Review: The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie by Jennifer Ashley

Title: The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie (Highland Pleasures #1)
Author: Jennifer Ashely
Genre: Historical Romance
Heat Index: 4 out of 5
Release Date: April 28th, 2009
Word/Page Count: 320 pages
Format: Purchased

The year is 1881. Meet the Mackenzie family--rich, powerful, dangerous, eccentric. A lady couldn't be seen with them without ruin. Rumors surround them--of tragic violence, of their mistresses, of their dark appetites, of scandals that set England and Scotland abuzz.

The youngest brother, Ian, known as the Mad Mackenzie, spent most of his young life in an asylum, and everyone agrees he is decidedly odd. He's also hard and handsome and has a penchant for Ming pottery and beautiful women.

Beth Ackerley, widow, has recently come into a fortune. She has decided that she wants no more drama in her life. She was raised in drama--an alcoholic father who drove them into the workhouse, a frail mother she had to nurse until her death, a fussy old lady she became constant companion to. No, she wants to take her money and find peace, to travel, to learn art, to sit back and fondly remember her brief but happy marriage to her late husband.

And then Ian Mackenzie decides he wants her.

The first of a new historical series.

Review: Under the Moon by Natalie J. Damschroder

Title: Under the Moon (Goddess Rising, Book 1)
Author: Natalie J. Damschroder
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Heat Index: 2 out of 5
Release Date: December 6th, 2011
Word/Page Count: 300 pages
Format: NetGalley

Their power gives them strength...and makes them targets.

Quinn Caldwell is the epitome of a modern goddess. Her power source is the moon, her abilities restricted only by physical resources and lunar phase. She runs a consulting business and her father's bar, serves on the board of the ancient Society for Goddess Education and Defense, and yearns for Nick Jarrett, professional goddess protector and the soul mate she can never have.

But someone has developed the rare and difficult ability to drain a goddess of her powers, and Quinn is a target. With the world thinking Nick has gone rogue (whatever that means) and that Quinn is influenced by "family ties" she didn't know she had, keeping themselves safe while working to find the enemy proves harder each day.

But not as hard as denying their hearts...

Review: Chain Reaction by Zoe Archer

Title: Chain Reaction (8th Wing #2)
Author: Zoe Archer
Genre: Science Fiction/Fantasy Romance
Heat Index: 2 out of 5
Release Date: January 9th, 2012
Word/Page Count: 43,000 words
Format: NetGalley

Elite 8th Wing pilot Celene Jur was taken captive after a mysterious device temporarily disabled her ship's controls. Three solar months later, when Celene receives intel on the man who built the device, she's ready to get the bastard. Only problem is, the higher-ups think her mission partner should be Nils Calder, a tech-head who can understand the disabling device. The attraction between them is electric, but Celene needs a soldier who can watch her back as she exacts her revenge.

Nils knows his department is nicknamed NerdWorks. Pilots like Celene think the closest tech geeks come to combat is all-night Nifalian chess tournaments. But behind the NerdWorks insignia on his sleeve Nils is an able fighter, ready to prove himself and gain Celene's trust.

The desire between them is unexpected, but with the fate of thousands hanging in the balance, the hotshot pilot and the tech genius must succeed in their mission—no matter the cost.

Review: Breathless by Anne Stuart

Title: Breathless (The House of Rohan #3)
Author: Anne Stuart
Genre: Historical Romance
Heat Index: 4 out of 5
Release Date: October 1st, 2010
Word/Page Count: 379 pages
Format: Purchased

Ruined beyond repair and shunned by London society, lovely Miranda Rohan rebelliously embraces the freedom that comes from having nothing left to lose. However, this dangerous course throws her under the power of the darkly enigmatic Lucien de Malheur—known to many as the Scorpion.

Seeking to destroy the Rohans, Lucien traps Miranda in a marriage she thinks is based on friendship but instead is rooted in vengeance. Yet even when she realizes the truth, their enmity fuels a shocking passion—and perhaps even more.

Such a man might drive anyone to murder....

Review: Mesmerized by Lauren Dane

Title: Mesmerized (Phantom Corps #2)
Author: Lauren Dane
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Heat Index: 4 out of 5
Release Date: May 26th, 2011
Word/Page Count: 294 pages
Format: Purchased

The national bestselling author of Insatiable turns up the heat with her latest sizzling adventure.

