8 posts tagged “paranormal romance”
To be honest I didn't expect to like this book. I picked it up at Goodwill because I recognized the author as a popular one and I noticed that the published date was January 2008, so I thought I would swap it on paperbackswap. The only thing I had read by Lori Handeland was in the Dates from Hell anthology and the story in there didn't do it for me (my review of that is here).
So I was pleasantly surprised that I ended up sucked into this book. The heroine is a small town sheriff, with Cherokee blood. Grace McDaniel is capable and independent, and I liked her. She's tired and overworked but also irreverent and snappy. This is a supernatural romance, but instead of werewolves which I was expecting because of the world "Moon" in the title, the night-creature in this instance was one I'd never heard of before, so there were elements of Cherokee folklore that was new to me. The book looks to be part of a series, with references to Claire, who is the mayor, Grace's best friend, and probably the heroine of her own book, but I had no problems following it. A pretty decent read and while I sort of guessed the identity of the creature terrorizing the town, I wasn't completely sure about it till the end, which I liked. The only thing I found jarring was the sudden sex scenes in this book, which seemed to be incongruent with Grace's wary nature regarding men. I found myself saying out loud: what the hell, you're the sheriff, what are you doing?!! which brought down things a notch for me. Still, couldn't really stop reading.
Here's a review at Dear Author which meshes well with my opinion.
Avoiding having to practice a presentation for work. Let us review a book instead.
Hellbent and Heartfirst was a book I picked up because I enjoyed the author's book Falling Upwards (which I reviewed here). Both books were published by Tor under Paranormal Romance, but Falling Upwards had more of a contemporary fantasy feel and less emphasis on the romance. Meanwhile, Hellbent and Heartfirst spends much more time on the two main characters and less on the "paranormal".
In Hellbent and Heartfirst, the story begins in Mississipi right after Hurricane Katrina. Jacyn Boaz has taken a sabbatical from her graduate work at the University of Texas to work for Oxfam, helping displaced families. Her cousin and her live in a house owned by their grandparents and after work they party with other relief workers and with relatives coming in and out of their house. Jacyn bumps into Jimmy Wayne Broadus, a rancher and rodeo cowboy who also it turns out spends time killing supernatural creatures that harm people. The confusion of Katrina has given the supernatural a way to hide their crimes, and Jimmy Wayne hopes Jacyn will understand and help him in what he does. Turns out, Jacyn is very reasonable because she has an odd relationship with luck that helps her believe in the unexplained.
I ended up not liking this one as much as Falling Upwards. The writing was interesting and intelligent but -
1) The plot. It had two scenes in which our protagonists fight paranormal creatures in the South, but these scenes are really short and anti-climactic. Once they were over I was left thinking - "Was that it? That was easy." and there doesn't seem to be a real resolution. I felt unsatisfied. Some things never get explained - like Jacyn's luck. The book really was about was two southerners who meet, fall in love, and hang out with friends and family. But with a dash of killing baddies. The rest of it was this slow meandering courtship without very much conflict amongst bars, barbeques, and house parties. It was like reading about party-kids settling down except there is a supernatural tint to it all. The relationship was very sweetly described and I ended up feeling like the two were meant to be together, but I thought the author kept trying to convince the reader of this after the reader was already sold. I started to feel like Jacyn and Jimmy Wayne could stop thinking how great the other was now. I was over the color of Jacyn's hair and Jimmy Wayne's eyelashes and lips.
2) There were grammatical errors that I kept running into. This is from someone who misses grammar errors, but I kept being tripped up by sentences with incorrect tenses. It just jarred me.
On the other hand, I really enjoyed:
1) That this was set in the South. That the backdrop was the delta in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, and the book describes the people dealing with the aftermath in a very personal way. It felt very real. The humidity is a constant. I also liked the personal interactions - how Jacyn's family and friends are groups who drop by without invitation and just eat, drink and live together in an informal environment. Reminds me of my college days (which was in the south by the way). I thought it was nice to have non-stereotypical southern characters. There was a small scene about the use of the words "y'all" and "ain't" that I found interesting too.
2) Really part of #1 - That half of the book is set in Nashville. That's where I went to college, and I think the author captured the city perfectly. I have a lot of fond memories of living there.
P.S. The cover. The scary dark figure to the left of Jimmy Wayne. Creeeeppyy!
