The Darkest Day by Britt Bury

The Darkest Day

by Britt Bury

Book one in the Immortal Heat series

Genre: Romance, Paranormal, Highland, dystopian, erotica, demons

Expected publication: July 3rd 2012 by Grand Central Publishing

I was provided with a copy of this book by the publisher for review

Izel Campbell was raised to believe she is an immortal Fionn with the magical skills of persuasion. But when she travels to Scotland to visit her ancestral home, Izel discovers that she is actually the world’s last living human. Forced to run for her life, Izel crosses paths with Kelvin Kerr, the Campbells’ greatest foe—and the most magnificent warrior she has ever seen.  A thousand-year-old battle chief of the Kerr clan, Kelvin lives only to avenge his father, who died at the hands of the bloody Campbells. Honor demands he kill the Campbell heir, but when he learns that the lovely Izel is both Campbell and human, Kelvin is torn between duty and desire . . .

Oh yes, Britt Bury, yes!

This is exactly what I have been looking for.  I have massive love for PNR (Paranormal romance) but nothing has really captured me since the early Black Dagger Brotherhood books.  Well finally something has.  I just loved this book.  It had everything; action, drama, humour and romance.  It was just great.

Ok, so what made this book so great? I will start with the idea.  I think Britt Bury is incredibly smart because she has taken the top three (or there about) romance sub-genres and somehow mixed them together.  This is a Highland novel, it is set in Scotland.  Our hero, Kelvin, is a Scottish clan warrior…but he is also something else.  Kelvin is a paranormal being, closely related to shape shifters (although his species doesn’t actually shift).  This novel might look and feel like a Highland novel but it is set in the modern world.  So it is a highland, PNR, urban fantasy novel…but wait, there’s more (stick with me here.) This modern world has no humans (almost) they all died out.  The world is full of paranormal beings but things are still somewhat derelict.  So to conclude The Darkest Day is a highland, PNR, Urban Fantasy, Dystopian novel.  Sounds a bit too much doesn’t it? Except for the fact that it works perfectly.  Bury has written this book so well that the joining of so many genres doesn’t distract from but enhances the reading experience.  This book is written in a way that is also utterly entrancing.  I struggled to put this book down.  It was engaging from beginning to end.  The prologue set the tone immediately and that atmosphere and intensity stayed with the book the whole way through.

Let’s move on to the characters.  Essentially there are only two characters in this book.  There are others who pop their heads in (I think/hope this was more for the next books in the series) but there are only two people who really matter in this book, Kelvin and Izel.

Izel is a great female lead.  She is funny, smart, sassy and just all round awesome.  I didn’t once find her irritating or weak.  She was not kick-ass or unemotional but she was no doormat either.  Kelvin (honestly if you could see what this guy looked like in my head you would faint) is just devastating.  If I met him I wouldn’t stand a chance.  He is strong, hard and tough.  He has responsibilities and obligations.  He at times probably comes across as a little scary.  He is rash, stubborn and infuriating.  But behind all the brutishness he is loving, gentle and fairly emotional.  When he loves he does it with all of his heart and he would do anything to protect that person.  Like Izel he was not once annoying.

The romance between Izel and Kelvin was just amazing.  I loved the growth of their relationship, from enemies, to annoyances, to lust then finally to love.  Sure, there are some bumps along the way but it was not done just for the sake of drama.  Most of the humour in this book came from the banter between them.  In the beginning the sparred verbally back and worth which gave the book a light-hearted feel but slowly that turned to something darker.  The tension and chemistry between them poured off of every page, it was fidget inducing brilliant.  It oozed from the characters and created bucket loads of sexual tension.

The Darkest Day proves that there is still some imagination in the romance genre.  It is by far the best PNR I have read in a while and I strongly recommend it.  I cannot wait for the next book in the series.

My rating 4 out of 5 stars

check out the links: Goodreads, Author’s website

Let me know what you think in the comments!

