recommend. I definitely intend to read the sequel as soon as possible.

Title: If his Kiss is Wicked
Author: Jo Goodman
Genre: historical romance
Grade: DNF
Reason for Reading: Everyone ever on the romance blogosphere loved this book, so I figured I would, too. Oh, there was that nagging voice that reminded me that Rosario, my reading twin hadn't liked it, but I ignored that voice.

Synopsis: Shy by nature, Emma Hathaway usually leaves the drama to her rebellious cousin, Marisol.
But when Emma agrees to meet with her cousin's secret lover to end the affair, she
is pulled into a dangerous game. Now Emma is convinced her involvement in the scandal
has put her life in jeopardy. The trouble is none of Emma's confidantes believe anyone
is trying to harm her. As whispers of madness begin, Emma turns to the only person
who might be able to help...The very handsome, barely respectable Restell Gardner
has gained a reputation for helping people out of compromising positions. Never one
to turn away a lady in need, Restell agrees to help solve the intrigue. Sensing there
is more to the green-eyed beauty than meets the eye, Restell feels himself falling
for Emma. But he resists succumbing to his passion...at least until he learns the
truth about the danger that is haunting her. For if he gives in to temptation too
soon, he could lose Emma forever...


My Thoughts: I should have liked this a lot more than I did. In fact, it's so very frustrating because I know that there were things here I should have loved. Like the dialogue, which reads very authentically to me. And the characters, like the very tortured heroine and the Regency-era PI. But there was something missing from what little I got through, and at one point I even fell asleep on the bus as I attempted to read. I think I might try it again, but clearly I am not quite ready to get back into reading historical romances yet.

Title: Star King
Author: Susan Grant
Genre: science fiction romance
Grade: B
Reason for Reading: It was a pick from librarything, which typically suggests books I will either like or hate with a passion.

Synopsis from Amazon: Air Force Lieutenant Jasmine Boswell was flying her fighter jet over Saudi's no-fly
zone when the missile coming out of nowhere hits her plane. She bails out of her
disabled jet, but lands on an alien-looking desert with spaceships flying overhead.
She also encounters an injured Romlijhian B'Kah, whose starfighter crashed killing
his brother. Only his vision of the angel Jas saves his life.
Two decades later (in earth time), Jas has divorced her spouse, has two young adult
children, and struggles with a mid-life crisis. Due to Rom's injuries and his failure
to save his people on that fatal day, years ago, he no longer leads. Instead he is
a minor smuggler, estranged from his own family. Rom and his people make first contact
with earthlings. Will Rom and Jas find each other to follow up on that dream and
if they do will each take the necessary steps to embrace their love?
My Thoughts: I enjoyed this and will definitely be reading the other books set in this universe. Susan Grant manages to convey a depth of feeling in her writing, and her books contain an element of humor that really works for me. It's also obvious that Grant knows what she's talking about regarding being in the Air Force. I'm not sure if she actually was, though I think I read that this is, in fact, true.

The characters here are for the most part good. I liked that Jasmine is a little older than your average romance heroine, and for the most part she acts like it. Her experiences as a soldier come in handy, and I was glad that she was given the chance to shine in this way.

Rom, too, was a great hero. At least, I thought he was pretty sexy in a Han Solo sort of way. I liked that the anger he felt at his assumption that Jas had betrayed him lasts for only a short while and he soon becomes fascinated with the woman that she is, not the one his mind has made him out to be.

As for the secondary characters, they were less impressive, though my favorite by far is Rom's bodyguard, a great big hulking berserker named, of all things, Muffin.

I also really liked that the sequel baiting wasn't terribly obvious. There aren't really any characters who show up in the book screaming, "Look, look, I'm hot and tortured. My book is next! Buy it now!"
Also, I liked the definite empowering of women message that was rather subtly drawn in the book. If it weren't 1:00 in the morning, I might want to analyze it in more detail, but suffice to say it was nice to see that Rom worshipped and adored Jas, and she in turn got to reclaim her sexuality, which is a theme I love.

