A little after Christmas reading....

The Christmas-rush is over - thank goodness! I love the season but every December 26th I'm a veggie lying limply on the couch all day trying to "recover". Here's what I've been reading during the after Christmas let-down...

The Accidental Vampire
by Lynsay Sands

This book was kick-ass! Then again... most of Lynsay's books are. Victor is an enforcer for the council that is sent to a small town to investigate a woman who placed an ad in the personals claiming to be a vampiress looking for a relationship with a male vampire and the rumor going through the club scene that there is a female vampire residing in a certain sea-side town. This is a big no-no according to the 'laws' because it draws attention to their kind. When he arrives, under the guise of a potential suitor who has been corresponding with said vampiress for weeks, Victor discovers that the woman, Elvi, didn't place the ad or correspond with him (or rather his friend at his behest) at all- it was her well-meaning but very meddling friends. And he is not the only immortal to respond to the personal, which results in a cast of characters that add to the opportunity for many an amusing scene.

It also becomes quickly apparent that the personal ad leading to possible exposure is the least of Elvi's offenses, the whole town knows who and what she is and she's been biting mortals. To make matters worse, because she had no Sire to train her not only is she ignorant of their laws, the very laws that my result in her losing her head... literally, but she's been sleeping in a coffin and *gasp* stopped eating real food (including cheesecake and chocolate!!) for the last 5 years due to the fact that she used the movie Dracula as her guide to living as a vampire.

When Victor realizes that she's his life mate he is torn between duty to the council and joy at finding someone to spend the rest of his days with. Then the attempts on Elvi's life begin and Victor (along with the other immortal men who answered the ad) are in a race against Elvi's independent nature to keep her from further injury.

The only issue I had with the plot is part of the ending where the threads (most of them at least) are tied off. Things were a little to conveniently wrapped up in conclusion with the people trying to kill Elvi, the threat of the council's wrath, and even the other immortal men brought to town by the personal ad. It was just a wee bit too pat.

This book has a good dose of Lynsay Sands' trademark humor mixed in with the romance, mystery, and light intrigue. I found myself laughing out loud at several points. I can't wait for the next Argeneau vampire romance to come out in February!

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Double Vision
by Fiona Brand

I was intrigued by this one because it appeared to be a romantic suspense with a bit of a psychic paranormal element - which it was... sort of. There was nothing particularly wrong with the author's writing but this book should not be classified as a romance, in my opinion. The romance was VERY poorly developed and the hero was a pretty flat character. I was highly disappointed. However, I'm betting that readers who like mystery/suspense books would find this very enjoyable. I just don't recommend it for romance readers.

At the Edge by Cait London

At The Edge is the first book in a new trilogy by Cait London. The spine classifies it as "Romantic Suspense" - which it is... but it has an equal amount of paranormal elements as well so I'd call it a paranormal suspense romance.

I've read a Cait London book in the past. I don't remember which one, so obviously I wasn't terribly impressed because a) I have a great memory for books I've read - if I liked them; and b) I haven't felt compelled to read another. But I saw this on Amazon and was intrigued... it actually came out in June but I was hoping to get it at the used bookstore... no such luck.

The background basics:
Triplets and their mother all have mega psychic gifts. They are decendants of a Celtic seer. Because of the nature of these gifts they cannot live close to each other.

This book's characters:
Claire is the youngest (by 6 minutes). She is the empath and has a very hard time blocking out the world around her so she lives in an isolated house in Montana. Claire's pretty much a hermit except for an elderly woman who lives in a house in the same clearing. When the elderly lady dies, her nephew inherits the house, moves in, and causes a huge amount of ruckus and noise.

Neil Olafson is the nephew that moves in. He's sexy, outgoing, and troubled by the disappearance of his son 8 years ago. After finding Claire on the floor of her house, the victim of a vicious intruder, he decides she's his to protect... she and her kooky sisters obviously need keepers.

This book, the premise of which was so promising, just didn't work for me... much.
First off, there were two seperate suspense 'plots' affecting the same characters but the bouncing back and forth between them was choppy and took away from the build-up of suspense. It left me feeling like the mouse in the maze wondering which way I should run to get to the end. Also, both of the suspense plots end strangely... rather unsatifying and flat. The one about Neil's son ends especially weird and is lacking the emotional depth you would expect. I can't go into more detail without spoilers so I'll leave it at that.