The Claimed by Caridad Pineiro

The Claimed

by Caridad Pineiro

Book two in The Sin Eaters series

Genre: Romance, paranormal, urban fantasy, erotica

Paperback, 368 pages.  Published May 1st 2012 by Grand Central Publishing.

I was provided with a copy of this book by the publisher for review

Victoria Johnson loves her life. She’s her own boss in a quaint beachside town, and has great friends who keep her grounded. If only they knew who she really is: an heiress to an ancient race who possesses astonishing superhuman powers. It’s Victoria’s duty to restore her clan of Light Hunters to their former glory by choosing the perfect mate. In Christopher Sombrosa, she just may have found him. Strong, smart, and successful, Christopher exudes a powerful energy. Their connection is sensual, irresistible-and forbidden.

A member of the Shadow Hunter clan, Christopher has defied his own father to lead his people away from affliction and violence. Yet he cannot ignore his duty to carry on his ancient bloodline. Stunningly beautiful and brimming with an erotic life force, Victoria is everything Christopher ever hoped for in a mate . . . but as a Light Hunter, she’s his mortal enemy. Together, they could unite their warring tribes. But murderous factions on both sides don’t want peace-and they’ll stop at nothing to keep light and darkness apart forever.

.

The Claimed by Caridad Pineiro is the second book in the Sin Hunters series.  I have not read the first book (The Lost) but was still able to understand and follow this one.  It can be read as part of a series or as a stand-alone.

This Claimed started very slowly and not very much seemed to happen at the beginning.  It was readable but not terribly interesting.  From the half-way point and especially towards the end the book really picked up and become a lot more interesting.  There were a lot of action scenes which was great but at times it was hard to follow.  Most of the problems I had with not only the action scenes but the book as a whole were the use of aura and colours, something that is heavily used in this book.  It seemed to be mentioned in nearly every description and I struggled to picture all the aura’s, flashing lights and various other colourful things these ‘Hunters’ possess.  It did work at but was over used.

The characters were nice.  Victoria is smart, she has a lot of pressure put on her but she handles it well.  I really liked the tension between her and her parents (a storyline that was unfortunately dropped half way through) these moments really allowed you to see her strength.  Christopher was a nice guy and a good leaded.  The relationship between them is nice (I am a sucker for forbidden romances) it had all the right elements but I just never felt the chemistry between them.  What I liked was that they didn’t do anything stupid.  I never doubted their trust in each other and never though their relationship would fall apart.  It made a nice change as that is something we tend to see a lot in romance books.

I feel like I got to know Victoria really well.  There was a lot of effort put in to making her a well-rounded and complete character, but the same cannot be said for Christopher.  I felt like I didn’t know much about him at all (even though part of the book is told from his POV) without his half everything was not as intense as it could have been and I didn’t care about their relationship as much as I should have.

The Claimed is an interesting take on the PNR genre but somehow doesn’t have the explosiveness of other books out there.  It was good and entertaining enough but didn’t have that wow factor.  Despite that I will be checking out the first book in the series and the follow up to this one.

My rating: 3 out of 5 stars

check out the links: Goodreads, Amazon, AmazonUK, The Book Depository, Authors website

Let me know what you think in the comments.

Blazing Midsummer Nights by Leslie Kelly

Blazing Midsummer Nights

by Leslie Kelly

Genre: Romance, Erotica, contemporary.

Published May 22nd 2012 by Harlequin

*The publisher provided me with this book for review, via Netgalley*

Anything can happen on a magical midsummer’s eve Marketing director/workaholic Mimi Burdette has The Plan-work for her father and date his right-hand man. Problem is, there’s no heat in the relationship. Not even a spark. And worse still, Mimi is having some seriously sexy, panties-ablaze dreams-and the star looks a lot like  Xander McKinley, the hunky firefighter next door. Mimi’s dreams might be due to the strange tea she drank. Or the predictions from the fortune cookie she ate. Or they could be due to Xander’s smokin’ hotness. But whether it’s magic or just old-fashioned fireworks, Mimi is about to break all of the rules-including her own!