Now for the bad. First, as I mentioned in my last post, sometimes the characters did veer a bit into wish fulfillment territory. When Jas thinks that it's incredible that Rom loves her stretch marks, my eyes rolled. No doubt in 20 years I will totally swoon over that scene myself, but I'm too young to appreciate it now.

Also, the villain? Well, TV tropes would call him a knight templar. At one point, he even gives out an evil laugh. (Note that tvtropes.org is a huge time suck, so I highly encourage you go go exploring.)

There were also some problems with pacing. The beginning was lovely, the middle drrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaggggggggggggged, and the end finally picked up speed. I would have liked for some of those issues to have been ironed out a bit better.

Overall, this was fun. It's not rocket science (heh heh, rocket science? In a sci-fi romance? Aren't I clever?) but it is a lot of fun. Recommended if you can look over the pacing and the villain.

First of all, before I get to the review, I'd just like to point out that I am rocking the ebooks now that I have my own personal handheld ebook reader. This little gadget is seriously of the awesome and puts my commuting CD to shame.

Anyway, now that I've squeed enough about my new toy, let's go on with the review.

Title: Tiger Eye
Author: Marjorie Liu
Genre: Paranormal romance/urban fantasy
Grade: B+
Reason for Reading: Ms. Liu comes very highly recommended by some people I trust, including my mom. (Of course, I think Mom has bad taste in books most of the time, but we'll pretend my memory is selective in this instance.)
Synopsis: When a young psychic acquires a riddle box in Beijing, she learns she can free the
shapeshifter imprisoned inside, and that he is the beginning of an adventure--and
a love--of a lifetime.
( My thoughts behind the cut )

Title: Glory in Death
Author: J. D. Robb
Genre: Romantic suspence
Grade: B+
Reason for Reading: To borrow an analogy from Bev QB, this series is like eating M&M's. They're good books, easy to zip through, and well-written.
Grade: B+

Synopsis: In a time when technology can reveal the darkest of secrets, there's only one place
to hide a crime of passion - in the heart. . .
The first victim was found lying on a sidewalk in the rain. The second was murdered
in her own apartment building. Police lieutenant Eve Dallas had no problem finding
connections between the two crimes. Both victims were beautiful and highly successful
women. Their glamorous lives and loves were the talk of the city. And their intimate
relations with men of great power and wealth provided Eve with a long list of suspects
- including her own lover, Roarke. As a woman, Eve was compelled to trust the man
who shared her bed. But as a cop, it was her job to follow every lead . . .to investigate
every scandalous rumor . . .to explore every secret passion, no matter how dark.
Or how dangerous.

My Thoughts: Can I mention that I hate this synopsis? Because (1) Roarke isn't a suspect in this murder, and the questioning she gives him about the case turns into them needing to work out other issues.

That being said, I liked this installment very much. We begin to see the defensive armor Eve puts up around herself start to crack as she tries to come to terms with some of the nasty bad shit that's happened to her. And I love that she is very much still nonplused by Roarke and his extravagance, not to mention the depth of Roarke's feelings for her. And I also admit that the mystery in this story worked slightly better since I didn't immediately find the villain obvious, a problem I had with the last book in this series.

No real quibbles, but it just didn't quite grab me the same way that the first book did. Still and all, it was a fun read, so very much recommended.

Title: Fascinated
Authors: Bertrice Small, Susan Johnson, Thea Devine, Robin Schoen
Genre: erotic romance
Reason for Reading: I wanted uncomplicated porn. This looked like uncomplicated porn, so I went for it.

Overall Grade: C
I like anthologies. They allow me to try new authors, and often I'm intrigued enough to read their full-length works after reading their short stories. I am definitely intrigued enough that I'd probably read three out of these four authors again, if only for the lulz.