Second, I liked Claire and I liked Neil -but together... Not so much. In the beginning, Neil is portrayed as an EXTREMELY social person. And, of course, Claire cannot be around people without suffering from her psychic gift. And yet, this MAJOR compatability problem is never really 'solved' or even addressed properly. On the other hand, his playfulness and sensuality balances Claires somber solitude so they're not totally wrong for each other - if the other problems had been addressed sufficiently I would have been fine.

What I liked best about the book was Neil's determined protectiveness... I love that in a hero! Also, Tempest, the middle sister, was a fascinating character. I know my 'review' of it sounds pretty negative, but it wasn't a horrible book. It was just rather scattered feeling and a bit flat in the plot.

Overall, I would give it a C-. It's worth reading and I'll read the rest of the series... but I'll probably wait for the books to be at the used store in the future.

Night Hunter by Cathy McDavid

Here's an interesting new paranormal romance that I found (as I was hunting desperately for something new to read) called Night Hunter by Cathy McDavid.

Unfortunately, I don't have time right now to do my usual run-down summary and 'review' of this book but I wanted to give it a quick mention. It's good - not the best I've ever read - it had some minor plot issues - but the character development was well done and it was certainly good enough that I'll be watching for future paranormal romances (potentially a series???).

Here's the 'blurb' from the author site (but it's not a good representation):
Every twenty-five years the cycle begins anew — alegendary creature reawakens and preys upon the innocent. The police refuse to believe such a monster exists. But Gillian knows it's real. When she was seven, she watched in horror as it killed her mother. Now the beast is back ... for her.
As the chosen Hunter, Nick is the only one who can destroy the creature. Yet a gorgeous psychology professor keeps pushing her way into his investigation — and into his most intimate fantasies. For her own protection, Nick's determined to stay by Gillian's side, every day and each delicious night. And meanwhile, the monster bides its time ...

The Contest Scoop

Yep, it's that time again. Here's some interesting contests that I've found while prowling the romance & author sites.


Historical romance author Anne Mallory is having a contest for an ARC of her upcoming book, What Isabella Desires. It ends July 16th but she has a secondary contest that ends July 31 for signed copies of 3 other books.
http://www.annemallory.com/contests/


Erotic author, Emma Holly is having and ARC contest for her upcoming contemporary erotic romance called Fairyville.
http://www.mninter.net/~emmah/CONTESTS.htm


Access Romance is doing their quarterly “Romance Galore” contest for 55 autographed books from many popular authors.
http://www.accessromance.com/galore/index.php


Elizabeth Holt (historical romance) is having a contest for an ARC of The Serpent Prince.
http://www.elizabethhoyt.com/contests.html


Carly Phillips is giving away and ipod shuffle, a gift card, and a signed book in honor of her birthday which is in July. Happy birthday, Carly!
http://www.carlyphillips.com/fun_contest.php


Marliss Melton's contest is for an ARC of Next to Die.
http://www.marlissmelton.com/Contest/index.html
She’s also having a contest for a bag-full of books.
http://freshfiction.com/contest.php?id=598


Win an ARC of Madeline Hunter’s Lessons of Desire!
http://www.madelinehunter.com/contest.html


Karen Marie Moning is giving away the complete set of her highlander novels and a Darkfever t-shirt.
http://www.karenmoning.com/news/contest.html


Jayne Ann Krentz aka Jayne Castle aka Amanda Quick
Her monthly contest is for a copy of her Ghost Hunter audiobook.
http://www.jayneannkrentz.com/drawing.html


Win a $75 giftcard to Victoria’s Secret in honor of Christina Skye’s new release Code Name: Bikini.
http://writerspace.com/contests/christinaskye.html


Here are a few authors giving away gift certificates to Borders or B&N on their websites:

Shiloh Walker
Janelle Denison
Nina Bangs
Anya Bast
Bertrice Small
Lori Wilde
Tori Carrington
Barbara Bretton
Sarah McCarty

Happy Entering!

