Night's Cold Kiss by Tracey O'Hara (Dark Brethren, Book 1)
Our obsession with vampires isn’t over, with a new series hitting the shelves this week. Debut author Tracey O’Hara shows us why we love to be seduced by danger and darkness.
Antoinette Petrescu, haunted by her mother’s murder at the hands of a vampire, makes her living tracking down Necrodreniacs—rogue vampires addicted to the death-high that occurs when they drain, and therefore kill, a human. But when a series of murders forces her to work closely with Christian Laroque, an Aeternus vampire, Antoinette discovers that she has a few things left to learn about vampires—they’re not all vicious murderers, and she’s not as immune to their charms as she’d thought.
Humans and parahumans co-exist in this world under a peace treaty that’s beginning to unravel. Not everyone is interested in peace, and resentment has endured long after the end of a bitter and bloody war between vampires, Animalians and humans. Antoinette and Christian suspect there’s a mole within the Council for Human and Paranormal Relations (CHaPR), leaking information and trying to disrupt the tenuous peace
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Scent of Darkness by Christina Dodd (Darkness Chosen, Book 1)
Once upon a time, Konstantin, a warrior from the Russian steppes, made a deal with the devil. In exchange for a priceless icon that had been in his family for generations (plus his soul, of course), he and his sons—and they only bred sons—would be given a special power enabling them to hunt all their enemies down.
Fast forward to about now. The latest Konstantin escaped his family to build a new life in America. He’s made a prosperous life for himself, and he has 4 children—including a daughter.
One day, his ex-gypsy wife has a vision that tells them how to break the pact and free themselves from their curse. The 4 books in the Darkness Chosen series cover just how they end up doing that.
Scent of Darkness is about Jasha, the eldest son, and his personal assistant, Ann. Ann has a thing for her boss, and one day she goes off to his house, looking hawt, to deliver important papers and try to seduce him. Part 2 of this plan goes rather well, but only after she gets scared out of her wits by discovering his special power: he’s a shapeshifter.
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Slave to Sensation by Nalini Singh (Psy-Changeling Series, Book 1)
Slave to Sensation was one of the first paranormal romances I ever read—could I have asked for a better introduction to the genre? This book has a permanent spot in my keeper shelf and remains my favourite in the Psy-Changeling Series.
Slave to Sensation was the first book I ever bought based purely on online buzz after author Nalini Singh ran a viral marketing campaign through Dear Author. I’ve never regretted my decision, and this series, currently up to its sixth book, is still an auto-buy for me.
Slave to Sensation begins with a chilling prologue that introduces Silence—a process of conditioning Psy children into suppressing all emotion in order to stamp out the growing violence and insanity in the Psy population. Gifted with advanced mental capabilities, the Psy consider themselves perfect in their Silence.
Sascha Duncan has always suspected she’s flawed. Lately, she’s been leaking emotion, and only her ability to mimic Silence protects her from being forced into rehabilitation. When Sascha meets Lucas Hunter, alpha of the DarkRiver changeling pack, to negotiate a historic business deal, his emotional changeling nature batters at her mental shields.
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Courting Disaster by Kathleen O'Reilly (Southern Legacies: The Prestons, Book 6)
A virgin country singer paired with a playboy race car driver hero could’ve been a recipe for disaster, but Kathleen O’Reilly writes some of the best couple dynamics I’ve read in a category romance.
Courting Disaster is the sixth book in the Southern Legacies series, and this is painfully obvious in the first few chapters. The only mildly interesting event in the first 40 pages is a parking accident, which sets up the meeting between playboy race-car driver Demetri Lucas, a close friend of the Prestons, and country-and-western singer Elizabeth Innis, who’s part of the Prestons’ extended family.
Once O’Reilly gets through the series continuity info dump, the book picks up the pace and we’re treated to a romance that’s both somewhat traditional and yet unpredictable.
Old-fashioned romance with modern sensibilities
Elizabeth is a famous singer whose virginal reputation is part of her “brand”, if you will. O’Reilly gives her a back story in which this is plausible if not entirely believable.
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Branded by Fire by Nalini Singh (Psy-Changeling Series, Book 6)
Branded by Fire was one of my most-awaited novels of the year, and it has definitely been worth the wait. The sixth novel in bestselling author Nalini Singh’s Psy-Changeling series is packed with political intrigues, explosions, beloved characters, and a surprisingly strong romance that’s placed firmly at the centre of the story.
Mercy is a DarkRiver sentinel, the frontline defence for her leopard changeling pack. She has an awfully strong itch, and it seems the only one who can scratch it is Riley Kincaid, a lieutenant for the neighbouring wolf pack, SnowRiver. That’s assuming she doesn’t scratch him first. Mercy and Riley are equivalently ranked soldiers in different packs, and neither is used to giving up control.
Alpha vs. alpha
For Mercy, it’s a particularly painful dilemma. As a sentinel, as a dominant female, her chances of mating are slim. She could never be attracted to a weaker male, and yet her leopard nature may never accept a dominant mate. Worse, she’s attracted to the wrong changeling. As in wrong pack. And she’s attracted in a big way. So is he. Also in a big way.