( continued after the cut )

I apologize for the fact that this review feels a bit scattered, but I wanted to put my thoughts down before I went to bed. You see the things I do for books I love.
Title: It Had to Be You
Author: Susan Elizabeth Phillips
Genre: Contemporary romance
Grade: A

Synopsis: TWO HEARTS COLLIDE
The Windy City isn't quite ready for Phoebe Somerville—the trendy, outrageous and
curvaceous New York knockout who has just inherited the Chicago Stars football team.
And Phoebe is
definitely
not prepared for the Stars' head coach Dan Calebo—an Alabama-born former gridiron
legend and blond barbarian.
Calebo is everything Phoebe abhors—a sexist, jock taskmaster with a one-track mind.
The beautiful new boss is everything Dan despises—a meddling bimbo who doesn't know
pigskin from a pitcher's mound. So why is he drawn to the shameless sexpot like a
heat-seeking missile? And why does Dan's good ol' boy charm leave cosmopolitan Phoebe
feeling awkward, tongue-tied and frightened to death?
Suddenly there's more than just a championship at stake. Because passion's the name
of
this game—and two stubborn people are playing for keeps!

My Thoughts: Like most of Susan Elizabeth Phillips's books, this one has a summary that screams "Wacky hijinks found here!" However, people on my romance discussion group were shocked and appalled that I hadn't read a SEP book before, and so, since this one has appeared on my librarything suggester, I figured why not. I never expected to love it.

What we have here is an exciting story with fully realized characters. In most other authors' hands, Phoebe and Dan would have been reduced to caricatures. But here I believed what SEP did, and I loved watching the struggle these two had to find love.

Phoebe was a wonderful character. She acts outrageously to cover up for some horribly traumatic things that have happened to her in her past. I'm sure some readers would question her motivations, but they worked for me. And Phoebe, like me, has a thing for nerds. Even though Dan is a jock, she is also drawn to him because he's definitely a smart man. I also liked watching Phoebe struggle to come to terms with her father's bullying and manipulations and to establish closeness with her sister.

As for Dan, well, he's just as well-drawn. He has been married to a state legislator, but the marriage didn't work out, and now he just wants to find someone who wants to settle down and raise his children. I liked that though he was an alpha male, he wasn't so much in control of every situation, although I do have to say that his ex-wife was a completely sleazy bitch. Ugh, the sex scene we got with her was seriously squick-making.

The romance was wonderful and well-paced, and during the inevitable moments near the end when it looks like things might not work out, I was tense and practically biting my nails to see what SEP would do to resolve everything. Which I'm glad to report that she does, rather neatly.

My quibbles are minor. The villains were definitely not as well-drawn as any of our protagonists, and sometimes I thought SEP went over the top with them. But the fact that she didn't descend into camp and stereotypes with the rest of the characters makes up for that.

I would recommend this book. I breezed through it while waiting for a ride home from the store and kept reading until nearly 2 A.M., which is something I don't often do, thanks to my tendency to get distracted by shiny objects. SEP does wonderful romantic comedy, and I cannot wait to read the sequels to this book.

Title: Coming in Last
Author: Shiloh Walker
Genre: Contemporary erotic romance
Grade: B
Reason for Reading: From her comments on the blogs I read, I think Shiloh is full of awesome and win. But the couple of short stories I've read by her left me cold so I thought I'd try a longer work.

Synopsis: Jamie McAdams expected it to be an open and shut case of embezzlement. The finger
seemed to be pointed right at Andi Morrow, the quiet young lady who ran the daycare
center at his godfather's plant. Of course, she didn't exactly have access to the
cash, but she did live seriously outside her means.
Andi smelled like vanilla, tasted like sex, and moved like sin. It only took a few
days for Jamie to realize he was hooked, and she was being framed. But maybe he should
have told her that, before they used her as bait to catch the real embezzler.
Jamie always gets his man, even if it means coming in last with the woman he's fallen
in love with.


My Thoughts: Man, I gotta say, I loved this synopsis. No breathless purple prose, a sexy enough description, and what's more, it's accurate. Which is good, because if I can copy and paste something good, I'd much rather do that.

Anyway, I enjoyed this book. Andi and Jamie are nice, likeable people with real issues. And y'all know how I feel about strong heroines. Andi was wonderful here. She'd had a rough life, but she wasn't a walking neurosis, and her trust issues felt genuine.