Scent of Darkness by Christina Dodd

Paranormal is a new direction for popular author Christina Dodd. I love almost all romance sub-genres but I'm partial to paranormal romance right now so I was jumping for joy at the prospect of one from an author like Dodd. Her historicals don't interest me anymore but I enjoy her contemporaries and the premise of this series sounded interesting.

Unfortunately, like so many of the new releases I've read lately, this one just didn't do it for me. It is actually the WORST of the three that I've given poor reviews lately. In fact, I'm not even going to spend time to summarize it.

Here's the blurb directly from her website:

A thousand years ago, Konstantine Varinski roamed the Russian steppes. Driven by his craving for power, he struck a terrible bargain. In return for the ability to change from a magnificent warrior to a predator that could hunt down his enemies and kill them, he promised his soul — and the souls of his descedents — to the devil.

Plain Ann Smith loves her handsome, dynamic boss, Jasha Wilde, but her daring plan to seduce him goes awry when she finds a black wolf warming itself before the fire. Before her horrified eyes, the wolf changes into the man she adores. She flees, he pursues, but they can't escape their destinies.

For Jasha is the descendant of Konstantine Varinski and Ann is the woman fated to break the curse that binds his soul. To find heaven in each other's arms, they have the devil to pay.

Now my rant:

First, my biggest problem was with the characters. I just plain didn't like either one of them so I didn't even CARE what happened to them. Ann is wishy-washy and whiny with some TSTL thrown in. Jasha is an arrogant ass. Plus, there was little to no real emotion or connection between the H/h. It was totally flat.

Throughout the whole book, and even in the end, it appears that Jasha wants Ann only because she found the icon and is a key to breaking the pact. Ann has adored Jasha for YEARS but we're not clued into why. He pretty much treats her crappy in small ways from the very beginning. For example: the man ADMITS that he knows she's wanted and loved him from the very beginning and yet he had her send flowers and notes to his various girlfriends and EVEN has her purchase an engagement ring so that he can propose to another woman. Come on... that's just cruel. Especially since he didn't do it specifically to discourage her from loving him or for some other 'noble' purpose... he's just a jerk.

Then there is the plot - it had a vaguely disorganized feeling about it, the pacing was choppy, and it just didn't flow smoothly. There were a lot of unanswered questions too. Like the brother that gave in to the darkness... HOW? What does it mean that he gave into the darkness? What happens then? Is he evil now? Raping and pillaging? Or does he just remain in his animal form all of the time? It's something that can happen to any of them and so is important even to this story - yet we're not told WHAT it means or how it happens. The world-building was just too vague and unfinished in this book.

The suspense was sadly lacking too, which is a bummer but Dodd has had trouble keeping the suspense going and believable in previous books so it's not terribly surprising. In past books, the romance and characters have kept me enthralled even when the suspense doesn't but since the characters and their lack of connection didn't work for me in this one, there was no help from that corner.

I know this is brief and maybe a bit vague but I'm not going to go on and on about why I didn't like this book, that's not helpful and it's a bit cruel to the author since there were so many things wrong with this book, in my opinion. I wish I could think of something positive to say about the book but I'm just coming up empty other than the fact that the premise (the legend, the pact, icons, and the mates whoare the only ones who can break the pact) is interesting. Book #2 is most definitely not on my auto-buy list anymore I'm feeling a bit pessimistic about whether Dodd can salvage the series.

Rating for this book: D

Anyone else who has read this want to chime in? I really want to hear what others think of the book!

I'm getting so frustrated with the poor quality of books that the established authors are putting out recently. The end of June/beginning of July release dates had many books of interest and so far I've been disappointed by 3 out of the 5 that I've bought.

Dragon Heat by Allyson James

I picked up Dragon Heat which is the first book in a new series by Allyson James aka Jennifer Ashley because I enjoyed her contribution to the Immortals series. Well... that and the fact that there aren't NEARLY enough dragon romances. How can you not love a dragon?

Here's the blurb from Jennifer Ashley's website:

Lisa Singleton has an unusual roomate, a golden dragon, a sexy warrior who has been sent to earth to protect Lisa from harm. Lisa comes from a long line of very special women with very special powers. Witches, black dragons, and demons will do anything to get their hands on her magic and the secret the women of her family have protected through the centuries.

