Monthly Archives: October 2010

Four Play by Maya Banks and Shayla Black

 

Purchased

 

In Pillow Talk by Maya Banks, Zoe is a woman in a committed relationship with her boyfriend Chase. Then one night, Chase reveals his number-one fantasy, which involves his two best buddies. Is Zoe game? She sure is, because it opens the door for a secret fantasy all her own. In Shayla Black’s Her Fantasy Men, a girly-girl named Kelsey plays football, craves action movies, and loves knocking back a cold beer with her three best friends-all male. Yet she’s never seemed sexually interested in any one of these hot guys. So what does Kelsey want? A fantasy come true for all four of them. (from Goodreads)

Sigh!  Maya Banks wrote one of my all time favorite books/series about the Colters.  Unfortunately, I think that is the only really good book she had in her.  I buy them all and continue to be disappointed.

Shayla Black is another author I need to quit auto buying.  I don’t think I have ever loved any of her books, but they are okay.  Sometimes I just get into the habit with an author whether they deserve it or not.

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Filed under Contemporary, Erotica, Romance

Styx’s Storm (Breeds, #22) by Lora Leigh

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When Storme Montague’s father and brother are killed by the Breeds, her father’s research is also destroyed — except for a crucial data chip that both the Council and the Breeds would kill to possess.  Betrayed to the Council, she is rescued by Styx, a Wolf Breed who is different from most other Breeds she has ever known.  Storme has something he wants too — but it’s not a data chip.

This is the first of the Breed stories that I remember the human actively hating and fearing the Breeds.  Storme has reason enough to do so, but I think this aspect is overplayed.  We are all affected by what happens when we are young, but she doesn’t seem to exhibit any growth in emotional development unless it is a strengthening of her prejudice.

Having said that, I really liked the book.  Styx is a Scots which is definitely a first for these books.  I don’t know if Lora Leigh is just jumping on the Highlander bandwagon or simply expanding the ethnic development of her Breeds.  She also introduces a different aspect of mating heat.  I really think she may be going in the wrong direction there.

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Filed under Contemporary, Erotica, Paranormal, Romance

Dark Peril (Carpathians, #21) by Christine Feehan

 

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Dominic, of the Dragonseeker lineage—one of the most powerful of the Carpathian lines—is desperate to go to the very heart of the enemy camp and learn their plans.  There’s only one way to do so: ingest the parasitic blood of a vampire.  He knows that it is a mission from which there is no return. With little time before the blood takes effect, he’ll get the information he needs, relay it to the leader of the Carpathians, and go out fighting.  There is no more honorable way to end his life.

Solange Sangria is one of the last of the jaguar people, a royal pureblood, a dying species that cannot recover from bad decisions made over hundreds of years. She has long been alone, fighting to save the remaining shapeshifters from the hands of Brodrick the Terrible: her own father, who slaughtered her family and everyone she loved.  Wounded and weary, she plans one last battle, hoping to stop the man who has made an alliance with the vampires, accepting that she will not come out alive.

They are two warriors who have lived their lives alone.  Now, at the end of their time, they find each other—an obstacle neither can hope to ignore. (from author’s website)

First of all, I loved the ending.  I can see all kinds of possibilities for future books.  One wonderful thing about Christine Feehan is that she knows how to end a book.  She leaves me begging for the next one, but does not have cliffhangers.  The storylines for each book are wrapped up, even if there are threads still waiting to be followed.

To me, Zacarias’ book should be the next one.  We have already (probably) met his lifemate and there is a really interesting twist to this one.  Unfortunately, it will probably be two years before I find out.

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Filed under Contemporary, Paranormal, Romance

Tracker’s Sin (Hell’s Eight, #4) by Sarah McCarty

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WED BY NECESSITY…JOINED BY DESIRE

Before his trade became his name, “Tracker” Ochoa was a scrawny Mestizo runaway. Now as fearsome as he once was frightened, he’s joined the notorious Hell’s Eight…and they have a job for him.

He must rescue kidnapped heiress Ari Blake and deliver her safely to the Hell’s Eight compound—by any means necessary. Turns out that includes marrying her, if he means to escort her and her infant son across the Texas Territory. Tracker hadn’t bargained on a wife—especially such a fair, blue-eyed beauty. But the erotic pleasures of the marriage bed more than make up for the surprise.

Tracker’s well-muscled bronze skin and dark, dangerous eyes are far more exciting than any of Ari’s former debutante dreams. In the light of day, though, his deep scars and brooding intensity terrify her. But he’s her husband and she’s at his mercy. With the frontier against them and mercenary bandits at their heels, Ari fears she’ll never feel safe again.

Tracker, too, remembers what fear feels like. Though he burns to protect Ari, to keep her for himself always, he knows that money, history—and especially the truth—can tear them apart. (from Goodreads)

The first book in this series, Caine’s Reckoning, was also the first book I purchased for my Sony Reader.  I had read wonderful reviews about it, not to mention the raves on the Romantic Times discussion board.  I kept saying, “but I don’t read Westerns.”  I am so glad I changed my mind and tried it.  I promptly purchased everything else Sarah McCarty had written and my only complaint is she doesn’t publish fast enough to keep up with me.

In Tracker’s Sin, we finally meet Ari who the Hell’s Eight have been searching for since book one.  There was definitely an unexpected twist to her rescue, but it worked.  Ari and Tracker are both emotionally damaged and neither really believes they are good enough for the other.

I think the next book will be about Tracker’s brother Shadow, but it is hard to tell.  She has other series that have new books first.  I do know that when book eight is finally released (years from now I am sure), I will sit down and read these straight through.

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Filed under Erotica, Historical, Romance

Wild Fire (Leopard, #4) by Christine Feehan

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Called on a dangerous assignment, leopard shifter Conner Vega returns to the Panama rain forest of his homeland, looking every bit the civilized male. But as a member of the most lethal of the shifter tribes, he doesn’t have a civilized bone in his body. He carries the scent of a wild animal in its prime, he bears the soul-crushing sins of past kills and he’s branded with the scars of shame inflicted by the woman he betrayed.

Isabeau Chandler is a Borneo shifter who’s never forgiven Conner–or forgotten him. The mating urge is still with her, and when she crossed Conner’s path, passions burn like wildfire. But as Conner’s mission draws Isabeau closer, another betrayal lies waiting in the shadows–and it’s the most perilous and intimate one of all. (from Goodreads)

It took me an entire week to read this book, not because it was slow, but because life kept interfering.  I really thought the Christine Feehan’s leopard and jaguar series were related if not actually the same series.  They are totally separate however.  I re-read this series because her new Carpathian book features a jaguar that has shown up in a previous book.  I thought it was one of these.

Anyway, this was the most heart wrenching of the leopard series.  Isabeau’s and Conner’s initial relationship ended in betrayal.  When they do meet again, it looks like he is going to betray her again.  Another male leopard is involved who Isabeau’s leopard finds enticing, much to everyone’s detriment.

I enjoyed this book and I ended up liking Conner.  The book I really want though is Drake’s who is only mentioned in passing in this one.  Maybe next time.

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Filed under Contemporary, Paranormal, Romance