Jamie also struck me as a real guy that one might find outside a romance novel. He was fun, witty, and pursued Andi relentlessly without swerving into "me Tarzan. You Jane" territory.

The plot? Well, it's light. You pretty much know who the villain is early on, and it's not very hard to guess what's going to happen. But I wasn't bored, since Ms. Walker did such a great job with her characters. I was rooting for them, and wanted everything to be all right.

Oh, also, I have to say that it was refreshing to see that there were consequences for Andi to her being investigated. There were real repercussions to the work that Jamie was doing, and the resultant chaos in Andi's career was left open-ended. Which is nice, because in this case I think had Ms. Wlker tied that little plot thread up with a bow I'd have been less impressed.

If I have any quibbles, it's that the villain is of the cardboard, moustache-twirling, "I would have gotten away with it if it weren't for you meddling kids!" brand. Which made the suspenceful climax, well, just a bit less so since I couldn't take him seriously.

Overall, I enjoyed this book and I will be reading more full-length stories by Ms. Walker. Because sometimes you need literary popcorn--something light, but filling and oh so good.

Title: Midnight Sun
Author: Rene Lyons
Genre: Paranormal romance
Grade: B-
Reason for Reading: Honestly, it was because of a bit of a blog spat between the author and Sybil. Also, she compared herself to JR Ward.

Synopsis: When things go bump in the night, Allison Parker bumps back. As the resident Ghost
Hunter in a quiet, rural town, she's thrust into the nocturnal world of the Templars.
Embracing the night, she finds a place where she belongs.
Damned by God, Sebastian of Rydon knows only blood and death. After eight hundred
years of merely existing, he learns what is to live after Allie comes bursting into
his life. Her spirit guides him out of the dark.
Caught up in a web of hate and revenge, they search for love as their world is torn
apart.
My Thoughts: This is kind of a hard review to write, so I'd just like to state upfront that I did enjoy this book, despite my quibbles. It's also my expert opinion that some of my issues with Ms. Lyons' style will disappear as she writes more. But there were things I found troubling, and the things I disliked I disliked a lot.

But first the good. Rene Lyons has created an interesting world, and I enjoyed her take on vampires. And while these boys did have oodles and oodles of angst, they were definitely fun to hang out with for a few hours. But where Ms. Lyons manages to do a better job than some of her more established paranormal romance author sisters is in writing dialogue that sounds like what actual people would say. There was no overt and stupid use of outdated street jargon, nor did she resort to the whole "I am vampire, therefore I am alergic to contractions" thing that some other popular authors have resorted to. Lyons also writes some very compelling violent scenes. When she wants to, she can make the reader--or at least this reader--feel every cut and scrape of a blade against flesh, and it's very chilling. And she's definitely got the art of putting in hooks to ensure readers will keep reading the series. Unfortunately, she takes a clue from J. R. Ward and gives us several plot points that won't be resolved unless we keep reading, and I am beginning to be thoroughly irritated with that sort of blatant manipulation.

And since we're talking about things that irritated me, I really wasn't sure quite what to make of Allie. I liked that she was, indeed, a ballsy, sassy chick who was pretty kick-ass in her own way. She wasn't the stereotypically badly written paranormalk nut that seems to populate a lot of these books, and I appreciated that she acted and talked like a real woman. But I thought she veered very close to the line of being a Mary Sue. After all, she meets the Templars when Constantine and Rafael, two of the other Templar vampires, rescue her from some random renegade vampires who wanted to make her a midnight snack. This is apparently enough for the boys to decide she's their BFF, and she becomes their mascot, their April O'Neil, if you will. (In fact, I couldn't get the Allie as April O'Neil image out of my head, and you should all consider yourselves lucky that I rewrote my original review to take out 98 percent of my gratuitous Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles references.

As for the romance, honestly, it didn't work for me. I honestly didn't see the chemistry, and I thought that Sebastian and Allie really needed more scenes together. In fact, at one point I was irritated that Lyons chose to have one crucial scene take place between Allie and Constantine instead of Allie and Sebastian.

