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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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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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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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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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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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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