Lover Avenged by J. R. Ward (Black Dagger Brotherhood, Book 7)

Before I start my review, let me get this off my chest: I paid $55 for this book. I’ll wait while you pick yourself up from the floor.

Granted, I paid a premium price to buy it from my local independent bookstore, and so I could read it immediately, but since the cheapest Australian bookstore price we could find for this book was just short of $40, I don’t think I’m exaggerrating when I give a big old WHAT THE FUCK?!? And you know what gets me most? It’s the fact that this could’ve been a much leaner, much cheaper hardcover if the series weren’t so damn “bestselling” that suckers like me keep putting up with the fat just to get to the ever-dwindling romance between the pages.

So—expensive hardcover? Punishes the loyal reader.

Anyway, I’d been looking forward to Rehv’s story because J. R. Ward wrote some pretty dark, very angsty scenes with him in Lover Revealed, plus I was interested in what happens between John Matthew and Xhex now that he’s stopped all the whingeing. It’s frustrating, then, that Ward seems to have changed the focus of this series towards the greater world building and vampire mythology

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Glitter Baby by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

Glitter Baby is a reissue of Susan Elizabeth Phillips’ first novel, originally published in 1987, and is set in the 1950s, ’70s and ’80s. I think as a hangover from the 1970s bodice-rippers, romantic fiction from the 80s (the little I’ve read of it anyway) seems to require hard-edged and even harder-won sophistication and a loss of innocence, which can make the book quite heavy, especially for someone who discovered romance in the late 90s.

I can understand why this book has been out of print for so long: it’s a time capsule from decades past and is likely to sell again today primarily because of Phillips’ name on the cover. Or at least that’s why I bought it. But even the publishers seem confused as to how to market it for today’s readers. The front cover and spine describe the book as “fiction” or “women’s fiction”, but the quote on the back calls the book a “sweeping romance”.

It definitely doesn’t fit today’s typical structure for a romance novel. The first chapter shows Glitter Baby Fleur Savagar’s tentatively successful attempt to return to the spotlight after a mysterious fall from grace,

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Fit To Be Tied by Karen Kendall

Fit to Be Tied by Karen Kendall doesn’t begin like a conventional romance novel—it starts with a proposal. When Tom proposes to Jen, it should’ve been one of the happiest days of her life. But instead of ending the day having great monkey sex, Jen breaks the happy news to her parents just after they announce that they’re getting a divorce.

The story skips to the wedding where a frazzled Jen is trying her hardest to cope with various things going wrong on her big day—one of her shoes goes missing, her hair is horrible, she’s breaking out in hives … and Tom seems to be more than a little tipsy. But that’s nothing compared to discovering that Tom had been married before. And that his ex-wife is trying to crash the wedding party. And that he wasn’t actually divorced yet when he’d started dating Jen.

To cut a long story short, Jen decides she wants a divorce. While they’re on their honeymoon.

If you think the plot is ridiculous, that’s because it is. If it sounds a little funny, that’s also because it is

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Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith

I was so excited to get this book, I made sure that my name was down for an order at the bookstore. When I went over yesterday I was so happy to find that I had a copy, because they had run out of copies for anyone who hadn’t ordered. I read the first paragraph and laughed and laughed—it was a promising beginning.

And then I got bored.

Let me say, first, that I have seen Pride and Prejudice on film in its many forms. I quite love the story, and I’ve seen the BBC miniseries—the last time possibly within the last year—the Bollywood version, and I own the Keira Knightley DVD and I watch that for feel-good fuzzies quite a bit. Like a lot of people, I know what’s going to happen. And therein lies the problem. I have seen so much of it, so many times, that while this is supposed to be a more original, fresh retelling, the essential elements are still the same. So knowing what was going to happen, even the lines that they were going to say, at some point, just bored

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Kiss of a Demon King by Kresley Cole (Immortals After Dark, Book 6)

Wandergurl reviewed this book a while back, so I’ve been looking forward to reading it. The previous book in the series, Dark Desires After Dusk, overlaps with this book, and we got a peek of an unusually frazzled Rydstrom who had apparently kidnapped a sorceress, chained her up in his bed against her wishes, and as I recall, sounded like he was intending to do all sorts of naughty things to her. So, yes, I expected all sorts of good things from Kiss of a Demon King. I was happy with how the book ends, and there were some excruciatingly heartbreaking moments when Rydstrom and Sabine reached their emotional crises, but I’ll be honest: I hated the first part of the book.

Rage demon Rydstrom Woede is a king without a castle after his kingdom, Rothkalina, was plundered centuries ago by the demon Omort, the Deathless One—a demon who apparently can’t be killed. Except maybe he can be. Omort’s brother has fashioned a sword guaranteed to kill Omort, and Rydstrom will do anything to get it. As king, Rydstrom is also duty bound to beget an heir, which he can only do when he finds and has sex with his fated mate. In his youth, he’d bedded countless women in an attempt

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Mysteria (Anthology)

This book contains four short stories set in the land of Mysteria by popular paranormal writers MaryJanice Davidson, Susan Grant, P. C. Cast, and Gena Showalter.