Speaking of things that needed to be explored more fully, I thought that the premise of vampires on the road to redemption and acceptance by God was a good one, but i wish more had been done with it. For example, the vampires just sort of casually lob off random renegade vampires without a qualm, and they do some pretty violent, even cruel things to humans. It could be argued that everyone involved deserved what they got, but I'd have liked to see someone get more torn up over the violence.

I also thought that, while the world building showed some promise, it too was a bit inconsistent. The Abyrri, who are supposed to be templars who aren't on the road to redemption, get mentioned, as to an order of kickass female vamps, but nothing is ever done with these references and I thought they could have been caught in order to give us more Allie and Sebastian.

The other reason I wanted to read this book was because I read a few comments where the author compares her books to the Black Dagger Brotherhood series, and, yes, there are some similarities. Five giant, kick-ass warriors? Check. They all live together in a mansion and drive kick-ass cars? Yup. One of them seems to be a tad on the gay side? Uh-huh. Dumb-ass nicknames? Y halo thar, Sage and Rogue and C. But I think that Lyons does a better job at writing female characters, even if Allie is kind of a Mary Sue. And there aren't millions of extraneous subplots here.

Final verdict: You know, there's nothing especially new here, but what there is is certainly enjoyable enough for me to read the next books in the series.

Title: Slave to Sensation
Author: Nalini Singh
Genre: paranormal romance
Grade: A
Reason for Reading: There was so much buzz about this book last year that I was curious.

Synopsis: This novel is set in an alternate and slightly futuristic Earth where there are three different species of humans. Psys are the ones with mental abilities, who have been ruthlessly conditioned not to feel emotions. Our heroine, Sascha Duncan, however, is flawed. She's always been able to feel emotions, a fact that she has to hide from every other psy or risk her own death.

Sascha begins working with Lucas Hunter, the alpha of a leopard changeling pack which is trying to build new homes in its territory. The changelings are everything the psy are not--highly emotional, sensual creatures. Sascha gradually finds herself drawn to Lucas. But there's more to their interactions than some business deals. Someone's killing changeling women, and Sascha and Lucas are drawn into a perilous situation that could end in war if the killer isn't caught.

My Thoughts: I knew this was going to be an A book when I started it this weekend. Singh does everything right, and she had me rooting for these characters from the very beginning.

I loved Sascha. She's gone through a hell of a lot in her life, and she very much wants someone to love her, but she's afraid to open herself to that. My heart ached for her, and I was rooting for her and Lucas, and honestly, at one point, I wasn't sure how Singh was going to manage to make everything work out between them without resorting to a deus ex machina. Thankfully, she didn't.

As for Lucas? Well, let's just say that I have a soft spot for shapeshifting cats and leave it at that. I thought he was smoking hot, and I loved the chemistry between him and Sascha. There were definitely some scenes I read on the bus that had me squirming in my seat and wishing for ice water.

The secondary characters are wonderful, and I especially liked watching Sascha's budding relationship with Tamsyn, Dark River's healer. So often girlfriends in romances simply aren't ever around, and I was glad Singh created a bond between the two women. Also, Tamsyn is already mated, so she wasn't set up for sequel bait. In fact, though we do meet some of the characters that feature in the next books, there's no way Singh could have told the story without including them.

As to the setting? I loved it. I want to go visit this version of Earth, and I was left with questions that I hope are answered in the next books--like what the place in society is for those humans who are neither psy nor changeling.

If I have a quibble, it's that the villain was a bit obvious in retrospect. But then, I'm not sure how else Singh would have explained things, so possibly I just need to get over myself.

Anyway, a lovely book. Very highly recommended.

Title: Fabulous Beast
Author: Stephanie James aka Jayne Ann Krentz
Genre: Contemporary romance
Grade: B
Reason for Reading: Rosario liked it, and the plot appealed to me.

Synopsis: When Tabitha Graham rescues Dev Coulter from an alley on a Caribbian island after he's been attacked, she finds herself drawn to the gentle, unassuming man she thinks him to be. Unfortunately, once she learns Dev's secret, she finds her slowly blossomming love being tested.