This was a very sweet and very quick read.  It has all the elements you want to see in a romance.  The characters are likable, the romance is sometimes hot and sometimes cute, it has funny moments, has a touch of a love triangle and just a little bit of magic…it is also a little weird in places which kind of comes with the territory.

At times it is not particularly realistic, but let’s be honest we don’t read these types of books for realism.

The main characters are good.  Xander is a fireman (need I say more.) I found him to be a little judgemental at the beginning but he snapped out of that pretty quickly.  He is effortlessly likeable and sensual.  Mimi has a lot of fight and spirit but sometimes she uses that in the wrong way, but like Xander she snaps out of it quickly.

The romance between them is nice, it is predictable but sweet.  There wasn’t any dragged out dramatics it all moved along nicely and was easy to get behind.

Blazing Midsummer Nights is one of those ‘nice’ books.  It is not going to annoy you, it is also not going to blow your mind.  It is a nice way to spend a few hours.  Sometimes you want to read something that you don’t have to think about.  That is what this book it.

My Rating 3 out of 5 stars

Check out the links: Goodreads, Amazon, AmazonUK, The Book Depository, Author Website.

Let me know what you think in the comments.

Unleashed by Cherrie Lynn

Unleashed

by Cherrie Lynn

Book one of The Ross Siblings series

Genre: Romance, Erotica, contemporary

Paperback, 216 pages.  Published February 2nd 2010 by Samhain Publishing, LTD

It’s not enough that Kelsey’s husband left her for another woman. Oh, no. The “other woman” had to be her best friend Evan’s fiancée. Not only has she lost her marriage, she fears losing Evan to the lingering awkwardness and humiliation that hangs between them.

Evan has no intention of letting that happen. He’s got plans…namely, an extra plane ticket to Hawaii now his future wife is out of the picture. There’s only one person he wants on the trip with him, the one who’s always been there for him. The one he should never have let slip away into the arms of a traitorous friend who shattered her heart.

Kelsey is anticipating a week of fun in the sun with the man who’s always treated her like a little sister. No one’s more surprised when she discovers that Evan has seduction on his mind—and that she’s more than ready for it.

Love is the most powerful healing force of all. But past demons have a way of ripping open old wounds, and threatening the survival of even the strongest friendship…

Unleashed is one of those books where everything is ‘nice.’ The plot is nice, the characters are nice and the writing is nice.  It is a perfectly good read not meant to annoy nor blow your mind.  It is just nice and sometimes nice is just what you need.

I had very little problem with the book as a whole.  Kelsey can be a little irritating with her lack of self-worth, but mostly she is funny, especially when she is around her best friend Lisa (who was a pretty amazing character.)  Evan is nice to.  He is sweet and charming, he too has a few annoying moments but mostly he is just what you are looking for in a romantic lead.

The other characters do not have a strong presence in the book.  They have a massive effect on the main characters but do not appear often, it was more about Kelsey and Evan which I liked.

The romance between Evan and Kelsey is sweet.  It moves fast but it isn’t a problem because they have known each other for a long time so they are already familiar with one another.  There was some drama between them but it was ironed out quickly which I thought was great.

All in all Unleashed is a light and enjoyable read.  It was a perfect way to spend an afternoon.  I will be checking out the next book in the series as I have heard it is even better than the first.

 My Rating 3 out of 5 stars

Check out the links: Goodreads, Amazon, AmazonUK, The Book Depoitory, Authors Website

Let me know what you think in the comments!

Skin Deep by Pamela Clare

Skin Deep

by Pamela Clare

Genre: Western, Crime, Romance, erotica, Drama.

Kindle Edition, 181 pages, Published May 15th 2012 by Pamela Clare

Book 5 in The I-Team series, althought it can be read as a stand alone.

