23 posts tagged “paranormal romance”
The Premise: Kyra is a con woman with a very special ability. Whenever she touches someone, she picks up their best skill. She's on the run after embarrassing casino owner Gerard Serrano, a man was responsible for her father's murder. While on the road, she meets Reyes, who she thinks is a drifter, but who is really a hitman charged with finding out where she hid the stolen money, and with killing her afterwards.
My Thoughts: The two characters had interesting back stories, with imperfect parenting, which served to bond them after their initial mostly physical relationship. I liked that Reyes was a character of mixed racial heritage, and I loved that he was a cook. Kyra's blase attitude towards sex (she was a one night stand only girl) and how she didn't cling to Reyes afterward was also different. The secondary characters were also well-written. I was most intruiged by the mysterious Foster, who is a cold and mysterious manipulator, and Gerard Serrano's right hand man.
After reading this one, I think I understand why the author used a pseudonym: it's a very different book from the science fiction romance and urban fantasy under the Ann Aguirre name. This one is a lot more steamy, with plenty of explicit sex scenes, which isn't what you'd encounter with her other series. I don't tend to go for the steamy books, but the sex in Skin Game was well-written and not purple. I think people who enjoy a high steam factor will enjoy the story.
While the steaminess is a change, the imperfect characters and interesting relationships between them, a hallmark of Aguirre's writing, are not. They are in full force in this paranormal romance. A con-woman and an assassin, the hero and heroine don't sound very nice, but it worked because they still had their own personal rules about who they targeted with their skills. Kyra goes to the seediest bars in town and then uses the skills of the resident best dart-thrower or pool player to win a game. In the end, she has to use these borrowed skills with her own nerve to win some cash, which seems like a more honest swindle to me. Reyes also only targets scumbags to kill. It's because of this code that makes him start to question whether his employer lied to him about Kyra, because in observing her, she isn't like his usual kills.
I say that this works for the most part because there's one scene in particular where I felt like the characters stepped too far away from higher moral ground for my comfort. I balked because I felt that Kyra let rage and vengeance dictate her actions, and Reyes and another character did not blink. Looking at it objectively, it's probably the only way the book could go, and I've read other characters doing questionable things under the Aguirre name, but for some reason this scene bothered me anyway. Maybe part of it is I know that in this series, I'll probably see one couple at a time, and if someone does something in this book that I don't quite approve of, they may not be on the page later on for me to see their redemption. I wished Kyra and the others could have found another route instead of using violence, but this book is not about nice, perfect people. It's about imperfect people with questionable morals who still find some happiness in another person, and maybe I'm more rigid in what I want in my hero and heroine, but I still find the idea of antiheroes in love kind of cool.
Overall: Plenty of steaminess for those who love a good sex scene. Different from the urban fantasy and space opera under the Ann Aguirre name, but with the same imperfect characters I love to read about. I have a quibble about the characters which made me not connect as much as I'd like to, but a very good paranormal romance, and I am looking forward to the sequel.
Buy: Amazon | Powells
Other reviews:
Genre reviews - 4 pints of blood
Smexy books - 5 out of 5 stars
Babbling about Books and more - A-
Dear Author - B-
Interview with Ava Gray at Smexy books
The Premise: Rose Drayton lives in the Edge. The Edge is the place where our world, the Broken, overlaps with the Weird, an alternate dimension where magic is real. The people who live in the Edge are poor, and have to go over to the Broken to make money. They can do small magics, but most of their bloodlines are diluted. So when Rose proves herself to have a remarkable mastery to control her "flash", suddenly the out-for-themselves Edgers will stop at nothing to have Rose, either to enhance their own bloodlines or to sell to the highest bidder. One day, Declan, the Earl of Camarine, a pureblood from the Weird appears at Rose's door.
Excerpt of On The Edge
My Thoughts: This is much more romance focused than the Kate Daniels series and falls under paranormal romance rather than urban fantasy, but the great world building I'm used to is still there. The idea of the different worlds is a really interesting one, sort of a spin on a faerie world we can't see except it's really just down that road there. It's just that only people who have the right bloodlines can see it and walk past the boundary. I'm always a fan of Andrews' detailed world building, because it's so well thought out. Like they've said, "You can build a most fantastic world, if you take care to make it logical and follow its own rules." This is what I always appreciate in an Ilona Andrews' series: a fantastic world that makes sense.
The Edge is like the Wild West. They don't belong in the Broken, where magic doesn't exist, but they aren't part of the Weird either, where pureblood magic families rule. In the Edge, it's everyone for themselves, but families band together. The Edgers are poor, some rather trashy, lawless, and feisty. There are some real characters living in the Edge, especially with magic thrown in the mix. Rose herself has two younger brothers, Georgie and Jack who exemplify the oddness of the Edge. Georgie is a little necromancer with a soft heart. He resurrects animals he feels sad have died, and their grandfather Cletus (who gets drunk on dog brains). Jack was born a changeling, and like the cat his other half is, is easily distracted by birds and climbing trees.
