Moon Called by Patricia Briggs

5 Chocolate kisses I accidentally erased my previous reviews but this is a reread for me and I enjoyed it so much, yet again. It is the perfect story for me, a competent heroine, a mystery in an urban fantasy setting and tension between the potential love interests that does not give me any angst and already published sequels! (which I have read already haha!) I especially enjoy it that there is no sex scenes. I am really quite over graphic sex scenes. There seem to be so many in books these days, so I reread old favorites. I suppose I am a chronic rereader if that is such a thing. But if you like a good solid urban fantasy with some romantic elements, this is a good book to read and all the subsequent ones in the series. It is fun.

Old School

Greetings to all.

My husband suggested that I start writing reviews again. I can understand his reasoning – it being that I talk his ears off telling him about the books that I have read. But I found that it was a daunting prospect for me because the last time I wrote a review here was about 6 years ago. Many things have changed in my life, the romance genre, and the world. My tastes fluctuate and what I liked back then I may or may not like today. But what has not changed is that I still like good books.

Review: Last Hour of Gann by R.Lee Smith

 

5 chocolate kisses

So right off, I say that this is one of my favorite reads of the year. I have 3 battling for the top spot. ‘Written in Red’ by Anne Bishop, ‘Magic Breaks’ by Ilona Andrews are the other two.

I can only image that what I am feeling now is similar to those breathy adoring tones I remember from high school when one of my friends read ‘Gone With the Wind’. They could barely speak. I myself never read the book. I saw the movie and it was ok, I could see why they would enjoy the ante bellum south crumbling and the sweeping love story. I saw no romance that I could stomach, but they did. But what I did see was the struggle of something, a way of life ending and the birth of the new. Sometimes it takes a big ole burning down of things and an upheaval that could at once seem overwhelming. And then there is us at the other side….continuing. Well, some of us.

I never even heard of this author before I glanced through a few lists and saw some reviews. What caught my eye was that the world building was excellent and yes it was. The world building was most excellent.

Now there might be quite a few people out there who might not be able to get past some brutal aspects of this novel to see the sweeping romance. But I am not one of them. In fact, it swept me right off my feet to land in a gasping puddle of ‘where can I get more of this?’ Needless to say I will read everything this author has written.

Now if reading about someone getting raped, makes you uncomfortable, then maybe you should give this book a pass but let me just tell you that for me, that was not what this book was about. It was not gratuitous, nor erotic, but just the way things played out in the course of the story and on this particular world. There was a lot of upheaval practically from the very start and the story kept me firmly in its grip – slapping me upside the head now and then but when I was finished, I felt the two main characters were like a part of me. That does not happen all that often these days. And to top it off, this book was deliciously long. 800 pages? *swoon*.

There are few books that I have relished quite so much as this one and I highly recommend it.

Review:Kindling Flames: Gathering Tinder (Kindling Flames #1) by Julie Wetzel

 

4.5 Chocolate kisses

Book Blurb-

Fresh from college and with no real work experience, Victoria Westernly considers herself lucky to land the coveted position of personal assistant to Darien Ritter, the CEO and owner of a multibillion-dollar company. His busy schedule and eccentric ways are enough to keep her on her toes. But, all is not what it seems when she discovers the handsome man employing her just happens to be the most powerful vampire in the area.
This is the first book in The Ancient Fire Series
This is part one of two. The original book was divided due to length.

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From the start of the book, I could tell that this was going to be interesting and I read it and could not  put it down and then got the second part right away.  I like my books longer than the two of them individually, generally speaking, but found myself satisfied with the story even though it was less than 300 pages.  The world building was subtle and you see more of it in book two, but it is not – not there.  As the world changed for the female lead character it changed for the reader.  I felt myself taken on a journey and her reactions to this new opening world was amusing and thought provoking.  I took a moment and asked myself, what would I do?