Megan Hunter has worked hard to get back on her feet, leaving the nightmare of her teenage years behind. The last thing she wants or needs in her life is a man. But when she is attacked by someone from her past, a scarred stranger intervenes, saving her life and that of her little girl. Looks can be deceiving, for despite the man’s rough appearance, she feels safe with him. And for the first time in her life, she knows the stirrings of desire.  Nathaniel West paid a high price serving with the Marines in Afghanistan. He returned to his family’s ranch in the Colorado mountains to heal—and be alone. Disfigured as he is, he has put all thoughts of sex and romance aside. But something about Megan brings him back to life, heats his blood, makes him feel like a man again. As danger pursues her, and the truth about her past is revealed, he vows to protect her—and to heal her wounded spirit.  But confronting the past is never easy—especially when it’s carrying a gun. Megan will have to learn to trust Nate to survive and to claim a passion that is much more than …  Skin Deep.

There is something about a scarred and broken hero; I fall for them all the time.  (See Z in BDB, V in V for Vendetta and The Phantom in Phantom of the Opera for examples of scarred and broken men who own me.)  Add in the fact that the male character in this book is not only scarred but ex-military AND a cowboy and well, I never stood a chance.  I was in love with Nate before I even read the first page of this book and luckily he didn’t disappoint me.

I really liked this story.  It was short, sweet and had all the elements needed for a good book.  I loved the story line even though I have seen similar stuff before.  What is different with Skin Deep is the way the characters handle the situation they are in.  There is no unneeded angst or drama.  Megan isn’t some self-pitying, dramatic victim that we are all used to reading about.  Nate is not some over protective borderline abusive Neanderthal.  In Skin Deep the characters act like actual human beings, which was really refreshing.

All the characters are likeable in this book apart from the bad guys who are just awful.  They were all well-rounded and believable.  The author has also managed to write a child character that is not teeth grittingly annoying, instead she is cute.

I loved the romance in this book.  It was not about sex; instead it was about two people learning to trust again, it was about rebuilding your life after losing everything.  I liked Megan and Nate apart but I loved them together.

I have read a lot (and I mean A LOT) of western/rancher romance this year and so far Skin Deep is by far my favourite.  I look forward to reading more from this series and more from this author.

My Rating 4 out of 5 stars 

Check out the links: Goodreads, Amazon, AmazonUK, Authors Webpage

Let me know what you think in the comments!

Sunday Book Haul (1)

On Sundays I will be posting the books I bought/borrowed/was given this week!

I got some great books this week, here is what I got:

From Publishers for review (ARCS):

 

Read any of these books? What did you think?

What did you guys get this week?

Let me in by Callie Croix

Let Me In

by Callie Croix

Genre: Romance, Erotica, Drama, BDSM (not really)

ebook, 103 pages, Published May 21st 2012 by Carina Press

*The publisher provided me with this book for review, via Netgalley*

On leave for Thanksgiving, the last thing marine lieutenant Talia Barnett expects to find is Liam Brodie waiting for her at the airport. He’s had a starring role in her fantasies for the past two years, and although she’d love to make them a reality, she has a dark secret that prevents her from taking things further. A former marine, Liam’s specialty is planning tactical operations, and that’s just what he plans to do to win Talia. The woman has kept him at arm’s length for too long, and this time he’s finally going to claim her—body and heart. What begins as comfort quickly turns hot. When Liam shows Talia a hint of the dominant nature inside him, the submissive part of her flares to life. Though she desires him, she’s going back on deployment and doesn’t want to dump all her drama on him. Will he find a way to break through the protective walls around her heart and convince her they have a future that goes far beyond the bedroom?

Let Me In does exactly what it says on the tin.  It is short, sweet and hot. Do not be fooled by the cover though because this book also has a plot. I always love to see an effort made to write a proper story line in these types of stories so I won’t be too harsh about it, but unfortunately it is the plot where the problems with this story lie.

Really the problem I had here was with Tal, the main female character. She is incredibly stubborn and at times comes across as self-pitying. She constantly changes her mind and never seems to know what she is doing. My main problem was with the way she treated and felt about her mother I understand that dealing with someone who has manic depression is hard, and I love that Talia sticks by her mum but she also has an attitude that says everything is her mother’s fault. She sometimes sounds as though she believes depression is something you chose to have. I just didn’t like that at all.