Andrei Solace delivers death on silent feet as an assassin for the Phantom Corps. Mercenary Piper Roundtree thought she was over him. But against the backdrop of an impending war, their passion is rekindled. Now the lovers must join forces- in more ways than one-to save the Known Universe before the Imperialist enemy hurls it into irreversible chaos.

Authors vs. Readers vs. Reviewers...

Apparently, 2012 was rung in with a whole slew of angry-author / negative-review drama. We read about a lot of it. I thought about posting my thoughts on it here. But the more I thought about it, the more I just wanted a nap. So we have a bit of snarky-linky-witty-goodness instead.

Kudos, Ms. Brook.

Review: Lonely Werewolf Girl by Martin Miller

Title: Lonely Werewolf Girl (Kalix MacRinnalch #1)
Author: Martin Miller
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Heat Index: N/A
Release Date: June 7th, 2007
Word/Page Count: 520 pages
Format: Purchased

While teenage werewolf Kalix MacRinnalch is being pursued through the streets of London by murderous hunters, her sister, the Werewolf Enchantress, is busy designing clothes for the Fire Queen. Meanwhile, in the Scottish Highlands, the MacRinnalch Clan is plotting and feuding after the head of the clan suddenly dies intestate. As the court intrigue threatens to blow up into all-out civil war, the competing factions determine that Kalix is the swing vote necessary to assume leadership of the clan. Unfortunately, Kalix isn’t really into clan politics — laudanum’s more her thing. Even more unfortunately, Kalix is the reason the head of the clan ended up dead, which is why she’s now on the lam in London. . . This expansive tale of werewolves in the modern world — friendly werewolves, fashionista werewolves, troubled teenage werewolves, cross-dressing werewolves, werewolves of every sort — is hard-edged, hilarious, and utterly believable.

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: If You Dare by Kresley Cole

Title: If You Dare
Author: Kresley Cole
Genre: Historical Romance
Heat Index: 3 out of 5
Release Date: Aug. 2007
Word/Page Count: approx: 349 pages
Format: Purchased

High in the Pyrenees, a band of mercenaries led by Courtland MacCarrick wages war for General Reynaldo Pascal. When Court turns on the evil general, Pascal orders him killed but Court narrowly escapes and exacts revenge by kidnapping Pascal's exquisite Castilian fiancée.

Can she deny her passions?

Lady Annalía Tristán Llorente despises her towering, barbaric captor almost as much as she does Pascal. Her inexplicable attraction to the Highlander only fuels her fury. But nothing will stop her from returning to Pascal -- for if she doesn't wed him, she signs her brother's death warrant, as well as her own.

Can there be love between them?

From the moment Court discovers that Anna's prim façade masks a fiery, brave lass, his heart's ensnared, and he dares to defy the curse that has shadowed his life -- to walk with death or walk alone. But Pascal vows that he'll hunt the two, never stopping until he's destroyed them both.

Review: Dearly, Departed by Lia Habel

Title: Dearly, Departed (Gone with the Respiration #1)
Author: Lia Habel
Genre: Young Adult Paranormal
Heat Index: 1 out of 5
Release Date: October 18th, 2011
Word/Page Count: 470 pages
Format: NetGalley

Love can never die.

Love conquers all, so they say. But can Cupid’s arrow pierce the hearts of the living and the dead—or rather, the undead? Can a proper young Victorian lady find true love in the arms of a dashing zombie?

The year is 2195. The place is New Victoria—a high-tech nation modeled on the manners, mores, and fashions of an antique era. A teenager in high society, Nora Dearly is far more interested in military history and her country’s political unrest than in tea parties and debutante balls. But after her beloved parents die, Nora is left at the mercy of her domineering aunt, a social-climbing spendthrift who has squandered the family fortune and now plans to marry her niece off for money. For Nora, no fate could be more horrible—until she’s nearly kidnapped by an army of walking corpses.

But fate is just getting started with Nora. Catapulted from her world of drawing-room civility, she’s suddenly gunning down ravenous zombies alongside mysterious black-clad commandos and confronting “The Laz,” a fatal virus that raises the dead—and hell along with them. Hardly ideal circumstances. Then Nora meets Bram Griswold, a young soldier who is brave, handsome, noble . . . and dead. But as is the case with the rest of his special undead unit, luck and modern science have enabled Bram to hold on to his mind, his manners, and his body parts. And when his bond of trust with Nora turns to tenderness, there’s no turning back. Eventually, they know, the disease will win, separating the star-crossed lovers forever. But until then, beating or not, their hearts will have what they desire.