My Thoughts: This was cute. It's pretty obvious that Krentz's writing style has evolved between 1984 (when this book was published) and now. For one thing, in Sweet Starfire I didn't notice the way Krentz constantly used adverbs, and it was pretty jarring here. And her character development has certainly improved by leaps and bounds.

I liked both our leads well enough for what they were, heroes in a 1980's category romance novel. Tabby's a bit too much of an earth mother type for my taste, and she had a few moments of being a complete dingbat. I mean, seriously. I thought she should have picked up on the fact that Dev was hardly who he was pretending to be a lot sooner than she did.

Dev was... well, he was a romance hero. There were moments when I thought I understood him, but mostly I couldn't get over my annoyance with him for constantly thinking of Tabby as his tabby cat. The metaphors flew around thick and fast in his head, and I just couldn't picture any human being, even from the 80's, saying some of the crap that came out of his mouth.

That being said, for what it was, a cute story about two people learning to trust each other and figuring out who they really were, this was pleasant. B for this one.

Title: Cravings
Authors: Laurell K. Hamilton, MaryJanice Davidson, Eileen Wilks, Rebecca York
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Grade: C+
Reason for Reading: Probably the MaryJanice Davidson story. I was curious about what she would do with a different sort of heroine.

This is a collection of four paranormal short stories that all tie in to ongoing series. Some of them are very much better than others.

The first story, "Blood Upon my Lips" by Laurell K. Hamilton is, according to the review at All About Romance simply an excerpt from Incubus Dreams. which I have no intention of reading. I managed to follow most of what was going on, though I think if I'd actually read any of the Anita stuff, I'd have cared. But there seems to be more whining from our protagonist about how she's got all these men, and they want her, and how can she possibly have sex with them? Nathaniel, her very femmey submissive houseboy type, seems to be the main focus here, and by the time I got done with the story, I wished he were a real person so I could beat him up and take his lunch money.

Also, it's been some time since I read this story, so it's definitely forgettable. C- for this one.

MaryJanice Davidson's "Dead Girls Don't Dance", by contrast, was pretty fun. We meet Andrea, who is a vampire considering greeting the sun and ending her existance. Then she meets Daniel, the typical college jock she had a crush on. And now that she's a vampire, Daniel thinks she's pretty hot.

I liked this story. Daniel's a bit of a goofball, and not the brightest crayon in the box, but that was definitely part of his charm. Andrea I had a harder time warming up to, because she had a lot of silly neuroses. And Betsy of Davidson's Undead series shows up here as a minor character, which was fun. But besides the fun, there just wasn't a whole lot here that sticks out. B- for this one.

"Originally Human" by Eileen Wilkes was the third story, and my favorite. I really need to read other stuff by this author. Here we meet succubus Molly, who is considering the fact that it's about time for her to move on to a new place, since she's 300 years old and it'd be bad if people discovered that she didn't age. Then she stumbles upon a naked man on the beach. She brings him back to her RV and nurses him back to health, and then becomes involved with a high stakes sort of mystery.

The plot of this book is obviously fairly forgetable, since this is yet another story I read some time ago. But I did like the characters. This story is narrated in first person, and I found Molly a sensible, practical sort of woman. Michael is mysterious, but very sweet, and like Molly I loved his wonder at the world. I liked Wilkes's voice, and she does a good job with her world-building, and I was definitely curious enough to want to try something else by her. B for this one.

The last story, "Burning Moon" by Rebecca York, was very nearly a DNF for me, and it's the one I finally made myself slog through today so I could say I finished this book. We are introduced to Antonia Delarosa, a blind tarot reader. Three guesses as to what caused me to very nearly give up, and the first two don't count.

Anyway, Antonia keeps seeing a wolf in her tarot cards, and soon it's clear that the wolf is Grant Marshall, who is on a quest for the serial killer who killed his wife and a bunch of other women. Then, because he's lost his life-mate, he plans to jump into the ocean and end his suffering.

