Category Archives: Romance

October 9, 2016 · 1:28 am

Crimson Death (Anita Blake, #25) by Laurell K. Hamilton and a Giveaway

Crimson Death (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter #25)Crimson Death by Laurell K. Hamilton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review to follow.

But, wow. WOW!

UPDATED ON 10/9/2016

Title: Crimson Death
Author: Laurell K. Hamilton
Series: Anita Blake, #25
Pages: 576
Publisher: Berkley
Date: October 11, 2016

Summary:

Now, in her twenty-fifth adventure, vampire hunter and zombie raiser Anita Blake learns how far she’ll go to save someone she loves…

When Damian—Anita’s sometimes lover, servant, and friend—is kidnapped, Anita heads to Ireland. There she must face off against the vampire who created him. M’Lady, Moroven, Nemhain…under every name she brings terror and destruction. But Anita brings her own weapon to the party: Edward, the man known as Death itself…

Review:

I read this book the first time (Yes, I know. It’s not even out yet and I’ve already read it twice. That should tell you something.) in August. Because I didn’t review it then AND I enjoyed it so much the first time, I decided it deserved a re-read before a formal review. However, I did post to Goodreads my original reaction.

“Review to follow.

But, wow. WOW!”

After a second reading, I have to add Oh, wow!

It’s really that good. Are there things that happen that I don’t like?

Yes! Definitely. However, the one that bothers me the most really worked in the scene. And no, I’m not telling. Spoilers, people. Spoilers.

The main plot is Anita and a lot of her extended group go to Ireland to help them with a vampire problem. Ireland has never had vampires before or at least so they thought. Damian lived in Ireland for centuries although I had forgotten about that.

To me, the real plot is Anita’s triumvirate with Nathaniel and Damian. They are still learning how it works. The only one Anita has any experience with is the one she shares with Richard and Jean Claude and that one does not work well due to Richard’s issues. Longtime readers of this series know exactly what I am talking about.
Again, to me, it looks like the one she shares with Damian and Nathaniel is going to give her even more power than the one she shares with Jean Claude and Richard.

The main problem I had with the book is there are too many characters. I can’t keep everyone straight. I feel like I need an annotated list of who is who. Even Anita feels overwhelmed at times with all the people she is responsible for. -grin-

Would I get rid of anyone? No! I am just struggling to keep everyone in the correct role.

All of my favorite characters are there: Jean Claude, Nathaniel, Micah (but not enough), even Jason shows up for awhile. There’s a hint that he may have a role in the next book as well. I miss Jason. Edward has a large part, although he is mostly in his Ted character.

Even Asher shows up who I could have done without. I do see though how he added to the main plotline.

There is nothing to dislike about this book. No, I didn’t like everything that happened, but everything was important.

Read it! You’ll understand.

I ALMOST FORGOT! The publisher has very nicely offered a free book from the series to a random commenter. You can comment here or on my Goodreads review. If you are selected, I will contact you for your mailing address.

This book was sent to me by NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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October 6, 2016 · 5:01 pm

Quote-tastic Monday: And yes, I know it’s not Monday

Thursday!  Thursday’s the new Monday, right?  Lord, I hope not.  I’d hate to go through this week again.  Anyway, better late than never comes this week’s Quote-tastic Monday.  (And no, I’m not discussing the fact that I missed last week altogether.)

Jill Shalvis’ new book The Trouble with Mistletoe came out this past Tuesday (Okay, two Tuesdays!  I’m behind in everything!) and I read it on its release day.  The fact that I was in the middle of another book which I need to finish for review did not matter.  It was a new Jill Shalvis people.  There are priorities after all.

Anyway, Keane is petsitting/has inherited a cat from his aunt and he has no idea on how to care for her.  The cat is destroying his house and is not hesitant to show her opinion of Keane.

. . . And then she . . .” He trailed off and appeared to chomp on his back teeth.

“What?”

“Took a dump in my favorite running shoes.”

Willa owns a pet salon and gift shop, so he goes to her for help.  Unfortunately for him, she knows and hates him from high school . . . and he doesn’t even remember her.  Not the best situation in which to be asking for a favor.

Fortunately for Keane, Willa is a soft touch particularly where animals are concerned.

“What’s her name?” she asked.

“Petunia, but I’m going with Pita.  Short for pain in the ass.”

I love it!  It reminds me of the old Disney movie “That Darn Cat” in which the cat was called DC for Darn Cat.  The original pre-Disney version was That Damn Cat or at least that is what I have heard.

Anyway, the book is wonderful and the second in her Heartbreaker Bay series.  Grab it.  It’s lots of fun.

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September 26, 2016 · 1:37 am

Quote-tastic Monday: River Marked by Patricia Briggs

You know there’s a reason I love Mercy Thompson.  She reminds me of myself.  Not that I’m the badass she is, but I can be annoying.

In this quote, she’s talking to Stefan who doesn’t want to listen to her.  I cannot understand why.

You might as well give in because I’ll just annoy you until you do.

Love her, love her, love her!