I reviewed the first of these anthologies, Dates from Hell over here. This is the second one which is in the same vein as the first - urban fantasy, some paranormal romance going on, with an added holiday theme.
For the most part I liked this anthology better than the first one. I think it was all on the "good!" side except for one story.
"Two Ghosts for Sister Rachel" by Kim Harrison. In Dates from Hell we got a story about Ivy set before she meets Rachel, and in this story, we get a story about a young teen-aged Rachel before she ever joins Inderland Security. I thought this was well done because you don't have to have read the Rachel Morgan books to understand the world (much less confusing than the story in Dates from Hell), plus there are a lot of new things to learn for those who read those series. We learn about Rachel's family dynamics, and about Rachel's reasons for joining IS. I was also surprised to see how different Rachel is physically in this short story than what I was used to seeing in the series, but her stubbornness and trying to do things seemingly beyond her abilities seems very familiar.
"Run, Run, Rudolf" by Lynsay Sands. If you look at the link to the first anthology, and check out the "Claire Switch Project", this is a continuation of that short story. A couple of scientists gets zapped by a "destabilizer ray" that allows them to shapeshift if they concentrate really hard. I thought that story was goofy and I think this continuation is equally so. The scientists from the first story rebuild the ray in their basement and the same mad scientist from before (John Heathcliffe) zaps Jill with it. The characters sound like caricatures, and because Jill's keeps losing concentration during shapeshifting, she keeps conveniently being naked in public and flashing the man she's interested in (at least three times!). I rolled my eyes a lot. I have checked out reviews from this book and surprisingly this was many people's favorite story so I don't know.. I may be crazy or something when I say this was my least favorite of the bunch and it did not fit in with the rest of them.
"Six" by Marjorie M. Liu. I think this one is a stand alone, unconnected to an outside series, and it manages to have great world-building, action, characters, and plot in a short space. Six is a elite Chinese agent trying to track down terrorists when she stumbles upon the paranormal - vampires - not the western myth I'm used to reading about, but the Chinese version - Jiang Shi. This was a refreshing twist. When I was a kid and camping for the first time, a Singaporean boy scared me to death telling me about the Jiang Shi. I couldn't sleep all night imaging them hopping over to kill me! Seriously - cold sweats. Anyway, Six also meets a man named Joseph who fights these vampires, and who has some special abilities and they start working together. Possibly my favorite of the bunch because I liked the setting - urban China. Liu has several romance novels out but I really like her urban fantasy. I also enjoyed her short story in the Wild Thing anthology - that one was about a woman with living tattoos over her body which protect her but will eventually kill her, and that's going to be a series called Hunter Kiss.
"The Harvest" by Vicki Pettersson - Another one based in the world where a series is set. This is the story of Zoe Archer - the mother of the protagonist in the Signs of the Zodiac series, Joanna Archer. I thought this was a great side story to go with the series which fills us in on the motivation of Zoe's mother as well as learning about her personality and how she was able to do what she did. But, if you haven't read this series, I'm not sure how lost you would be reading this story. It's possible the answer is - quite lost. Though there are several hints that explain the world, the Zodiac world is very complex so it's hard for me to say how confused someone would be. Definitely a must-read for a Zodiac series fan though.
P.S. This one shall be tagged with my butt shot cover tag. I'm not a fan of the shoes on this cover but ok, it's holiday-related. Also - I noticed that this cover is so similar to another Kim Harrison cover - For a Few Demons More the mass market paperback (same pose - woman in dress walking with knife on the left side of the cover). Odd.
My TBR is around 120. Eek?
I won this book sometime around the beginning of 2007 but after reading 100 pages in I put it down for about 6 months. Since I'm trying to read 100 books this year I picked it up again this week and finished it off.
The cover screams "vampire" novel but the two protagonists are a Lykan (werewolf) and a Valkyrie/vampire halfbreed. And she's the one half vampire. Yes, slightly confusing cover. Anyway, the werewolf Lachlain has been imprisoned by the vampire horde for 150 years, chained to a rock burning to death over and over (he's immortal and keeps reviving), so he's close to insanity when he smells Emmaline and recognizes her as his mate. This discovery propels him into escaping by gnawing off his own leg. Then he follows her scent, but when he finds her and sees she's vampire (his sworn enemy) he treats her very badly, kidnapping her and scaring her. Emmaline has actually never met a vampire before, she was raised by the Valkyries - fierce warrior women who channel electricity, and she's very sheltered - at 70 she's the youngest of them.
