Tag Archives: paranormal

A Hint of Frost

Book Review of Hailey Edwards’ A Hint of Frost

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A Hint of Frost

I Grabbed a copy of A Hint of Frost, by Hailey Edwards, from the Amazon KDP list.

Description from Goodreads:
When the head of the Araneidae clan is found poisoned in her nest, her eldest daughter, Lourdes, becomes their clan s new maven. If her clan is to survive, she has but one choice: she must marry before her nest is seized. All she needs is a warrior fierce enough to protect her city and safeguard her clansmen. Such a male is Rhys the Cold.

Born the youngest son of an impoverished maven, the only things Rhys has to his name are his sword and his mercenary reputation. His clan is starving, but their fondness for the flesh of fellow Araneaeans makes them unwelcome dinner guests. Torn between loyalty to his clan and fascination with his future bride, Rhys s first taste of Lourdes threatens to melt the cold encasing his heart.

Amid the chaos of battle, Lourdes s sister disappears and is feared captured. Lourdes and Rhys pursue their enemies into the southlands, where they discover an odd plague ravaging southern clans as it travels north, to Erania. Determined to survive, Lourdes will discover whether she s worth her silk or if she s spun the thread by which her clan will hang.

Warning: This book contains one mercenary hero with a biting fetish, one determined heroine who gets nibbled, and an answer to the age-old question, What does dragon taste like? Matricide and sibling rivalry are available upon request. The house special is revenge, best served cold.

Review:
It was that silly little warning at the end of the description that made me want to read A Hint of Frost and I was pleasantly surprised by it. Yes, it’s has many of the fantasy PNR tropes, but it has enough in it’s favour to keep it for feeling like just another rehash of the same old same old. Yes, there is an instant attraction between Lourdes and Rhys, but it wasn’t quite insta-love which was nice. Plus, Lourdes has accepted her situation and the necessity of mating Rhys so there isn’t all the bitchy hero blaming that so often goes on in such books. I appreciated having two mature characters in a difficult situation who didn’t take it out on one another. Yes, Lourdes is sheltered and virginal, but she doesn’t act like a fragile flower and is more than willing to acknowledge her own desires. I especially liked that in the sexy scenes (there isn’t a lot of actual sex) the language used to describe her thoughts, feelings and actions were almost identical to those usually attributed to males in other PNR novels. She wanted to mark him, claim him, pleasure him, etc. It’s usually the female who is the passive participant in these scenes so I got a real kick out of seeing that turned on it’s head.

The book is full of beautiful prose and I really enjoyed Edwards writing style. There is also something else I’m trying to put my finger on that I liked. There were a number of times in which I remember reading a passage and vaguely acknowledging that certain characters’ thoughts or actions went against what normal PNR characters would do (despite my allegations of the use of tropes, which might be largely unavoidable anyway). But it wasn’t blatant, small things like Lourdes acknowledging and apologising for an error that another PNR heroine would insist she had every right to. Or being observant enough and aware enough of her own body to admit attraction when other PNR females would flounder around in the ‘he can’t possible be attracted to me’ or ‘what is this strange flutter I have’ for a while. It was more a general feeling given to the characters than anything I can find many firm examples of, but it was nice.

Now I was completely unprepared for the human/arachnid blend going on in this book. People with spinnerets in their fingers and venomous fangs….not completely cool with that. Sorry but spiders are high on my totally freak me out list. Luckily they only had two arms and two legs or I wouldn’t have been able to make it through. But it did make for an interesting addition to the world building. It allowed there to be different subspecies in a sense. Some clans being more or less venomous than others.

All in all I enjoyed the read. It’s the first in a series and there are a few arcs that are obviously only meant for carry-through, the Yellow Death for example. It served almost no purpose in this book, but appears (from the book descriptions) to be a major occurrence in the future books. There is no cliffhanger at the end of this one though. This book wraps up nicely. I’m learning to appreciate that more and more.

Ishtar Bound

Book Review of Ishtar Bound, by Natalie Gibson

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Ishtar Bound

I grabbed a copy of Natalie Gibson’s Ishtar Bound (Sinnis #1) from Amazon’s KDP list.

Description from Goodreads:
Surrounded by magical enemies with an intimate knowledge of her abilities, a matchmaking witch of the highest rank must fulfill both her duty to her coven and her desire for a love of her own, even if the two goals collide. 

Maeve Lovejoy has always been good at her job even though her service comes at such a high cost. Though her matchmaking abilities are stronger than ever, the most potent in any coven’s recorded history, her introduction to Aaron has confused matters. Believing she’s found a partner who can love her and allow her to continue practicing her arts, she shares her secrets with him. Is it a coincidence that soon after, that same information is used to locate and murder Maeve’s matches? When Aaron goes missing, is it because he is a member of a rival black magic sect or because he has fallen victim?