Another problem was that towards the end the plot seemed to repeat itself. The same thing just seemed to happen over and over again. Talia just couldn’t stop changing her mind so everything just seemed to go round and round in circles.

There are also good things about this book. All in all it is very sweet, parts of it had that ‘aww’ factor and other parts were touching. Another good part of this book is Liam. He is generally a good guy, he can, at times let his temper get the better of him and he can be a little pushy but most the time he is caring and kind. There was not one part of this book where I doubted his feelings for Talia.

The love scenes are also a great part of this book. I found them to be less about the graphic-ness and more about the emotion which I would rather read 100% of the time. It is worth mentioning that this book is being labelled as BDSM. To be honest that is an untruth, it is mentioned but it is not acted upon at all. Do not go in to this expecting bondage and spanking because you will be disappointed.

Let me in is not a masterpiece and it is not a book I would rant and rave over but I certainly did enjoy it and would recommend to fans of the genre.

My rating 3 out of 5 stars.

Agree or disagree with the review? Let me know in the comments.

Want to find out more? Check out these links: Goodreads, AmazonUK, Amazon.com, Author Website

Improper Relations by Juliana Ross

Improper Relations

by Juliana Ross

Genre: Romance, erotica, historical, short story, arc

Published April 2012 by Carina Press

*The publisher provided me with this book for review, via Netgalley*

Dorset, 1858
When Hannah’s caught watching her late husband’s cousin debauch the maid in the library, she’s mortified — but also intrigued. An unpaid companion to his aunt, she’s used to being ignored.  The black sheep of the family, Leo has nothing but his good looks and noble birth to recommend him. Hannah ought to be appalled at what she’s witnessed, but there’s something about Leo that draws her to him.  When Leo claims he can prove that women can feel desire as passionately as men, Hannah is incredulous. Her own experiences have been uninspiring. Yet she can’t bring herself to refuse his audacious proposal when he offers to tutor her in the art of lovemaking. As the tantalizing, wicked lessons continue, she begins to fear she’s losing not just her inhibitions, but her heart as well. The poorest of relations, she has nothing to offer Leo but herself. Will it be enough when their erotic education ends?

Generally speaking I enjoy historical books like this one, there is nothing quite like a bodice ripper. In the end this book half did it for me and half didn’t.
I liked the storyline the scandalous gentleman teaching the uptight and unsatisfied young widow about intimacy and pleasure.  Yes, it has been done a million times before.  No, I will never get bored with it.  I also liked the characters.  Hannah is strong-willed she knows exactly what she is getting into and the consequences of her action.  She does them anyway because she is curious.  Leo is charming and gentlemanly.  I never once questioned his honour.  I did wish I knew more about him through and at times did feel that his character was a little blank.

The main problem I had was this book was the love scenes.  I never felt the intimacy or passion.  During these moments there was never an emotionally connection between Hannah and Leo, it all felt rather bland.  Because of this I also doubted the love between them which was a real shame.  Also the beginning and the end of the book felt rushed (especially the epilogue) but other than that it was well paced.

This is only a short review, but it was a short book so I hope you forgive me.  Improper Relations is a quick and enjoyable read.  There were parts of it I liked and parts that I didn’t but all in all it was entertaining.

My rating 2.5 out of 5

Let me know what you think in the comments

Check out the links: Goodreads, Amazon.com, AmazonUK, Authors website

From The Review Pile #1

From the Review Pile is a meme hosted by Stepping Out of the Page every Thursday.

The aim of this meme is to showcase books that you’ve received for review (or if you don’t receive review books, any book that you own and really want to read/review) but haven’t yet got around to reading, in order to give the book some extra publicity.

This week my choice is:

Moonglow by Kristen Callihan

(Book 2 of Darkest London, Expected publication: August 1st 2012 by Forever)

Once the seeds of desire are sown . . . Finally free of her suffocating marriage, widow Daisy Ellis Craigmore is ready to embrace the pleasures of life that have long been denied her. Yet her new-found freedom is short lived. A string of unexplained murders has brought danger to Daisy’s door, forcing her to turn to the most unlikely of saviors . . .