My thoughts in lazy bullet form:
- As the first book of the series there is a lot of series setup stuff. There were some shifts to show what Emmaline's aunts were up to and references to certain players who I think will probably either get their own books or show up later. This set up felt like it was unnecessary to the story but I did like reading about Emma's aunts.
- I did like the world of the "Lore" - with the Vampire Horde as the bad guys, a faction of rebel vamps, the Lykae clan, the Valkyrie and lots of fighting and old hatreds amongst them. I especially liked the Valkyrie - this was a fresh concept. Warrior maidens who cried for courage in their dying breath and whose cries were answered by old Norse gods, they gain sustinence from electricity and love to shop.
- Lachlain was Scottish and his dialog was driving me crazy - no' , aye, ken, tae, lass.
- There were a few of those "one true love" pairings here. The Lykae have their Mate and the vampires have their Brides. I'm not a fan of this destiny thing. It feels like a cheating - a deus ex machina instead of really giving me the reader a good reason why two people should be together.
- Emma had a very modern dialog in contrast but I liked it much better. I laughed a couple of times from her remarks, and from a couple of her aunts (Nix and Regin in particular).
- Lachlain acts like a big fat jerk and I don't think Emma made him pay enough for it. Actually I couldn't see the attraction after the first half of the book and what he does. I think this disbelief made me put the book down in the first place.
Halfway to the Grave is already on the NYT bestseller list in its debut week. And I was one of the people who bought it a day or so after it came out (hohoho, yes Barnes and Noble gift card!). The spine calls it "paranormal romance" and it was shelved in the romance section, but after reading it I have decided that my best description of it would be an urban fantasy for romance readers. This book is the first of what looks to be a series, so there is an open ended feeling to it that die-hard romance readers who need a HEA may not appreciate, but I personally liked it and it made me want to read more of this series. I'd be interested to see what other readers thought.
Anyway, this is the story of Cat - half vampire, half human, she is the product of her mother's rape 22 years ago by a newly turned vampire who apparently still had some viable sperm. Her mother's hatred of vamps overshadows her love for her daughter and Cat is pushed into the dangerous job of becoming a vampire-slayer at an early age. Every chance she gets, Cat goes to seedy bars, baiting vampires to try to suck her neck and killing them. Up to her usual tricks, she encounters Bones, and recognizes him as a vampire, but unlike other vamps, he ignores her baiting and later bests her when she tries to kill him and he thinks she is working for some vamps herself. Bones is also a vampire hunter, and after deciding she isn't a threat, just a self-taught slayer, he suggests an alliance and help with her training.
Overall I'd say I liked it. When I picked it up to read, I'd read 100 or so pages at a time, then put it down again. So - engaging but I was also antsy this week so it took me longer to read than it usually would. I shall buy book 2 when it comes out.
Bits I liked:
1) The cover!! It is pretty gorgeous. It's all matte finished and the artwork and coloring is amazing. Plus the author's name - Jeaniene Frost. That's a cool name.
2) Cat. Her character is unusual - I felt like even though she starts off somewhat young-seeming in this book, you see her growth and she matures a lot. This reminds me a little of Faythe in the werecat series by Rachel Vincent, except Faythe has a very strong family support structure and Cat practically has none (her family lives amogst bible-thumping stock that seem to expect her to sin). I guess she's a little broken by her past but she's more vunerable than hard.
3) Fight scenes - oh especially towards the end, but the training was fun to read as well. Cat is a trigger-happy ass-kicker so there is much of that happening. I also enjoyed how her half-human part made her seem much less of a threat than she actually was, until she moved with inhuman speed, or her eyes glowed green. Fun to read.
4) Bones' humor. The bantering between Cat and Bones was good. They spend a lot of time in each other's company throughout the book, though Bones has Cat's number while Cat's still growing up. There were quite a few things Bone's said that amused me, and Cat does also make a few smart-ass remarks, but she didn't go over the line into being annoyingly smart-assed.
Some nitty things:
1) I think practically everyone is going to comment on this - Bones has a british accent, has hair bleached white and high cheekbones. Mightly similar to a certain character in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This felt a little odd to read. Also when I read the part where Cat gives him a christmas present. It sounds like a black duster. Hmm.
2) At the start,Cat's dialog like calling Bones a suck-neck instead of what I'd expect in that situation - a chance to really swear like a sailor, made me pause. It made me think like the heroine was kind of immature, like she was in high school rather than in her early 20s. This did get better after the first 100 pages of the book. The last 100-150 pages were the best bit of the book where I didn't feel this anymore.