And then I began to wonder about how we got from Dracula to this place where Vampires did what they did in this book.  None were sparkling by the way, but none ripped your throat out and drank you dry.  At least not in book 1.  This is not a negative aspect of the book, but it just got me thinking and I suppose it had to be Anne Rice who started the whole romantic Vampire with Louis in ‘Interview with a Vampire’.

If you like slow burn romance then this one fits the bill.  No rush in that department and I wish more writers of series would considered this.  It makes for excellent romantic tension.  And no erotica was even better.  This is one of the books that show that you can have a satisfying romance without jumping into bed every 5 pages.  I like my paranormal romance without erotica and that seems very hard to find these days.

On the whole it was not what I expected and thought to read a bit, put it down, sleep and in a couple of days, read some more.  I couldn’t put the book down until I finished.  So there.  That says it all.

Review: Silenced by Nicole Given Kurtz

4.50 Chocolate Kisses

Silenced by Nicole Given Kurtz is a hard book to rate.  I say this because there were moments that I thought were 5 stars and other parts which I thought of as less than 5 stars.

The setting and world building were 5 stars.  I just loved these kinds of settings where you are not given exacting details, but just enough to get your imagination rolling until you have it in your minds eye.  It was one of things that kept me reading because I was extremely curious about the ‘place’.  The description of the people was also well done as it was a very mixed bag with hints of what they looked like so it was very easy for me to have a picture in my mind which might be very different from what the next reader might imagine.  It was refreshing to not be bombarded with skin complexions and the like so I was able to settle quite nicely with multicultural characters.  And even when there was a little more details about the characters, the story never lingered on the race, it was just part of a description in the scene.  I wonder if this makes sense.  But I really loved that about the book as well.

I totally savored this book.  It was like eating a salt and dark chocolate candy bar – YUM!

This was a sci-fi hard boiled mystery.  The Heroine, Cybil, and her working partner Jane were somewhat rough around the edges, tough girls who could wield knives and big laser guns.  The mystery was compelling and I thought realistic in how it played out.  Though some places I could figure out some of the mystery, there were other times where there were twists so it kept me guessing.  I sometimes felt that there was a sequel to another book because references were made to incidents that happened prior to the story, which added to the turn the page factor.  There was so much that I wanted to know.  I also felt that the characters were complex and  very well drawn.  Nothing was what it seemed as at first.

So overall this was a very satisfying read even with some grammatical errors.  I totally enjoyed this book.

 

 

Review: Dark Genesis (The Darkling Trilogy, #1) by A.D. Koboah

4.5 chocolate kisses

I really enjoyed this book and thought it was brilliant. I truly felt as if I were on a journey with Luna through her trials and tribulations. The subject matter is one that does not usually draw me in regards to slavery in the United States. I found that to be the most intriguing part. The character, even though she lived her life in that manner, kept it distant from her soul and I appreciated the distance and it was not quite so heartbreaking to read. The men and women secondary characters were brave in the face of such adversity and well drawn. Basically it was just the world that surrounded the main story of her relationship with Avery.

It was refreshing and I will read the next one because I want to know more. These are the best kinds of books for me – where I want to know more.

The reason that it is not 5 stars was because I thought the ending was kind of rushed. No more details in that area because I really do not want to do spoilers.

But I found it to be an excellent read.

And the cover art is gorgeous!

Review: The Secrets of Life and Death by Rebecca Alexander

I received this as an arc from Netgalley for an honest review.

4.5 chocolate kisses

I am very hard put on how to write this review because this novel is unlike anything that I have ever read before.

It is both a historical and a contemporary novel. That was the easy part.

From the beginning, I had a sense of unease that I can only describe as the feeling I had while watching the movie ‘Alien’ for the first time at a midnight show the night it opened. Later I was to find out that the sound track had channel where they used the sounds of someone trying to catch their breath. So the novel had a delightful tension all the way through it. I just knew something bad was going to happen in the present and the past.