My thoughts:

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I didn't LOVE it, but I really liked it. I should come up with a rating system, I guess. If I were to use an letter 'grade' for this book I'd give it a B-.

The first few chapters are a bit rocky... they just didn't flow as smoothly and the main characters do some things that don't seem to fit with their personalities. Once past the beginning chapters it gets much better and the author has done an excellent job of world-building for this new series. I found the powers, classifications, and stereotypes about the different types of dragons to be very unique, as well as entertaining. It created opportunities for amusing barbs and exchanges between the hero (a golden dragon) and a black dragon, who is portrayed as sort-of a bad guy in the beginning but ends up being more neutral.

The 'heat' level wasn't as hot as the Allyson James books normally are but it was definitely steamy. I couldn't really get into the love-scenes in this book because they felt a bit rushed but I'm a bit cranky today so I'll have to say it's possible that I just 'wasn't in the mood'. LOL! Also, I don't want to give away any spoilers but there was a scene of them mating in Dragonspace that was both intriguing and confusing.

This wasn't a 'dark' paranormal romance but neither was it 'light'... I guess I'd have to call it gray. Suspense and danger were a part of the story but there was also playfulness and humor.

The next book in the series, The Black Dragon is due out in November.

A less well-known but GREAT book!

I'm in re-read mode waiting for the July 3rd releases - and the wait is KILLING ME! I have no patience when it comes to waiting for books. So I've been re-reading some older favorites. Here is one that I was reading yesterday. It's not on most of the 'popular' lists, but I really enjoy it.

Many people love Charlaine Harris' books but they just don't appeal to me. I'm a die-hard romance reader and I rarely, if ever, stray from the genre (unless I'm researching something, of course) plus, I despise first-person POV.

However, Ms. Harris has written one story that I adore. It was a one-shot deal with Harlequin and, I believe, her only foray into the romance genre called Dancers in the Dark and it's part of the Night’s Edge anthology.

I'm not normally a huge fan of anthologies because shorter stories often seem to be missing something but I picked this one up because it was only $1 on the clearance rack and I sometimes enjoy Maggie Shayne who was one of the other authors in the anthology.

I absolutely LOVED Dancers in the Dark. The only reason this book even made it to my keeper-shelf was because of that story - not that the others were bad, just not good enough to rate a spot on my shelf.

Rue (Layla) is working hard trying to make her way through college and keep a low profile to escape her past. She joins a dance company that needs vampire/human dance teams and meets Sean, a 300 year-old vampire. Rue chooses Sean as a dance partner mainly because he appears indifferent to her looks and doesn't give off any overtly sexual vibes, which her past has made her wary of. They develop a friendship in addition to a partnership which then morphs into love. When a man from her past becomes a threat, Sean is determined to protect her.

Rue and Sean were great characters. Both outside of the 'norm' for a vampire/human love story. Rue is not the typical 'tragic figure'. She is strong, realistic, and a bit stubborn. She does not fold under pressure nor act like a total wilting flower when danger stalks her. She reacts much like you or I might. Her violent past experiences impact her relationship with Sean but it doesn't overload the story with fearful prose.

Sean is not the typical vampire either. For one thing, he has bright red hair and freckles. Yep, FRECKLES! Also, he is not a powerful, massively wealthy vamp (although, I do enjoy those kinds of vampires!). Sean was a valet before his 'master' turned him and while not really poor, he is humble enough to work for a dance company. To give you an example of his character (and because I love this part) when Sean tells Rue that he loves her, he does not turn all theatrical. He simply says "I'm yours" but the intensity of his declaration isn't dimmed by its simplicity.

Dancers in the Dark has a great balance between the main element of romance and the secondary suspense element. It flows very well, I didn't feel like I missed anything or like it moved too fast (which sometimes happens in shorter stories), the pace was great. I DO wish it had been a full-length book, because I loved the characters so much though.

Layla (Rue) and Sean have a cameo in All Together Dead -for those of you that read Charlaine Harris books- and according to FAQ on her website, she would like to write more about the characters of the dance company but current series obligations make that a far off event. I'm willing to beg though: Ms. Harris, Please PLEASE write more romance! Judging by this book, you have an AMAZING talent in the genre!