Mysteria is a small town in Colorado that was literally created by a very random act of kindness. It’s a haven for the supernatural, where anything and everything can come and live without fear, where “magic has coexisted with the mundane world”.

MaryJanice Davidson’s story, Alone Wolf, was my favorite. It’s about a lone werewolf who ends up in Mysteria, buys a house, and falls for the short, busty real estate agent. I like how it’s done mostly from the guy’s point of view, and how you can really hear him thinking. It was quite funny.

Susan Grant’s story, Mortal in Mysteria, is about the demon who created Mysteria by mistake, and how he ends up with a preacher proves that the devil has a sense of humor. The Witches of Mysteria and the Dead Who Love Them by Gena Showalter involves three witch sisters, mainly focusing on the middle one and how she’s been obsessed with this one man for most of her life

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Dark Master by Tawny Taylor (Masters of Desire, Book 1)

I wanted to like Dark Master, but just couldn’t. It had all the ingredients—hot, dominant male vampire king needs a passionate human female to secure his power base. Lots of potential there, but even though I knew not to expect Vishous, I was hugely disappointed. And since the aspect of the book that I hated, hated, hated and felt disgusted by was something I think a halfway decent editor should have picked up on, I consider it my duty to warn people off this crappy book.

Regan Roslund was a spoiled rich girl who trusted the wrong financier with her inherited wealth and is suddenly left with no money, no assets and no skills, except for a little bondage store left by a black sheep relative, containing a necklace designed to select the next vampire queen, carelessly left on a display waiting to be tried on by poor unsuspecting subs.

Shadow Sorensen badly needs a queen because the vampire community is on the brink of civil war and having a human for his queen gives him a huge enough boost to his power that he cannot be challenged. When Regan puts on the necklace and meets with its approval,

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Mr Impossible by Loretta Chase (Carsington Quartet, Book 2)

To start off, I will say this will be an incredibly biased review because this is one of my favourite books of all time, and Loretta Chase is one of my favourite authors ever.

The Characters

Rupert Carsington is a bit of a loveable disaster. Wherever he goes, trouble follows. He’s a bit of a bumbling idiot, but he is smarter than he appears to be, it’s just that he seems to find himself in one scrape or another no matter what he does. He’s the kind of man that would have anyone in the family throw their hands up in despair and look up at the heavens wondering why they were forced to have such a child, even if he’s so earnest, and by God, he really tries, so they love him anyway. However, as the fourth son of an earl who is pretty much tired of dealing with him, he’s been sent to Egypt to “assist the consul” in diplomatic matters so that he can prove himself useful. Somehow.

Daphne Pembroke is the widow of a rich (presumably fat) old man whom she married at 19 because he was a scholar and she wanted to explore her scholarly passions.

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The Santangeli Marriage by Sara Craven (HMB Sexy)

Thanks to Sara Craven, I’ve rediscovered my love for the Harlequin Mills & Boon Sexy line. Yes, her heroes can be a little overbearing, and her heroines can be a tad wimpy, but for the most part, they’re likeable. They’re flawed, they’re sometimes lacking in self-awareness, but they work through their issues through the book, and I’m cheering for them all the way.

Not to mention, her books make me cry. Every single one of them. Don’t read them at 3am because you’ll wake up with puffy eyes that no amount of caffeine can erase.

The Santangeli Marriage uses a common HMB Sexy plot. Marisa and Lorenzo’s marriage was arranged by their families, but through a series of misunderstandings on both their parts, they got off to a pretty horrible start and have been living apart for the past 8 months. When Renzo’s father falls ill and asks him to work on repairing his relationship with his wife, Renzo decides it’s time for him to try and woo Marisa—properly this time, to make up for the hash he made of it during their honeymoon. Marisa’s shocked when she comes home to find Renzo waiting for her, and although she wants to end the marriage,

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Grimspace by Ann Aguirre (Jax Series, Book 1)

I’m late for my re-read challenge review, but I’m blaming Ann Aguirre. I’ve re-read Grimspace at least three times before, and each time, I’m compelled to read every word to savour the story of Jax and March.

Sirantha Jax is the sole survivor of a terrible spaceship crash that killed not only a prominent dignitary but also Jax’s lover. Jax isn’t sure what happened, and she’s starting to believe that maybe it was her fault. In any case, it looks like she’s going to be the scapegoat. So when a stranger offers to spring her out of the pyschiatric facility she’s being kept in, Jax has nothing to lose.

But to get out, the rescue ship needs a navigator and Jax is the only one on board. Jax’s genetic makeup allows her to navigate through grimspace, a kind of dimension that allows people to bend space so they can travel great distances. Jax has the ability to sense the beacons in grimspace—landmarks or doorways that mark where in grimspace you are. But to do that, Jax has to be plugged into the ship with the pilot. It’s an intimate relationship, one that allows jumper and pilot to be in each other’s minds … and it’s too soon for Jax. Because the lover she lost had been her pilot,

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