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September 4, 2016 · 8:10 am

Guardian’s Mate (Shifters Unbound, #9) by Jennifer Ashley

Guardian's Mate (Shifters Unbound, #9)Guardian’s Mate by Jennifer Ashley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Title: Guardian’s Mate
Author: Jennifer Ashley
Series: Shifters Unbound, #9
Pages: 320
Publisher: Berkley
Date: September 6, 2016

Summary:

She wasn’t ready to lead…

Chosen as the Guardian of her Montana Shiftertown, wolf Shifter Rae Lyall is facing opposition—for no woman has ever been selected for this powerful position. Still adjusting to the new authority thrust upon her, Rae travels to train with Zander Moncrieff, a Shifter healer, tasked with teaching her about her new role and its responsibilities.

He wasn’t ready to love…

A polar bear Shifter, Zander wears no Collar and follows no rules but his own. Rae finds him arrogant and demanding, yet compelling and intriguing. Zander has no wish to mate but the sassy Guardian is drawing him out of his shell, stirring feelings long suppressed. And when a new threat looms over Rae’s home, she and Zander must race to the rescue, forced closer to danger…and to each other.

Review:

I love Shifter books and I love Jennifer Ashley books, so this series is a match made in heaven for me.

And Rae, Guardian Shifter, and Zander, Shifter Healer, are mates chosen by the Goddess. However, that doesn’t mean they aren’t hard to convince.

Zander is a loner. He has friends, but mostly he stays by himself. It’s necessary for him to recover whenever he heals a shifter. Rae, however, comes from a loving family in a Shiftertown. They are her adopted family and feline where she is lupine, but that doesn’t mean they don’t love each other. She wants and needs to be part of a pack.

So, of course, she ends up dumped on Zander’s boat in Alaska. Did I mention she’s from Montana? At least she’s used to the cold.

He’s angry to have her forced on him. She’s angry that she’s been exiled from her family. So they take it out on each other.

Obviously, they were meant to be mates.

This is not meant to be a humorous book. It is a drama, an adventure, a mystery, AND has some really funny scenes. Just when you think things are getting too intense, Zander will do or say something to lighten things up. I really, really love Zander.

Like all the books in this series, characters from previous books make an appearance. I can’t imagine reading them out of order. If you haven’t read any of them before, you’re in for a treat. I definitely need to do a straight through read of the series again.

One character that we had not met before is Jake. I love Jake. I’m not going to say anything more about him, but he is totally unexpected and integral to the plot.

As you can tell, I love this series. They are not necessarily happy books, but the couples all have a happy ever after. Read them!

This book was sent to me by NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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August 15, 2016 · 6:05 am

Quote-tastic Monday: The Summer Bride by Anne Gracie

This is the fourth book in the Chance Sisters series and as far as I know, it is the last.  However, there is definitely room for at least one more book.

Anyway, I have to say that Flynn is my favorite hero from the series.  I loved them all, but he is such a scamp, he outshines them.  Oddly enough my quote does not involve him and Daisy, but Flynn and Lady Beatrice.  Lady Beatrice is an elderly woman who has taken in and claimed the Chance sisters.  She has the most personality of all of the characters in my opinion.  Anyway, she forced Flynn to attend a dancing lesson with the sisters because she knows he does not come from a privileged background and assumes he needs all the help he can get.  She is proven wrong (something that rarely happens) at a ball the very next night.

“Why did you not tell me you knew how to dance?”

Flynn smiled.  “I never tell a lady what she doesn’t wish to hear.”

She snorted again.  “That little habit — if it’s true — is going to get you into a lot of trouble then.”  Her beady old eyes twinkled up at him.  “I look forward to it.”

“So do I, ma’am, so do I.”

Didn’t I tell you he was a scamp?Summer Bride

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August 8, 2016 · 6:21 am

Quote-tastic Monday: The Spring Bride by Anne Gracie

Although I have read other books since last week’s Quotastic, this week’s quote is from the same series.  Her books are not memorable because of the quotes, but every now and then one just jumps out at me and I think “I have got to use that one.”  With no further ado,

Jane has rescued a dog of dubious breeding from a pack of young men who were torturing it.  Zachary cannot believe she means to keep it.  He is thinking to himself,

In his experience, ladies of quality kept overbred bundles of dainty fluff, not — he looked at the dog again — whatever this was.  There was a Staffordshire or bulldog somewhere in its ancestry, he’d wager.  Along with a dozen other breeds.  And possibly a warthog.  Whatever, it was not a dog for a lady.

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August 1, 2016 · 1:34 am

Quote-tastic Monday: Winter Bride by Anne Gracie

Many times over the years, I have wanted to say something to an older person who was rude or just out of line.  I always restrained myself because I could hear my mother teaching me to “respect my elders.”  Of course, as I get older that means there are fewer people I have to restrain myself with.  -grin-

Anyway, in Winter Bride, Damaris is having dinner with her betrothed’s parents . . . an extremely unlikable pair.  In response to Freddie’s father’s comment that she knows which side her bread is buttered, she says,

“Nothing of the sort; it’s just that I was taught to show respect to old people,” she said sweetly, adding, “no matter how little they may deserve it.”