So Rose has her hands full raising her two brothers because their parents aren't in the picture, but they're good kids (who also bring something to the story). Rose also has to deal with all the people who are after her because of her amazing control over her flash, and when Declan arrives at their door, a pureblood from the Weird who says he will have her, Rose isn't pleased. At first Declan's statements would dismay me. He would often spout some really over-the-top alpha hero stuff, but Andrews manages to fix this for me later on with a viable explanation (thank goodness). Maybe there's also a touch of Pride and Prejudice here: Declan making his remarks and Rose taking offense, thinking that he's the typical blueblood. Rose's circumstances are much lower than Declan's but she's being avidly courted by someone who is obviously a catch. The book takes on a romance feel with Rose's awareness of Declan's appearance (I imagined He-Man) and breeding, and his alpha male assertions that he will get what he wants. On the other hand, Rose is pretty cool, and it makes sense that Declan realizes this. She's a good sister, working hard and going without so that she can buy her brothers those Inu Yasha comics they're obsessed with (Inu Yasha, good choice kids), and she's smart and determined, but just has a hard life where she has to be independent in order to survive.
The paranormal/contemporary fantasy aspects of this story had probably about equal footing as the romance. Creepy rotting creatures in hound like form start terrorizing the Edge, and the mystery of what's going on keeps Declan and Rose busy. The results aren't pretty, but it makes for a great story.
Overall: A paranormal romance with awesome world building and the perfect balance of romance and fantasy. There's more romance in this than the Kate Daniels series, but expect the same fantastic storytelling.
I'm looking forward to reading the second book. This time, William, who was introduced in On The Edge will be the hero.
Buy: Amazon | B&N
Other reviews (all positive)
Angieville - loved it
Literary Escapism - positive review
Book Love Affair - "charmed"
Smexy Books - 5 out of 5 stars
Mardelwanda - "a very satisfying read"
The Book Smugglers - 7 Very good
Other links:
Worlds of the Edge
Ilona Andrews and Ann Aguirre at Babel Clash
Excerpt of Hunting Ground
My Thoughts: The conference with the European wolves happens parallel to the Mercy Thompson series (I think between MT books 2 and 3?), but I don't think you really need to have read Mercy Thompson to enjoy Anna and Charles. I would say that you DO have to read this series in order, probably starting with the short story, Alpha and Omega in the anthology On the Prowl, and then book one, Cry Wolf.
My reviews:
On the Prowl (with Alpha and Omega short story) - LJ | vox
Book 1: Cry Wolf - LJ | vox
I think that when I started reading this book I had a couple of expectations. I expected to see some growth in Anna, development in her relationship with Charles, and I was expecting to find out some back story on the exposure of werewolves to the world. Let me try to go over my main points of interest:
- Anna - Anna's growth and emergence of a backbone delighted me and was the highlight of the book. When I was first reading this I was struck by the first couple of chapters because Anna seemed very comfortable with Bran and Charles, and in teasing and playing with them. I was a little surprised after her timidness in Cry Wolf. Then when she goes to Seattle, the old, scared Anna seems to come back in the presence of all the alpha wolves. This made sense to me. Anna is getting used to being an Omega wolf and she is still recovering from what happened to her in her old pack. There's a few things that happen over the course of the story which allow Anna to work through some of her hangups in a satisfying way.
- Anna and Charles' relationship - This is still developing and it's not easy. Charles finds himself very protective of Anna, and it's hard to reign in his wolf sometimes. Anna on the other hand isn't past her abuse by her previous pack. The Alpha and Omega series is different from the Mercy Thompson in that it is more of a paranormal romance, with more emphasis on the relationship, than an urban fantasy. There was a scene I liked in particular between Anna and Charles, which is actually illustrated on the cover of the book, but as to the rest of the book, I mostly felt that there was something missing between the two of them. There seemed to be a lack of spark, and it was hard to really buy into their relationship. This is a big problem because the relationship is such a huge part of the series. Everything between Anna and Charles felt a little awkward, which wasn't a problem I remember having while I was reading the earlier book. Those moments that happen between couples where you can tell there is something deep between them - I just couldn't see it. I hope that this is a problem only in this book and not in the continuations.