The story developed slowly with the historical and the contemporary meeting with a crescendo. It was excellently done, the characters well drawn and the world building – all I can say is that I am very glad I did not live in 16th century Eastern Europe. The world was a visceral experience, at times I thought perhaps I could even smell the odors from the author’s description.

Quite fab story and I would read this author again. I have a little hope that she will continue with these characters in another story, but there is no cliffhanger and as a stand alone it is fine.

There is some romance, just enough to keep me happy that there was a connection on that level. And in fact, I liked the amount just fine and prefer it at this point in my reading life.

I enjoyed this book because both the historical and the contemporary dealt with the unseen in the spirit world very differently than a normal paranormal or urban fantasy story. The was an awareness that this is not just a normal day, that they were delving in dangerous things and this gave it an edginess that I liked. Maybe it goes on my religious paranormal shelf, but that is not quite right either.

Also, this was a refreshing look at a historical character who was known as a monster and how she came to be that way. This was very satisfying and intriguing because it was a culmination of entitlement, curses, magic that was interwoven into the very fabric of the time and the juxtaposition with historical and contemporary was very telling in how much of the unseen is discarded in contemporary approach to puzzles. It is more empirical – for better or worse.

I recommend this book to people who like dark fantasy.

The Reapers Are the Angels (Reapers, #1) by Alden Bell

2 chocolate kisses

No more zombie dystopian ya books for me. I have had it with depressing though beautifully written books.

Why, why why?Is it some comment on resurrection, a question about an after life…and it all seems like some dreadfully dreary slice of life and unlife?  What is the point really?

Now this may very well been a style choice, but the no quotation marks around dialogue really made me feel like I was sucked even more into this awful pit meh.

So I am totally done with this. It depresses me and I see no redeeming value in the genre.

If you like this kind of stuff, the writing was good except no quotation marks.

Nameless: The Darkness Comes (The Bone Angel Trilogy) by Mercedes M. Yardley

 

4 solid chocolate kisses

I enjoyed this book. The heroine was a bit stubborn and mouthy. A nice set up for following books in the series but no cliff hanger at the end, thank goodness. I felt for the characters in the book as they were well drawn. I most definitely will look out for the next one.

 

 

Cover Him With Darkness by Janine Ashbless

5 chocolate kisses

arc received from edleweiss

This book was an unexpected delight. For me it is pure fantasy as I do not believe in Fallen Angels but the ‘what if’ aspect was excellent.

I suppose this could be considered erotica, but I just didn’t feel that it was. The nature of the story of fallen angels and human women was about desire and however conflicted the female lead in the story was, it was a large part of the interaction.  So it was a romance which was graphic at times.  But for some reason this did not bother me.  I think the reason why was because there was soooooo much more going on in the story.

I thought this was a well crafted story that always kept me guessing and I was just not certain of anything until the last page. Great reading and I highly recommend it for people that like dark, speculative, religious fantasy or just dark fantasy.

It is not a traditional love story in regards to it be consistent.  What I liked about it was that the characters had to work through their feelings which were complicated and they had to struggle with their choices.

The worldbuilding was lush and the author was able to describe the scenery to the point that the reader felt they were actually in Montenegro and to be honest, I would like to visit there because as it was describe, I found it very beautiful.  The scenes in the States were not so clearly drawn, but I am familiar with cities there and this author did not need to waste words in that regard so I did not take that as a negative.

Another large positive for me was the sense of Good versus Evil and what that actually was.  It was not so clear cut as other books that I have read in the genre.  The only thing that stood out for me as ringing near truth was that fact the humans and ‘angels’ both have to obey and the results of not doing it played out a bit in the story.  But there was nothing definitive beyond a certain choice and the rest of  it is pretty much left wide open for other books in the series.

It it a romance?  I would say yes, but not one like I have ever read before and that was indeed quite refreshing and I was on the edge of my seat all throughout it.

This is a very adult book for mature audiences.