3) Slightly connected to the youth of the heroine. There were some bits where felt like there was a lot of angst on Cat's part. Her love interest was very aware of her hangups. He was consistently handling her with care, and I found it a little unbelievable that he was that patient, and loved her so much so quickly to be that way. The bumps on the road felt more on the romance novel, throwing a wrench into the love story side than what is typically in urban fantasy. And I don't know if it was Cat or love interest, but there was something a little too fast in the pacing of their feelings. This could be just me who felt this way, but even then I don't really think it was bad, this type of thing is pretty romantic to read, but it's part of why I'd call this urban fantasy for romance readers. Anyway, sort of mulling over this one still.
4) Stylistic comment - In the beginning, a lot of the vampire world was described in a long conversation between Cat and Bones. It felt like an info-dump.
I've been having one of those slow months where I don't really feel like reading anything I have. This is bad since my TBR pile is at 104..sigh.. oh wait.. I won 4 books so its 108, SIGH (ok - not really if I think about it, I won, weee!). To solve this, I got the Dates from Hell anthology. I like short stories when I'm in a reading slow-down because I can read a complete story then take a break and it feels like less to commit to than a whole 300 page book. And sometimes it means I find an author I never tried before that I really like, which gets me all excited to find their books: thats a win-win.
This anthology turned out to be OK. I guess one of the downsides sometimes to short stories, maybe more so in fantasy/urban fantasy- its hard to get some great world-building in there. I often see that the stories are based in a world the author has their series in - which can be confusing to new readers if not done quite right.
"Undead in the Garden of Good and Evil" by Kim Harrison - This is a story of the vampire Ivy from Kim Harrison's Rachel Morgan series, before Ivy and Rachel met. Ivy is working at Inderland security under an undead vampire and trying to advance up the ranks, except she doesn't want to do it the traditional way vamps do it (which is pretty much requires her to use her body/blood and submitting to older vampires). So we get some backstory here on Ivy which is very interesting if you have read and liked Kim Harrison's series and explains some of her angsty past. On the other hand, if you haven't read that series, this story (especially the beginning of it) can be confusing. I was a little confused myself for the first page or two before I got where the time period was and remembered some of the rules of being a vampire from Harrison's series. Once I got that I felt it was one of the stronger stories in here (but I'm a fan of that series too, so I'm not sure how much that colors my opinion).
"The Claire Switch Project" by Lynsay Sands - this is about a couple of scientists who are testing a ray on lab animals which is supposed to allow them to have cameleon-like abilities. An evil scientist, impatient to test it on humans, tricks our heroine Claire into getting into shooting range of this ray and zaps her. Now she can change into anyone she wants to just by thinking about it. Hijinks ensue when her best friend finds out and wants her to pretend to be super-moviestar Brad Cruise at their high school reunion, the same reunion she is invited to by her long time crush and fellow co-worker Kyle. I think the name Brad Cruise was a silly choice, and then half of the story takes place in the restroom as the heroine switches from Brad Cruise to herself and back multiple times, so to me this felt like the most goofy story in here. It also felt very high school sitcom (trying to get back at the mean girl in high school who became the mean woman at the high school reunion). It could be amusing for someone who likes this kind of humor, but not really my thing.
"Chaotic" by Kelly Armstrong - This too is a short story based in a world that the author has a series on - the women of the otherworld, but it centers on a new character named Hope who is half chaos-demon trying to use her powers for good. A newbie in her task, she runs into werewolf and thief Marsden, mentioned in the series (so I hear, but I haven't gotten to those books yet). This was a pretty interesting story and I liked how the author had a resolution to the story but also left some things unfinished - made the tale believable and I wouldn't mind seeing these characters again in the future to see where that relationship went. Also one of the stronger stories for me.
"Dead Man Dating" by Lori Handeland - Kit is a literary agent in New York City and she's out on a date, but when she finds herself pinned against an alley wall by him and she's not that kind of girl - she begins to feel strangely not herself. When demon hunter Chavez rescues her, she learns her date is dead - possessed by some kind of incubus demon which wants her in particular. There were a couple of amusing bits to this one (Chavez has a thing for girls who read), and a couple of annoying bits (Kit's self esteem issues), but overall it was in the "alright" category.