- And out come the wolves - This is something mentioned in the
Mercy Thompson novels - that Bran, the Alpha of the werewolves in North
America had planned to have the world know about the existence of
werewolves. I was really interested in the specifics of this, which we
get and I was mostly happy with it, but once we get the gist it moves
behind a closed door, and I wish more focus was put on it's
ramifications and the dealings between werewolf packs. What ended up
happening is that the focus went to Anna and the problems surrounding
her by virtue of being an Omega and Charles' mate. She becomes the
target of an abduction and the book focuses on that mystery and
inserted action is about this. In the end I enjoyed Anna's part in
bringing the bad guys to justice (again - I liked Anna in this book!),
but the rest of it had an abrupt feel, so the execution for the most
part underwhelmed me.
Overall: This is a really hard review to write because although I'm a big fan of Briggs, throughout the book I kept having this feeling that things were off. I put the book down for a few days and picked it up again when I was in a better frame of mind, but I still had this feeling which I'm having a hard time putting my finger on. I would say that it is still a good read, but it fell below my high expectations of Patricia Briggs. The story wasn't as cohesive and for me, the biggest issue I had was the lack of spark between the hero and heroine. I'm still not sure if I'm just not seeing it while other readers are. I plan to continue reading this series and hope that this is just a one-off.
Buy: Amazon | B&N
Other reviews (mostly good, one not so good):
Angieville (found it stronger than it's predecessor)
The Book Smugglers - 8 out of 10, excellent
Dear Author - gave it a B+ but noted some things I had problems with
calico reaction - rated it "Give it away" - liked it less than I did I think.
Smexy Books - 8 out of 10
To enter: Send an email to janicu[AT]gmail[DOT]com with the title "Paranormal ARC Giveaway". I will send the book outside the US, so anyone can enter. You have till September 25th (this Friday), midnight EST to enter.
Eclipse is the third book in the Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer. Unless you've been living under a rock, you'd know this is the story of Bella, a "normal" high school girl who falls in love with a vampire. Complications ensue because she's human and should be her boyfriend's dinner, and she has a werewolf for a best friend.
Some minor spoilers for this book and previous ones are in this review.
My review of New Moon is here. If you read that, you'll know that I found New Moon very angsty and it made me feel rather ranty about Bella and her depression. I also thought that Edward was rather controlling by deciding what was best for her and not letting her make her own choices. Despite really liking Twilight, I'm not sure I would have continued this series after New Moon. But that this series is so popular that my cousin gave me the whole series as a present so I own it now. Also my best friend has been nagging me to read it so she can rant to me about it. So I read it.
Where to begin. Well I thought that Eclipse was better than New Moon. I think that that is greatly due to my aversion to reading about a main character who is moping around and angsty, which is what you see a lot of in New Moon. I'm just not a fan of depression in my escapism. On the other hand, while in New Moon I found Bella and Edward somewhat annoying, in Eclipse I started also getting mad at other secondary characters like Charlie, who is Bella's father, and Jacob, Bella's best friend! Why is everyone annoying? Let me tell you:
Edward is trying to back off on his control issues here but he still slips with the excuse that he will do anything to keep Bella safe. He manipulates her to get what he wants. At least he was so overshadowed by other people who were driving me crazy in this book, he didn't bother me as much as he did in the past. His "patience and understanding" were laid on a bit thick though. I still don't quite understand what he sees in Bella. He just shakes his head and says Oh Bella, you don't know how wonderful you are.
Jacob: In earlier books, Jacob is this sort of happy-go-lucky guy that Bella just hangs out with, and he pulls her through her depression, letting her use him as a crutch through her bad time even though she knows he has feelings for her and she doesn't feel the same way. You know that Jacob doesn't like vampires, so he's constantly making nasty, petty remarks about them and about Edward. In Eclipse, this pettiness seemed to rise to extreme levels. I found Jacob's smugness and casual put-downs about people Bella cares about very immature. To top it off Jacob has Bella's number because he realizes she's easily manipulated through guilt. So he uses this several times to get what he wants. Also *spoiler here so look away if you care about that type of thing* Jacob forces a kiss on her. Bella hits him for that, but because he's a werewolf, all that does is break her hand. And then he *laughs* about it and is never really sorry! What a great guy. I was pretty pissed off to reading this part.
Charlie: He doesn't like Edward so of course every chance that he can he pushes Bella towards Jacob. When Jacob admits that he kissed Bella, instead of feeling concern for why his daughter is so mad, all he can do is be happy and praise Jacob for it! His comment regarding Bella's hand is something like I must not have taught you how to punch properly. He's a cop, but he's really uncaring about his daughter being sexually harassed. This is of course coupled with the same complaint I had in the last book - Bella is Charlie's servant; doing the cooking and cleaning while his excuse is that he is just a man so can't do housework. He can't heat up sauce in the microwave (puts metal in there), and he can't do his own laundry. Let's not even go into his parenting and his not having a clue as to what his daughter feels or what she's up to.