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The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie by Jennifer Ashley
Beth Ackerley is a widow who has suddenly, unexpectedly, become an heiress. All she wants to do is sit back and relax with her money, possibly with a new husband. In the process of trying to get a husband, she comes into contact with Lord Ian Mackenzie, the youngest of the Mackenzie brothers, a family notorious for the drama worthy of a modern soap opera. Lord Ian, in particular, is infamous for being “mad” and eccentric, having been previously locked up in a mental asylum for a perceived illness that in modern times would be a disability that can be dealt with. Lord Ian decides that she must be his and sets about it in his own way, and there the story unfolds.
I loved the drama of this story. At first glance, Lord Ian could be any suitor trying to woo a woman—if not for his unconventional bluntness and his trying to prove himself suitable without even knowing that is what he is doing. Both characters have angst-filled backgrounds that Jennifer Ashley uses to show us how their characters have come to be
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Sea Lord by Virginia Kantra (Children of the Sea, Book 3)
Conn ap Llyr is the prince of the Selkies, children of the sea with supernatural powers. Conn’s people are dying. They have not had children in a long time, and they are under attack from the children of fire, demons that come from under the earth, who are surreptitiously trying to destroy their civilisation. Conn believes that the key to saving them lies in a prophecy that claims that the daughter of one of their witches Atargatis would have enough power to defeat the demons and bring their civilisation back from the brink of extinction.
Lucy Hunter is the daughter of the selkie Atargatis and a human. Her father fell in love with her mother and took away her pelt, without which she is unable to transform and return to the sea in her selkie form (that of a seal). They had three children, of which Lucy was the youngest, until one day she found her pelt and returned to the sea with Lucy’s middle brother, Dylan (see Sea Fever, the book before this one). Lucy is afraid of the water, but at the same time cannot be too far away from it without knowing why. She was raised by her eldest brother, Caleb (see Sea Witch, the first book in this series), and neither of them knew of their mother’s heritage.
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Tempted All Night by Liz Carlyle
BOOK GIVEAWAY: Read on for a chance to win a free copy of Tempted All Night. The contest ends midnight on Friday, June 5 AEST.
I think I read a Liz Carlyle book once, and I mustn’t have liked it because I’ve avoided her books for some reason. So when I got a free copy of Tempted All Night at ARRC 09, it was a chance to reacquaint myself with Carlyle’s writing and see if I should start paying her more attention.
Tempted All Night didn’t immediately grab my attention, and I didn’t care much for the suspense plot, but some exquisitely written, finely balanced scenes between lovers Tristan and Phae had me alternately thrilled and in tears.
Tristan Talbot: hero in rogue’s clothing
Tristan Talbot, Lord Avoncliffe, is your typical historical romance rogue. He’s popular with the ladies—and not of the virginal kind—who generally see him as a frivolous, somewhat dim-witted, yet vastly entertaining companion. In truth, he’s a former mercenary whose past has jaded him to the point where he doesn’t care
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Lover Avenged by J. R. Ward (Black Dagger Brotherhood, Book 7)
I’m not making any bones about it—this is the fangirl review. I am a frequent visitor to the message board, and the first thing I do is check J. R. Ward’s profile to see if she’s posted anything new about the series. (Did you know that Ehlena was the nurse who brought Butch a cup of coffee when he visited the clinic in Lover Awakened and that it was her first day on the job? Or that she was the nurse who knew how to shoot in Lover Enshrined?) I’ve even taken time off work to attend chats with the Brothers.
I bought Lover Avenged for around the same price that Kat did, but since I bought it from Ward’s virtual signing (you order the book from her nominated store and tell them how you want it personalised, then she signs it in the comfort of her home and posts it out), that includes shipping from the US. Unfortunately, the damn publisher’s embargo meant that no books were allowed to be posted until the release date, so I received my copy after Part 9 of the cheat sheet was posted.
Overall style
I’ve commented on a lot of the technique in response to Kat’s review, so I won’t repeat it all here.
I liked how the ambivalence of Rehvenge’s dual nature was handled,
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Lover Avenged by J. R. Ward (Black Dagger Brotherhood, Book 7)
Rants
1. Does the amount of hip-hop lingo use correspond to the amount of increased emotionality expressed by romantic profusions that make these alpha males sound like chicks? ‘Cause the thuggier they got the more effusive they were.
2. It felt a little cluttered. Like a messy desk where you kind of knew where everything was but in some cases you still had to stick your hand in and wade about in the murkiness. Perhaps better organisation/editing was called for.
3. Too many side stories. While they all meant something, they kind of detracted from the point of the story. Whether it’s an urban fantasy or a romance, there’s usually a main storyline, as is the case with every book. Trying to run several plotlines at the same time made everything look equal, even when they’re not. And if that was the intention, it detracted from the overall clarity and flow of the story.
4. Two words: Golden Retriever.
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