Slightly spoilerish review:
Ishtar Bound was an interesting read. It revolves around a coven of witches who use the energy created during sex as the catalyst for their power. The main character, Maeve, is responsible for creating the matched couples who will produce that power. The problem is that someone seems to be killing off her matches in an attempt to cause something horrible.

There is a pretty good mystery here. Gibson throws out a couple red herring so that the bad guy isn’t completely obvious and the characters are engaging. A lot was left unexplained though. Who are the Guardians (I know what, but who)? What is the role of The One and how does she relate to Samsiel? (I understood the prophecy, but I could have done with a bit more solid info.) How did Natalia and, by extension Maeve, come to the Daughers and how come the boys (JD, Lucas & Aaron) were so willing to accept the women’s powers, was this not otherwise our normal society?

For the record, IMO despite it’s description on Amazon (Paranormal Erotic Romance/Urban Fantasy), I would consider this a paranormal romance at most. The focus is definitely on romance, not sex. There just isn’t enough sex in it to be considered erotica. There is only one real sex scene, a few fondling scenes and a couple almost rapes. (That sounds like a lot, but it’s not in context.) The author has a strange tendency to combine knives and sex which might be considered a little farther out than normal though. This actually bothered me a little. I would expect the bad guy to pull knives, but even the good guy/romantic interest reminded Maeve he had a pocket knife between her legs at one point and then pulled a butcher knife on her at another time to keep her with him against her will, or at least her better judgement. He started to feel just a little crazy himself. I think it was supposed to feel desperate and it did that too, but definitely unstable.

All-in-all it was an enjoyable read. It felt like it wrapped up a little too easily, but I’ve decided that this is because it is the first in the series and there is more to come. More importantly, it did actually end. The last chapter was definitely an opener for the next book, but I didn’t finish feeling like the story didn’t end.

Demon Possession

Book Review of Kiersten Fay’s Demon Possession

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Demon Possession

I nabbed Kiersten Fay‘s sci-fi romance, Demon Possession from the Amazon KDP list.

Description from Goodreads:
After being enslaved on the spaceship Extarga for most of her life Analia has no memory of her life before, and has lost all knowledge of her people. Her mysterious gift and pointed ears are the only indication that she is different.

Analia is alone, and for all she knows, she’s the last of her kind. By chance Analia escapes her captors, and hides herself on the merchant ship Marada, planning to get off at the very next stop.

Unfortunately for her, there is no next stop. The crew is planning a delivery that could take months, and according to a stipulation in the newly signed contract, no one is allowed on or off the ship until the package is delivered. 

When Analia is found by a handsome demon, and captain of the Marada, she must adapt to her new role on the ship, and try to control her newly awakened desire for the brutal, and devastatingly erotic demon.

Review:
Demon Possession was an enjoyable read. I liked Sebastian’s tortured self-restraint, the way Anya came out of her shell and the interaction of all of the demons. Calic was a particular joy. There was a pretty little twist at the end and even though it wasn’t all that hard to see coming, it was still fun getting there.

I feel compelled to mention that I thought the way Sonya (and by extension Anya) dressed was cheesy, for two reasons. One, it was a little cliché that a ‘demon’ dressed in short, black, leather skirts, corsets and stiletto heals. Second, how is it that we could be millennia in the future, galaxies away and stripper/hooker outfits are still considered the ultimate in sexy? Really, you couldn’t come up with anything better than that? It also clashed with Anya’s innocent persona.

The ending seemed a little rushed. It felt almost like the author wrote the romance between Anya and Bastian, then wrote the lead-in for the second book and then stitched them together. There was noticeable change in pacing, and a lesser change in tone.

A number of other reviewers have made mention of poor editing. I did notice some errors, more prevalent in the last half. Oh, and if I have to read the word ‘chit’ one more time I might scream! Seriously, it’s not flattering and was used a lot. But the editing wasn’t as bad as I expected from the reviews. I have definitely read worse. Maybe I have a later edition.

I did noticed a few linguistic inconsistencies written into the story though. Anya seemed able to converse with ease, for example, but then wouldn’t know the meaning of some very simple word. (A word that would allow for a the development of a plot progressing event. They felt very much like convenient omissions.) I also wondered how Anaya knew how to read and write? I can’t imagine Darius taking the time to teach her that.

I would have happily continued the series to see how Marik fairs, even looked into buying the sequel, Demon Slave. But it was $7.99! That’s just too much for an ebook in my world. Anyone have a Kindle copy to lend?