Bella: I kept noticing what felt like excuses for Bella's past behavior. Behavior that continues in Eclipse. It felt like the author was trying to address complaints from readers. The servitude is explained away as OCD. I lived with someone with OCD, and Bella does not have OCD. Even if she had *mild* OCD, her dad should still know how to microwave some damn sauce if he's lived alone before and he's an adult! Secondly, Bella spends a lot of time thinking she's a horrible person and has hurt Jacob so much, but feeling bad and still doing it doesn't really absolve you. I really dislike when people don't want to hurt someone, but instead they just give them hope by not trying hard enough to tell them the truth, so in the end it feels even worse. These people moan to everyone how they feel bad, but what they really want is for others to say that they aren't bad so they can continue what they were doing. Which I feel Bella does with Jacob. Not that Jacob is an innocent here, but Bella has already gone through this in New Moon, why are we repeating it again in Eclipse? Finally, Bella acts like a doormat. She gets manipulated by everyone. Edward tricks her into doing what he wants, so does Jacob, so does her dad. I found it really aggravating that the main character is a woman, surrounded by men who want to control her, and she let's them! She's submissive! Any fight she makes just feels like token resistance, because she gives in later. I actually wrote down a couple of times - Bella is mad, I bet she'll forgive him soon, and Bella says she doesn't want to, I bet she will later. And surprise, surprise - she did forgive, she did give in. Jacob underlines this for me because he actually says that he knew she was going to forgive him so he did what he wanted.
All this points to something which feels glaringly obvious; this book has very old fashioned values and views. Bella's role as housekeeper for her dad is a good example. Then we have the sex. Stephen King infamously commented on Meyer's writing recently, and said: "A lot of the physical side of it is conveyed in things like the vampire will touch her forearm or run a hand over skin, and she just flushes all hot and cold. And for girls, that's a shorthand for all the feelings that they're not ready to deal with yet." I was hardly surprised that Edward was unwilling to have sex with Bella before marriage. Already he's discussed his belief that as a vampire he has no soul and probably will go to hell when he dies, so it was no stretch to see him want Bella to marry him first. This is safe moral ground. It's a bit too pat but I have no real problem with this little bit of preaching in this story. What bothers me more is Bella being easily controlled - forgiving easily the asshat-ery of her male controllers. It disturbs me to see her accept what the men do, when I see it side by side with her domestic duties. It disturbs me to see Meyer's picture of men vs. women, Bella vs. Edward/Jacob/her father.
I admit, Meyer has to be doing something right. These books aren't on bestseller lists for nothing. I'd say it's the world building and the way she writes her dialog. It feels very natural and real and it's very readable. From what I remember of Twilight, the pacing there was quite fast. The pacing in Eclipse however felt a lot slower, with much of the action happening only in the last 100 or so pages. So despite my liking the way Meyer writes dialog, I felt like there was too much - it takes up a lot of room so pages and pages later you realize - nothing has happened. At 600+ pages, this book could have used some merciless editing.
Overall: An average to slightly above average read. Natural dialog, fascinating world building, great action when there is any (there was little), but I had some major issues with the characters and with Bella's subjugation by her male counterparts.
I now leave you with Southpark's Twilight parody "The Ungroundable", which aired recently and is online in its entirety for now (go watch, it's awesome).
Hmm. Doorway to Hell at a restaurant the heroine works in, guarded fo six years so far by a demon hunter who she's interested in (but he doesn't seem interested in her):
"Allie can’t seem to get it together. Ever since her mom ran away to Rio with Rio—her tennis instructor—stealing Allie’s trust fund and her comfortable way of life, Allie has been floundering. She works in Sally’s Diner, and lives above it. And one night in the basement, she and her friends chant a ridiculous spell—for money, for luck, for love…and open a Doorway to Hell.
Ryan thinks he’s got it all figured out. When the Door opened he appeared out of nowhere, a Stetson-wearing demon hunter dressed in leather. He’s assigned to the Door, and hangs out at the diner, and when the Door disappears he is certain that Allie had something to do with it.But something strange is happening in Brooklyn. Something bigger than Allie, and Ryan, and the Door in the diner basement. And when a meeting of demon hunters gives birth to a dangerous idea, Allie and Ryan are left to wonder if the fragile feelings growing between them can survive a trip to Hell…or if they themselves will survive at all. "
The author Anna Katherine is actually two people named Anna and Kat. According to their website they "have both worked in the publishing industry for most of their lives. They wrote Salt and Silver to be a jolly romp, starring a type of heroine they love but rarely see in romance novels." Could be good. But is this paranormal romance or urban fantasy? I'm not sure. The writing in the excerpt sort of has a flippant, almost young adult vibe but it's not young adult. The publisher is Tor.
