Curse the Dark by Laura Anne Gilman

Favorite Line: “Thin white welts covered his body from knee to chest, and down his arms.” (p. 152)

Wren and Sergei are back! Wren is being sent to Italy on a mission; a mission with incomplete information. She has no idea what she is getting involved with and even if she did, it wouldn’t matter. She has a contract with Silence and she means to keep it. While she’s at it, she plans to change her relationship with Sergei.

I waited all the way through book one to see a romantic relationship evolve between Sergei and Wren. The most I got was a kiss the two shared. This book takes a bigger step and throws the two friends together in a sexual relationship. It was inevitable and predictable and I wanted it to happen in a bad way.

The relationships surrounding the partners are still volatile, but that’s nothing new. A war is brewing and Wren will be right in the middle. We get to meet new friends and old enemies. My biggest peev with the book is the obvious set up for book three.

Many different ideas are broached, then the reader is ripped away and thrown back into the main story line. As usual I understand the purpose of this technique, but it is irritating all the same.This book moved at a quicker pace than book one, too. All in all it was an interesting story.

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The Greek Tycoon’s Pregnant Wife by Anne Mather

Favorite Line: “But once she was alone, she couldn’t prevent the storm of emotion that engulfed her.”

Demetri Souvakis sought out Jane to tell her in person that he wanted a divorce. This led to one last passionate night together and a pregnancy! When Demetri tells Jane that his father is ill and asking for her she doesn’t hesitate to visit the gentle man who’s son she’d married. There she meets Demetri’s future bride, while warding off emotional daggers thrown by her mother-in-law.

I have very little to say about this book that I haven’t said about any other Harlequin Presents books. I had to check the spine to make sure that I hadn’t already read this, as the blurb sounded similar to many other Presents titles. I’m going to save myself some reiteration time by linking to my last rant on this topic. If you care to know more about my feelings on this category romance line of books follow this link.

I didn’t buy the end either. The way the heroine is described at one point makes me think that her pregnancy is obvious, but her husband has sex with her and still doesn’t know that she’s with child. I also don’t believe that a woman can deal with a mean, nasty mother-in-law and suddenly feel no animosity towards her just because she had a baby.

Sometimes I find a great Presents book that makes me want more and other times I feel like I’ve just reread a book. Today I didn’t find incentive to read more of this line.

Holy Smokes by Katie MacAlister

Favorite line: “Yeah, and maybe monkeys will fly out of my butt, but I’m not going to buy any bananas on the chance they will.” (p. 112)

Book four in the Guardian series is all about the drama involved in Aisling Grey and Drake Vireo’s wedding. The two are trying to officially tie the knot, while fighting a dragon war and trying to find a way to free Aisling from life as the blue dragon’s mate. Add to that family drama, ancient evils and the imps from Hell and you’ve got a great novel.

Aisling is hilarious. She hasn’t lost her appeal or her snarkiness.

I’ve noticed that with series books authors tend to change their characters as the number of books pile up. Characters make subtle changes and before you know it the character you met in book one (that strong decisive woman) no longer exists. She is replaced in book ten with a whiney, indecisive character. That does not happen here.

Let me share a secret…I read this series for Aisling’s smart mouth and crappy decisions and for her demon dog, Jim. I love their relationship almost as much as I love Aisling and Drake’s. He’s the kind of hero that makes you pant and wish your book was a magical portal so that you can yank him out of the book and into your bed, onto your wash machine, out into the rain……

I’m seriously looking forward to the action to come. I have my thoughts about  major events to come, but I won’t share so as to not ruin the book for you. But I do believe that major characters from previous books will be placed in recently evacuated positions. Some serious mojo will be performed and Aisling will begin to lose it as she gets larger with her pregnancy.

Wicked Deeds on a Winter’s Night by Kresley Cole

Favorite Lines: “His growing erection strained thick against her backside. So the rumors about werewolf males are true, she thought dazedly. Exhibit A is quite insistent.” (p. 14)

Mariketa the Awaited is a witch. A mortal witch all are watching, for it was foretold that she would be the one born that would be all aspects of witchcraft: warrior, healer, enchantress, conjurer and seeress. Until that time, all wait as the mortal witch participates in the Talisman Hie (The Great Race).

With a cape and magic hiding her true appearance, she takes on the other magical races in hopes of winning one for witches. She holds her own until coming up against a lykae male who seals her and five fellow contestants into a tomb with incubi.

Bowen MacRieve of the Lykae clan entered the Talisman Hie for a second chance with his mate who had died several hundreds of years ago. He doesn’t count of the attraction he feels for Mari and assumes it’s due to a hex she placed upon him. Wanting to have his true mate back, yet living with the knowledge that few ever get a second chance, MacRieve decides to see if Mari could possibly be his mate.

But a darkness doesn’t want the two to unite, leaving the couple to battle emotions and others to discover if they’re truly meant to be together.

I’ve been waiting for this book it seems like forever. I knew that I’d like Mari from the snippets I had read and I was right. Her spunkiness was fun and her ability to recognize a need to accept and move forward never went away. She was able to dissect her own emotions and was far from an innocent heroine. She hid things. Things that left me wondering if she was TSTL. (No she wasn’t.)

Bowen needed a swift kick in the ass at times. I really wanted to boot him one. On the flip side, there’s a scene when he is bribing Mari to give him a shot (it involves a tube of lipstick) that left me mortified and giggling. He is an alpha werewolf. He’s strong and tenacious. He’s adorable.

The story is still a good one. There are ways to mess up a story that has characters on a race hoping to capture a prize. Ms. Cole obviously doesn’t know this, as her story was great. It includes competitors and is a vicious game that goes wrong. All sense of right and wrong goes out the window and it isn’t until something goes horribly wrong that the loss of morality seems to be a problem. The contestants don’t consider it at all until an important mortal is placed in jeopardy.