Their growing passion knows no bounds . . . Ian Ranulf, the Marquis of Northrup, has spent lifetimes hiding his primal nature from London society. But now a vicious killer threatens to expose his secrets. Ian must step out of the shadows and protect the beautiful, fearless Daisy, who awakens in him desires he thought long dead. As their quest to unmask the villain draws them closer together, Daisy has no choice but to reveal her own startling secret, and Ian must face the undeniable truth: Losing his heart to Daisy may be the only way to save his soul.

Goodreads

What books are you looking forward to reading/reviewing?

Something Wicked Comes This Way

Something Wicked Comes This Way

by Jaid Black, Diana Hunter, Regina Carlysle, Katalina Leon, Aubrey Ross and Laurann Dohner.

Genre: Romance, anthology, erotic, contemporary, historic fiction, were/shifter, ménage, sci-fi, vampires, Paranormal Romance, Urban Fantasy.

(Kindle Edition.  Published May 1st 2012 by Ellora’s Cave)    

*The publisher provided  me with this book for review, via Netgalley*

Something Wicked Comes this way is pretty much what you would expect from an erotic literature anthology.  Some of the stories are good, some are bad and some are just damn bizarre.

All in all the book was good.  The stories were well written, well-developed and really imaginative…sometimes TOO imaginative. I am going to go through each story (as they appear in the book) and give you my thoughts on each one.

-Scarred and Kilt by Luarran Dohner:  This was a typical paranormal romance story.  Take one curious girl, one massive hulk of a vampire, add a desk and…you know where this is going.  This story is completely unrealistic, but it takes that fact and runs with it.  It doesn’t take itself too seriously and because of that it ends up being fun.

-Tinderbox by Regina Carlysle:  This is a mating/shifting/menage story.  I am not going to lie, menage is not really my thing but I know there are a lot of readers out there that love these stories.  The plot was ok, the characters were ok it was just ok.  I found the main female character to be a little bit of a wet blanket and that is generally something I am not a fan of.  But if you are a fan of this particular type of story then I think you will like it.

- Asterion by Katalina Leon: I actually quite liked this one.  The story (especially in the beginning) was really quite interesting.  It was atmospheric and intriguing.  The characters were Good especially Darron who was all kinds of cute and endearing. There was a plot which I really liked.  I would have liked more of it and think it would make a great full length novel.  The ending felt rushed which was a real shame.

- Decadent Dance by Aubrey Ross: What is blue and has two penises?

NO! (I actually have no idea how many penises smurfs have but they are a bit weird so…)  The correct answer is the male protagonist of this story.  This to be quite honest is Avatar porn (who knew Sam Worthington was hiding that in his pants!) I cannot pretend that I enjoyed this story.  My tastes are a lot more…average.  I liked the idea though and the aliens sounded really pretty! But apart from that I didn’t really like it, it wasn’t just the alien business there were also some questionable behaviour from said alien that I didn’t quite like.

- Sahara Heat by Diana Hunter: This was my second favourite story in this anthology.    It had great characters that bounced off one another brilliantly.  There is a spark between them and their banter is entertaining.  I am not the biggest BDSM fan but this was on the light side so I was ok with it.  It also has a great male protagonist.  He looks like Thor, enough said.

- Fatman and Robyn by Jaid Black: This is by far my favourite story of the collection.  There is a great plot, it is well written, the characters are likeable, it is cute, hot and they don’t rush into having sex! 90% of this story has no sex in it at all and because of that you get to know the characters and you end up caring for them because you know them.

Something Wicked This Way Comes is not going to change you life.  Some of it is great and some is pretty bad.  If you are a fan of the genre then it has a little something for everyone.  also, despite its sometimes silliness there is plot to be found in these stories which is something I think should always be praised with these books.

My Rating 3 out 0f 5 stars!

What do you think? Let me know in the comments

Check out the links: Goodreads, AmazonUK, Amazon.com