OK, been procrastinating about this review for some reason, better do it before I forget. I picked up On the Prowl because Patricia Briggs is on my buy list for her Mercy Thompson series and her short story in this book is from that world. I've also read Karen Chance (who I will keep reading) and Sunny (who I probably won't), but I'd never read anything by Eileen Wilks before.
In this anthology, all four stories have to do with some kind of shapeshifting, so there are urban fantasy and paranormal elements.
Overall I liked the anthology, but it was a mixed bag. I was surprised in that I liked some stories more than I expected and others less than I expected.
Alpha and Omega by Patricia Briggs [link to excerpt]- Charles, son of the Marrok (the werewolf King) goes to Chicago to investigate suspicious activity there. At the airport he meets with Anna, the werewolf who called the Marrok, who is an Omega wolf. This was one of the surprises of the anthology. There was more of a paranormal romance rather than an urban fantasy feel to it, and I wasn't expecting that because the Mercy Thompson series is very light on relationships. I'm not sure that completely worked for me because I thought the pacing was a little fast in the emotional aspect. It just didn't fit into the constraints of a short story. I wouldn't say I didn't enjoy the story. The writing is well done. I'm going to keep following the series that is supposed to stem from the characters in it. Patricia Briggs says on her website that 3 books have been agreed on so far.
Inhuman by Eileen Wilks [link to excerpt] - This story centers around Kai, who is one of the Gifted in an Earth where some sort of unusual wave has caused a lot of people to discover minor pyschic abilities, but she is hiding something about her Gift even amongst her friends. She's also covers for her neighbor Nathan who is an odd character, even though she's not completely sure what he's hiding either. This turned out to be what I thought was one of the stronger stories in the anthology and I enjoyed the subtle world building and the relaxed pace. I'd be interested in reading more books by this author. Hmm, I just realized that this short story is in the same world as her Lupi series. Well I couldn't tell.
Buying Trouble by Karen Chance [link to excerpt]- This is another story which is in the same world as the author's Cassandra Palmer series, and I didn't think it was too hard to follow without reading the series but it's hard for me to tell. It centers around Claire, a null who works for an auction house and who is avoiding her family and the Fey for some reason. When she sees a Fey noble at an auction, then sees her enemy cousin, she knows things are going to get bad. I was pleasantly surprised by this one, because OK I have ranted about the pacing in Chance's books before. This story had some pauses in the action of the story which I was pleased by. Less rushing around = good!!! Also there was some mild humor in this one that I enjoyed.
Mona Lisa Betwining by Sunny [link to excerpt]- OK, yet again a story set in the same world as the author's series, except this time this seems more of a side story in the actual series than a story separate from the series. A warning - major spoilers for book 2 in this short story!!! We have Mona Lisa, the main character of Sunny's Monere series continuing down her path of sexual conquest and increasing powers. I think that the point of this was to introduce the character Lucinda who will be getting her own set of books, but this was done really awkwardly and I was wondering why Lucinda was even mentioned at all, because she sort of: enters, vaguely threatens Mona Lisa and then goes off somewhere, and that was it. Didn't fit the context at all. I didn't like this one and I skimmed it so I've already forgotten much of it. I really think this deserves to be in an erotic anthology, not with just paranormal/urban fantasy that's not as sexual. OH. I remember one thing. At one point I actually paused for a few moments because I had just read the sentence "Crammingly so."
I do not recommend this book. Kind of too bad because an asian, female author (I have a soft spot), and pretty cover, plus it has been compared to Laurell Hamilton and Anne Bishop's books.
Unfortunately a little TOO similar to their books - seems to take a lot of things from each and not much feels unique when I compare them - I feel like I'm reading fanfiction. The writing is awkward - dialog sort of stilted (moves from casual speech to formal at odd times), characterization very one dimensional, romance unbelievable, and the protagonist is a Mary Sue who everyone falls in love with for no good reason. She has 1 magical ability at the beginning of the book and keeps gaining new ones until she has about 8 by the end - a little overboard and a little cliched, aspects I noticed a lot throughout the book.
I have a feeling you are either going to love this book if what you want is something trashy + erotic + pure fluff, otherwise you may not like this. You may dislike this more if you have read Anne Bishops Black Jewels trilogy or Hamilton's Meredith Gentry series before reading this and can compare it to them.
Here are the 1 star reviews of this book on amazon ... Sadly I think I agree with the majority of them.