In Dearly, Departed, romance meets walking-dead thriller, spawning a madly imaginative novel of rip-roaring adventure, spine-tingling suspense, and macabre comedy that forever redefines the concept of undying love.

Review: The Turning by Jennifer Armintrout

Title: The Turning (Blood Ties #1)
Author: Jennifer Armintrout
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Heat Index: 2 out of 5
Release Date: June 1st, 2006
Word/Page Count: 384 pages
Format: Purchased

I'm no coward. I want to make that perfectly clear. But after my life turned into a horror movie, I take fear a lot more seriously now. I finally became Dr. Carrie Ames just eight months ago. Then I was attacked in the hospital morgue by a vampire. Just my luck.

So now I'm a vampire, and it turns out I have a blood tie to the monster who sired me. The tie works like an invisible leash and I'm bound to him no matter what I do. And of course he's one of the most evil vampires on earth. With my sire hell-bent on turning me into a soulless killer and his sworn enemy set to exterminate me, things couldn't get much worse -- except I'm attracted to them both.

Drinking blood, living as an immortal demon and being a pawn between two warring vampire factions isn't exactly how I'd imagined my future. But as my father used to say, the only way to conquer fear is to face it. So that's what I'll do. Fangs bared.

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: Treasured by Crystal Jordan

Title: Treasured
Author: Crystal Jordan
Genre: Historical Romance, Erotica
Heat Index: 3 out of 5
Release Date: April 22nd, 2008
Word/Page Count: 81 pages
Format: Purchased

A love for which even time stands still.

Graduate student Rebecca Small is so obsessed with the past—especially the Golden Age of Piracy—she doesn’t mind her unglamorous job preparing museum displays. This display is about her favorite subject, James Morrow, a famous pirate who mysteriously disappeared without a trace.

Becca touches the pirate’s antique sword, and finds herself on a ship in the middle of a sword fight, saving the sexy captain from being stabbed in the back—literally. Once the smoke clears, the man who claims he’s her husband is more than eager to reward her for her timely assistance.

James Morrow knows very little about the woman he was forced to marry five years ago, but the woman who saved him doesn’t fit the portrait he’s painted of her in his mind. She’s strong, brave, and submits to his every dark desire. She seems the perfect woman for a pirate, but he makes his living among the dishonest and disreputable—trust isn’t a commodity he trades in.

Review: His Teddy Bear by Eve Langlais

Title: His Teddy Bear
Author: Eve Langlais
Genre: Paranormal Romance, Erotica
Heat Index: 3 out of 5
Release Date: April 1st, 2011
Word/Page Count: 69 pages
Format: Purchased

All he wants is his chubby Teddy bear.

Chubby Teddy, who is ironically enough a bear shifter, has finally found her mate. There’s one big problem though. He doesn’t like what he sees.

Reece never imagined his chosen mate would be a woman with extra curves, but all it takes is one taste to realize the benefits and turn his world upside down.

Their arguments are many, their lust for each other fiery, but while he’s ready to for the next step, Teddy keeps running. What will it take to win her trust and heart?

And an even better question; will they ever make it to a bed?

Review: Double Shot by Christine D'Abo

Title: Double Shot (Long Shots #1)
Author: Christine d'Abo
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Heat Index: BLANK out of 5
Release Date: October 3rd, 2011
Word/Page Count: 29,000 words
Format: Galley Read from Carina Press

Coffee shop owner Sadie Long has been lusting after her good friend Paul Williams for years. So she's more than a little intrigued when he invites her to a business meeting at Mavericks, the sex club where he works. While catering an event at the club is not quite the proposition she was hoping for, her business could use the boost. And she can't resist the chance to work closely with Paul in such a sexually charged atmosphere. Enter the club's hot owner, Josh, and suddenly Sadie's fantasizing about being part of a threesome.

Paul has always wanted Sadie, but never thought she'd see him as anything more than a friend. On the night of the party, he and Josh tempt Sadie to reveal her deepest desire—a desire both men are eager to help fulfill.

Giving in to her sensual side, Sadie enjoys a night of mind-blowing sex. But in the light of day, will she lose Paul as a friend, or gain him as a lover?