Review: Banshee Charmer by Tiffany Allee

Title: Banshee Charmer (From the Files of the Otherworlder Enforcement Agency #1)
Author: Tiffany Allee
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Heat Index: 3 out of 5
Release Date: January 24th, 2012
Word/Page Count: 159 pages
Format: NetGalley

When she’s sent to a crime scene and finds her second dead woman in as many weeks, half-banshee detective Kiera “Mac” McLoughlin is convinced a serial killer is on the loose. Incubi are extinct, her boss insists. But what else can kill a woman in the throes of pleasure? When her partner is murdered after using witchcraft to locate the killer and Mac is thrown off the case, her frustration turns to desperation.

Certain the killer is an incubus, Mac works behind her department’s back to chase down slim, sometimes perilous leads. While the killer eludes her, she does discover handsome Aidan Byrne, an investigative counterpart from the enigmatic Otherworlder Enforcement Agency. Mac typically runs her investigations fast and hard, but with Aidan at her side, she’s running this one “hot” as well. But Aidan knows more than he’s letting on—something that could shatter their blazing romance and add Mac to the killer’s growing body count…

Review: Wayfinder by C. E. Murphy

Title: Wayfinder (Worldwalker Duology #2)
Author: C. E. Murphy
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Heat Index: 2 out of 5
Release Date: September 6th, 2011
Word/Page Count: 352 pages
Format: Purchased

THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE—IF IT DOESN’T KILL YOU FIRST

Lara Jansen is a truthseeker, gifted—or cursed—with the magical ability to tell honesty from lies. Once she was a tailor in Boston, but now she has crossed from Earth to the Barrow-lands, a Faerie world embroiled in a bloody civil war between Seelie and Unseelie. Armed with an enchanted and malevolent staff which seeks to bend her to its dark will, and thrust into a deadly realm where it’s hard to distinguish friend from foe, Lara is sure of one thing: her love for Dafydd ap Caerwyn, the Faerie prince who sought her help in solving a royal murder and dousing the flames of war before they consumed the Barrow-lands.

But now Dafydd is missing, perhaps dead, and the Barrow-lands are closer than ever to a final conflagration. Lara has no other choice: she must harness the potent but perilous magic of the staff and her own truthseeking talents, blazing a path to a long-forgotten truth—a truth with the power to save the Barrow-lands or destroy them.

Review: Grave Witch by Kalayna Price

Title: Grave Witch (Alex Craft #1)
Author: Kalayna Price
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Heat Index: 1 out of 5
Release Date: December 16th, 2010
Word/Page Count: 325 pages
Format: Purchased

Not even death can save her now.

As a grave witch, Alex Craft can speak to the dead-she's even on good terms with Death himself. As a consultant for the police, she's seen a lot of dark magic, but nothing has prepared her for her latest case. When she's raising a "shade" involved in a high profile murder, it attacks her, and then someone makes an attempt on her life. Someone really doesn't want her to know what the dead have to say, and she'll have to work with mysterious homicide detective Falin Andrews to figure out why...

Review: Hot Zone by Catherine Mann

Title: Hot Zone (Elite Force #2)
Author: Catherine Mann
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Heat Index: 3 out of 5
Release Date: December 1st, 2011
Word/Page Count: 384 pages
Format: NetGalley

Master sergeant Hugh Franco lives only to save others, until he plucks beautiful attorney Amelia Bailey from the wreckage of an earthquake and finds himself embroiled in ways he never expected. On the run from kidnappers, Hugh must call on all his training to protect them. But Amelia's fiery touch threatens to crack his world—and his heart—wide open.

Review: Awaken Me Darkly by Gena Showalter

Title: Awaken Me Darkly (Alien Huntress #1)
Author: Gena Showalter
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Heat Index: 3 out of 5
Release Date: February 28th, 2006
Word/Page Count: 358 pages
Format: Purchased

RIDDING THE WORLD OF EVIL,

ONE ALIEN AT A TIME.

In a time and place not too far away, Mia Snow is an alien huntress for the New Chicago Police Department, and she's the perfect girl for the job. Tough and sexy, she's earned each of her scars battling the elusive enemy among us. Now, investigating a series of killings, she is shaken to the core when a burst of violence leaves her partner Dallas fighting for his life. A tall, erotic stranger holds the power to heal the injured agent -- and to bind Mia in an electrifying and dangerous seduction. He is Kyrin en Arr, of the deadly Arcadian species -- an alien, a murder suspect -- who has Mia walking a knife's edge, risking her badge and even her life. . . and edging closer to a shocking revelation that will shatter everything she's ever believed.

Warning: Not holding back on spoilers. Also, long-winded.

Review: Truthseeker by C.E. Murphy

Title: Truthseeker (Worldwalker Duology #1)
Author: C.E. Murphy
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Heat Index: 2 out of 5
Release Date: August 31st, 2010
Word/Page Count: 336 pages
Format: Purchased

ACROSS TWO EXTRAORDINARY WORLDS, TRUTH IS THE DEADLIEST MAGIC

Gifted with an uncanny intuition, Lara Jansen nonetheless thinks there is nothing particularly special about her. All that changes when a handsome but mysterious man enters her quiet Boston tailor shop and reveals himself to be a prince of Faerie. What’s more, Dafydd ap Caerwyn claims that Lara is a truthseeker, a person with the rare talent of being able to tell truth from falsehood. Dafydd begs Lara to help solve his brother’s murder, of which Dafydd himself is the only suspect.

Acting against her practical nature, Lara agrees to step through a window into another world. Caught between bitterly opposed Seelie forces and Dafydd’s secrets, which are as perilous as he is irresistible, Lara finds that her abilities are increasing in unexpected and uncontrollable ways. With the fate of two worlds at stake and a malevolent entity wielding the darkest of magic, Lara and Dafydd will risk everything on a love that may be their salvation—or the most treacherous illusion of all.

Review: Crazy by Eve Langlais

Title: Crazy
Author: Eve Langlais
Genre: Paranormal Romance, Erotica
Heat Index: 3 out of 5
Release Date: November 22nd, 2010
Word/Page Count: N/A
Format: Purchased

Ella hears voices and they don’t like anyone.

Institutionalized at a young age after the breakup of her parents, Ella’s always heard voices. Even worse, the voices in her head like to act. She thinks she’s crazy and destined to be a patient for life until the night she meets a vampire and for the first time in her life, the voices shut up.

Zane just wants to enjoy his usual blood buffet, instead he runs into a wisp of a woman who makes him feel emotions he thought long dead. Rescuing her from the insane asylum, he brings her home, determined to assuage his lust; a plan that is foiled by ghostly voices more determined to keep her pure than a steel welded chastity belt.

Together they discover Ella might not be as crazy as everyone thinks, but even as they discover her innate power, someone from her past wants to hurt her. Will crazy and undead prevail against covetous evil? And most important of all, will the voices ever allow them to indulge in the desire that consumes them?