This story was very much meh for me. Mostly, Antonia didn't annoy me, although there were a few moments when my eyebrows went up. Grant, on the other hand, was difficult to like. Mostly because my idea of an alpha man does not include one who is considering suicide up until he boinks the heroine. And the suspence plot involving the serial killer was fairly anticlimactic, although it was nice that Antonia wasn't useless in that arena.

Still, lukewarm characters, lukewarm plot, and lukewarm suspence give this a C in my book.

Recommendation? I'd read the Eileen Wilkes story and maybe the Mary Janice Davidson story, but the others really aren't worth your time.

Title: Fall Dead
Author: Ann Bruce
Genre: Romantic Suspence
Grade: C
Reason for Reading: I think Wendy, the Super Librarian reviewed it and it looked interesting.

Synopsis: When his latest case falls on him and his partner--quite literally--Detective Nick
Markov knows the demolition of his car by a not-yet-cold body is the least of his
worries. The dead body is that of a prominent businessman, Andrew Langan, and suicide
is swiftly ruled out after Nick pursues the killers down twenty-seven flights--and
loses them.
To his superiors’ frustrations, Nick doesn’t buy into the popular belief that Langan’s
soon-to-be ex-wife, Augusta, is behind the murder, even though she has the motive,
the opportunity, no alibi, and a shady past. The only reasons Nick has for going
against logical dictates are the feeling in his gut and the constriction in his chest.
Augusta soon finds herself thrust back into an unwanted spotlight and her quiet life
shattered. Then things go downhill. In between dodging the media, Augusta fights
off a mugger, deals with a kidnap attempt, and confronts goons better dressed than
she. With Nick Markov, who dredges up a past she’d rather forget and feelings she’d
rather not admit to having, Augusta must race to unravel her deceased husband’s perilous
legacy of deadly secrets before she finds herself skydiving without a parachute.

My Thoughts: I have to start this review by pointing out that I really like the way Ann Bruce's website is organized. It's easy to find stuff, and there wasn't a whole lot of unnecessary crap to wade through. And I also like her online presence on the romance blogs I've read, although if she ever reads this, I'm not sure how much credence she'll give to the fact that I said that.

Anyway, what I liked atbout this book? I actually thought the suspence plot was interesting, at least until it sort of came apart for me at the end. I didn't guess who was responsible for Andrew Langan's murder, and though I wasn't crazy about the resolution, it certainly made sense.

The characters were fairly pleasant, although both Nick and Augusta managed to get on my nerves at various points in the story by acting in exactly the ways characters in romantic suspence novels always act. Nick decides Augusta can't be a killer because of his little Nicky. Augusta does the requisite walking home alone late at night so she can be attacked thing. There is also the requisite argument about whether or not Augusta will stay in her home once it's obvious that that's not the place she should be. I don't know about anybody else, but if someone broke into my house shortly after I'd been mugged, I would totally not want to stay there.

This was a quick, pleasant read, with characters who are mostly likeable. It was neither exceptionally good nor terribly bad. I'm sure there are better romantic suspence books out there. Unfortunately, the only romantic suspence book I've read that even remotely worked for me recently was the first Eve Dallas book, so I'm not exactly sure what those better books would be. C for this one, although I think there's enough promise here that I'd read something else by this author.

Title: Elvenblood
Author: Andre Norton and Mercedes Lackey
Genre: Fantasy
Grade: B
Reason for Reading: I loved the first book in this series to distraction.

Synopsis: The powerful magic of ruthless Elvenlord masters has for centuries rules the world.
Even Shana, the legendary Elvenbane prophesied to deliver the oppressed into freedom,
is helpless before such power. She and her ragtag band of outcasts, half-blood wizards,
escaped human slaves, and free-thinking dragons have gained only a token victory
against the mighty lords.
Only the long-forgotten Iron People, a band of human nomads, have escaped the tyranny
of the reigning wizards. How have they survived through the centuries?
As the winds of change sweep the world, and as tensions seething beneath the surface
of Elven society threaten to break into open revolt. Shana meets the ancient tribe.
Could an age-old secret free Shana and her people...or will its discovery call down
their doom.