By creating Bowen as such an ass, Ms. Cole allowed the reader to meet great secondary characters. Characters that have left me wondering where they went after the author left them to continue with Bowen and Mari.

I want more! I want to know that the demons and fae have a shot. I want them to each have a story, as they’ve proven worthy to me.

I am Legend by Richard Matheson

Favorite Lines: “It was the women who made it so difficult, he thought, the women posing like lewd puppets in the night on the possibility that he’d see them and decide to come out.” (7)

Robert Neville may be the only survivor of a plague that has turned humanity into vampires. There are two kinds living and dead vampires. As far as he knows, the dead vampires are completely ruled by a need to eat and don’t appear to speak well. During the day he fortifies his home and scavenges for food. At night he sits inside his home as the vampires converge upon his dwelling.

Okay first of all, I don’t appreciate the fact that the book I bought has a picture of Will Smith on the cover. The character of Robert Neville is describe in the first 10 pages and he looks nothing like Will. I’ve got no problem with Will playing the part because until today I’d never read the book before, but damn it, don’t mix two completely different things like the movie version with the book version and imply that they’re the same.

From the movie previews I thought there would be much more going on. The book is a short story that is bound with 10 other short stories. It was bundled by TOR publishing and is listed as a movie-tie-in. (ISBN 0-7653-5715-1) It’s 159 pages and I must admit that I feel cheated. I felt like I was buying a book called I am Legend, not an anthology of Matheson’s work. I’m also disappointed that the book clearly takes place over a three year time period and from the previews I’ve seen of the movie, much more time has passed. (How else can a city become overgrown and ruled by wild animals?)

While I’m bitchin’, the story is dated as beginning January of 1976 and ending in January of 1979. The movie is obviously set in a much more modern time frame.

The story was grim. There is no happy ending and as a newbie to Matheson’s work began thinking about it like I was in college. Ooh, the horror! Que horible!

It was not a unique idea about the source of the vampire, but it was quite a different take on how the world could be with vampires in charge and what the world would be like for a single person to have survived vampire’s ruling the world. Want another opinion of the book, go here and here.
Read the book? Let’s talk. Leave a comment.

Riding the Storm by Sydney Croft

Favorite Lines: “She dragged her gaze down, to where his right arm worked furiously–and then she sucked in a breath of rain-saturated air with such force she nearly choked.” (p. 20)

Haley Holmes is a parametoeorologist working for a secret government agency. She has  accepted a mission that sends her into the Louisiana bayous to investigate a man suspected of  controlling the weather. Her mission: to gain her target’s trust and bring him in to the agency.

Remy Begnaud is a former Navy SEAL with a secret; he can control the weather and the weather controls his sexual urges. A storm can whip his libido into a frenzy, which causes him to be insatiable and vice versa. All Remy wants is to be left alone, but people don’t usually get what they want.

Together, the two find an immediate sexual attraction and an enemy who has been searching for Remy, too.

Ms. Croft has written a hot book. It sizzles with sexual attraction and a unique idea. I love that Remy’s sexuality is tied to the weather and the unpredictable changes that come with it. He is like the Energizer Bunny and just can’t stop sexing Haley. I appreciate Haley’s healthy sexual appetite, as a lesser woman would have had migraines all day, every day, and then run away screaming.

The only problem that I may possibly have, is that this book is one in a series. Many other characters and relationships are introduced and partially shared. There is no complete other story given.

This book is graphic and there is at least one MM situation.

I’m Baaack!!!!!

I am so done with parties for this year. No more birthdays or any other kind of party. I’m ready to read until my head explodes and post until my fingers fall off. I’ll be making my rounds to visit all of y’all (anyone who still visits) and I’ll be searching out other reading blogs to add to my blogroll.

It seems the New Year has come early to me. I’m feeling inspired and am ready for a good time. How about you? Any plans you want to share? Have a book blog and want to be added to my blogroll? Leave a comment.

This is a rant

I’m so irritated I could spit venom. It’s slightly after 6:30 a.m. and I’ve been awake for the last hour and a half listening to my stupid neighbor’s dog bark. It has been constant. Four barks breath, four barks breath, four… Get it.

I knew that it was going to be a problem the first day I saw that they had a dog (about three weeks ago). It slowly began with them letting the dog out. Notice I said them letting the dog out, not going out with it. They crack the door and out the dog goes. I have two kids, one of which is terrified of animals.

It’s not fair that they are penalized because the neighbors had to have a pet. Now I have to check before they go out to see if the neighbors have the dog on a chain or if it’s free roaming. I’d say out of the three weeks they’ve had the dog, it has only been chained for three days .

I’m just tired and it doesn’t help that it’s the same house where the girl walked down the middle line of the road with an infant and a toddler as I was driving behind her and refused to move to the sidewalk or the edge of the street.

Books releasing this week (Nov. 12)

• An Affair Before Christmas by Eloisa James
• In the Name of the Father by Gerri Hill
• Mine by Georgia Beers
• A Gentle Rain by Deborah Smith
• The Dark Hunter Companion by Sherrilyn Kenyon
• Hard Times by Blayne Cooper
• Safe Words and Spells by Maria Isabel Pita

Happy Book Hunting!!!

Sorry

Sorry I’ve been a no show lately. My plate overfloweth. Last Saturday, my daughter competed in a TKD tournament and took second place in a hight age division. Then she turned 8 on Wednesday. My baby turned 5 on Thursday. I’ve got a carnival booth birthday party to put on next Sunday from 1 to 3 p.m. Then, I’ve got a retirement party to host (following the b-day party) from 5 to 8.

This has left little time for anything other than stress and panic as each tick of the clock brings me closer to the events.

So what’s going on in your neck of the woods?