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.

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.