My Thoughts: This was a hard book to grade. Because while there was a lot here that I liked, what I didn't like I really, really didn't like.

What works here are the recurring characters. I come back to serieses like this because I want to read about characters I've come to love. And I have definitely come to love Shana and Keman and Mero. I also liked the additional characters we meet here, particularly Sheyrena, an elven lady whose brother, Lorryn, has been a hidden half-blood. It is in fact Sheyrena that grows a lot over the course of the story from an idealistic, childish little girl to a strong, capable woman.

The Iron People were also an interesting addition. There was enough here that I would have liked to learn more about their culture.

I also really liked seeing a glimpse of elven society we didn't get much of in the last books. It's fairly clear that elven women are just as oppressed, and in some ways further oppressed, as the slaves. And I liked that small, women's magic was just as important as the flashy stuff used by elven men, and it's in this way that Sheyrena comes into her own.

Now for what I didn't much like.

First, the villains. All of them--and there was a new villain popping up around every tree in this book--are of the moustache-twirling, "Bwahaha! I would have gotten away with it if it weren't for you meddling kids!" variety. Everyone who isn't all that thrilled with Shana is villified, and I would have preferred some genuine motivation other than what we got.
The other thing that didn't work for me in a huge way will be so shocking, and also tread into spoiler territory, that I am putting it behind the cut.

( Cut for the rest of the spoilers )

There is a third book in this series, Elvenborn about an elvenlord. I haven't decided whether I want to read it or not. It would take an exceptional character at this point for me to find anything remotely sympathetic about the elvenlords, and apparently Shana and friends don't appear at all. I might read it because I'm a series completist that way, but after this book, there has to be an extremely compelling story involved, and I'm not sure this particular fantasy world really has a lot more to be mined.

So would I recommend Elvenblood ? Sure. It's not nearly as good as the first book, but it's not a bad read, if you don't mind a few cliches, and can overlook the ridiculously stupid romantic elements.

Title: Naked in Death
Author: J. D. Robb aka Nora Roberts
Genre: romantic suspence
Grade: A-

Synopsis: Police lieutenant Eve Dallas is assigned to investigate the murder of a prostitute. All evidence points to a serial killer, and Eve is determined to make sure the killer won't strike again. As the investigation moves along, she meets Roarke, a mysterious billionaire who may or may not be involved with her case.

My Thoughts: Wow. I loved this book. Eve is the kind of female lead that makes my inner feminist do a happy dance. She's kick ass, completely capable of taking care of herself, doesn't actually need a man, but yet is very vulnerable. Eve's got scars, a lot of them, and she's not really sure how to deal with them, and my heart broke for her as some of the old wounds she's been trying to keep closed flared open.

And, though I feel so very very shallow for saying this, I loved Roarke like the proverbial corpulent pre-adult loves dessert products made by Sarah Lee. This is one of those instances where I wish I hadn't been reading a scanned version of the book, because I bet on audio the right narrator could make him even more toe-curlingly sexy than he already was. And, best of all, besides being sexy, he had a personality that was a bit more complicated than, "Me Roarke. You Eve. Time for the hot sexx0rz now."

The romance between Eve and Roarke is by far the best part of the book. There are no silly misunderstandings and forced conflicts. And there's enough of an end here that, if I weren't going to continue with the series (are you kidding? Of course I will!) I'd have been satisfied they were going to stay together.

OK, now for the quibbles. I had the villain pegged about halfway through the book. I am not generally a mystery or suspence reader, so I figure this should probably count against the book somewhat. Although, of course, I was involved enough with the characters that at one point I was shouting at them. "Eve, you're not looking in the right place!" were my exact words.

I also didn't really appreciate the lush, breathless descriptions of Roarke's lifestyle. Possibly, I just don't happen to have the typical fantasy of being swept off my feet by a multi-gazillionaire. But I could have definitely done with a bit less of that.

That being said, this was a very nice start to the series and I will definitely still be reading.