I love that line!  It is exactly how I feel sometimes.

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July 25, 2016 · 1:14 am

Quote-tastic: The Beast in Him by Shelly Laurenston

This quote is from one of my favorite Shelly Laurenston books.  And let me tell you, it is hard for me to say any of these books are my favorites.  I love them all.

The Beast in Him is the second of the Pride series and features Smitty and Jessie Ann.  Smitty is a wolf of the Tennessee wolf pack and if you have ever read any of this series, you know that means something . . . and it’s not good.  Jessie Ann is  the alpha of a wild dog pack.  Like domesticated dogs, they can be goofy and obsessive and absolutely adorable.  Jessie Ann is all of those.

The quote I selected is from Smitty.  He hears what he wants to hear and that is not what Jessie Ann tells him.

The beauty of wolf hearing.  You heard only what you wanted to, made up what was never said but should have been, and the rest meant little or nothing.

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July 20, 2016 · 2:00 pm

Quote-tastic: A Book to Look Forward To

I have already reviewed A Perilous Undertaking by Deanna Raybourn, but it has some great lines.  Therefore, I am going to share one of them again.  I am not giving any context.  You will just have to wait for it.  And I do mean wait.  This book is not scheduled for release until January 2017 which should be considered cruel and unusual punishment for anyone who loves Ms. Raybourn’s books like I do.  Anyway, drum roll please, today’s quote (and yes, I know it’s Wednesday, not Monday) is

“Good heavens! I have never seen so many penises in one place,” — Veronica Speedwell

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July 17, 2016 · 8:29 am

A Perilous Undertaking (Veronica Speedwell, #2) by Deanna Raybourn

A Perilous Undertaking (Veronica Speedwell, #2)A Perilous Undertaking by Deanna Raybourn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Title: A Perilous Undertaking
Author: Deanna Raybourn
Series: Veronica Speedwell, #2
Pages: 352
Publisher: Berkley Books
Date: January 10, 2017

Summary:

“London, 1887.”

Victorian adventuress and butterfly hunter Veronica Speedwell receives an invitation to visit the Curiosity Club, a ladies-only establishment for daring and intrepid women. There she meets the mysterious Lady Sundridge, who begs her to take on an impossible task saving society art patron Miles Ramsforth from execution. Accused of the brutal murder of his artist mistress Artemisia, Ramsforth will face the hangman’s noose in a week’s time if Veronica cannot find the real killer.

But Lady Sundridge is not all that she seems, and unmasking her true identity is only the first of the many secrets Veronica must uncover. Together with her natural historian colleague Stoker, Veronica races against time to find the true murderer, a ruthless villain who not only took Artemisia’s life in cold blood but is happy to see Ramsforth hang for the crime. From a Bohemian artists colony to a royal palace to a subterranean grotto with a decadent history, the investigation proves to be a very perilous undertaking indeed….”

Review:

I loved the first book in this series, A Curious Beginning, and this one was just as entertaining. The mystery is good, and no, I had no idea who the “bad guy” was until the reveal. That’s unusual for me. I read so many books, I generally have a good idea who the culprit is before the end of the book. Not knowing makes this an exceptional book.

Regardless of the mystery though, it is the relationship between Veronica and Stoker that I really enjoy. They like each other, and maybe a little more, but they had much rather argue than carry on a civil conversation. Veronica likes to enrage Stoker because it pulls him out of the dumps. At least, that’s what she says. Actually, she just enjoys arguing.

In this book, we find out a little more about Veronica’s past, but we really learn some things about Stoker. It’s not enough. It only whets my appetite for more information. It’s not like there are cliffhangers or anything. I hate those. We are just given tidbits to entice us. And man, did that work. I cannot wait for the next book.

To keep you going until this book’s release, here are a few quotes to entertain.

Veronica in Chapter 1: Men, I had observed, were never happier than when they believed they were imparting wisdom.

Stoker in Chapter 12: Veronica, you have a substantial intellect. Perhaps you could trouble yourself to use it occasionally.

Veronica in the same chapter referring to Stoker: That was the true measure of his character; even at the height of his irritation he would never let me fall.

Also, in the same chapter (and why would Stoker ever be irritated with Veronica), Stoker is trying to get Veronica to promise to run to safety if things go bad. :

“For once, do as I ask. Promise me.”

“Very well. I promise,” I said, crossing my fingers behind my back.

Again, in Chapter 12. I had not realized what a great chapter that was. I am not going to give you any context for this quote. I’m just throwing it out. : “Good heavens! I have never seen so many penises in one place,”

Veronica in Chapter 16: It has been my experience in dealing with the male of the species that the easiest way to get one to do as you wish is to encourage him to do precisely the opposite.

You know, I am fairly certain my mother taught me this exact same thing.

And I’ll leave you with an exchange between Veronica and Stoker:

“… That is a stroke of brilliance.”

He preened. “It is, isn’t it? I think I shall bask in this for a little while. I do like being right.”

And don’t we all. I hate that the book is not being released until January of 2017. I have no idea why it has been delayed for so long. It is well worth the wait though and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

This book was sent to me by NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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