Tag Archives: paranormal

Claimed

Book Review of C.C. Coats’ Claimed

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Claimed

I grabbed C.C. Coats’ novel, Claimed, off of the Amazon KDP list.

Description from Goodreads:
Earth is over populated. Leo’Nya Zesiro is one of the pilots charged with finding and cataloging new “housing options”. Life is lovely, at least until her vessel is attacked and she finds herself stranded on a newly discovered, un-cataloged planet. On a planet where males out number females 1-7.

Erol knows from the beginning that Leo’Nya is the female he’s been waiting for… now he has to keep her from leaving until she realizes it. Leo finds the beauty and peace she’s always longed for, but there are hidden dangers on Nur. The men might do all the cooking, but they also tend to steal you, that is if they can kill your current owner. If she can stay alive, she might just make it home in one piece. At least if she can manage not to fall in love with the caveman who’s trying to keeper her.

Review:
The plot line of this book could have easily travelled into dangerous and distasteful gang bang territory. I’ll say upfront that it doesn’t. It doesn’t even spend all that much time in the realm of the unpleasant. Yes, Leo’Nya Zesiro finds herself claimed, or kidnapped, more than once. Yes, not all of those kidnappers are nice people…aliens…whatever. And yes, even the kindhearted, noble men are incredibly chauvinistic. It’s a cultural thing. But the primary thrust of the book is about one man’s incredible love (OK, and lust) for one woman and the lengths he would go to in order to gain her love in return (OK, even if that means forcing it in return). It’s sweet, really…and steamy. There is lots of steamy.

Leo is a strong-willed heroine, without going overboard into suicidally obstinate. I’ve seen a lot of such women in the PNR genre, women who simply protest too much instead of seeing to their own self-preservation. I liked this about Leo. I also liked that she was willing to acknowledge her own torn emotions. Erol was simply wonderful. He did seem utterly unable to consider that as an off-worlder Leo wouldn’t know of, let alone instantly acquiesce, to his way of doing things. But even as he failed to explain her situation to her he also gave his absolute all to honestly protect and please her. Who can’t appreciate that? I also liked the way his species ‘phased’ into utter badass predators. It was kinda like taking the whole alpha things one step further. Though predominantly side characters I loved Avi and her crew, as well as Erol’s brothers to a lesser extent.

I know that a 2nd book, Bound, is due out later this year and that’s a good thing. Rather than being focused solely on Leo and Erol’s blooming romance this book also included quite a bit of planetary politics and minor characters whose presence seemed to serve no purpose to the current story. My guess is that they are important to a bigger storyline yet to come. It’s a little dissatisfying to finish a book and not know how some of the thread tie off in the end, so I’m glad to know there is more to come. All in all I was pleased. The text could do with another pass with the editorial brush, but as I enjoyed the book I was willing to overlook the errors.

Kade’s Dark Embrace

Book Review of Kade’s Dark Embrace, by Kim Grosso

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Kade's Dark EmbraceI grabbed Kym Grosso‘s erotic paranormal thriller, Kade’s Dark Embrace, off of Amazon’s KDP list.

Description from Goodreads:
After a series of girls are ritualistically murdered on the cold streets of Philadelphia, seasoned detective, Sydney Willows, is forced to work with sexy, alpha vampire, Kade Issacson. While working the case, Sydney finds herself inexplicably drawn to Kade, fighting the passion she feels towards him. Kade, determined to solve the case and mete out justice, is captivated by the independent, fiery detective. As he attempts to protect her from a very real murderer, Kade grows concerned that the beautiful, but very human detective, could easily end up dead should she tangle with supernatural forces that are beyond her control.

The investigation leads them into a dark and dangerous world, deep in the heart of New Orleans, where together, they search for the perpetrators of the Voodoo killings. Sydney soon becomes the target of the killer and ends up fighting for her life and love in the Big Easy. Will she eventually give into the intoxicating desire she feels for Kade if she makes it out alive?

Review:
This one really didn’t do it for me. I appreciated having a mature heroine who knew what she wanted sexually, no trembling virginal 20-somethings here. But Sydney just felt like a needy slut who disregarded even the most basic tenets of self-preservation, but still miraculously never seemed to get hurt. The dialogue was unnatural. Here is an example: “Now, now, little whore. You will not get away from me so easily. Consider yourself lucky that I cannot take your body for my own carnal pleasures before giving you to my Mistress. So greedy she is…she wants you all to herself.” Ugh, really? Sydney’s dedication to the children at the children’s centre came out of nowhere and felt very much like a forced effort to give her character some depth. It is a stunning example of insta-love. For Kade it starts before they even actually meet. Apparently a giant diamond engagement ring says I’ll love you for eternity better than a sacred blood bond. Who knew? The foray into the bondage scene just felt like pointless titillation and the sex scenes lacked sizzle.

There was a good mystery involved, but the whole thing wrapped up far too easily…and apparently no one needs a warrant to go kicking in doors in Philadelphia or New Orleans anymore…oh and why did it start in Philly again? There were also a number of editorial mistakes. So yea, not for me.

There were a few really funny lines though. Example: “Yep, no matter how supernatural you were, testicles were always vulnerable. Tried and true, Sydney loved how that worked.” Yep, funny. Setting the book in two such historic cities allowed for some good environmental atmosphere and I appreciated that. Plus, all of the alpha males seemed to be loyal, honourable, and looking for their forever mate. That’s sexy in and of itself. I think there’s probably a lot of potential here, but it didn’t feel realised…at least not in my opinion. Of course, that’s all any of this is.

 

The Nightlife Las Vegas

Book Review of Travis Luedke’s The Nightlife: Las Vegas

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I recently read Travis Luedke’s The Nightlife: New York, so when I saw the sequel (Las Vegas) come up free on the KDP list I was all about grabbing it.

Description from Goodreads:
Vampires, Aaron Pilan and his master Michelle, live by one rule — no bloodslaves. EVER. Aaron breaks that rule when he meets Anastasia. All Anastasia wants is to be loved and cherished, but the predatory men she’s attracted to bring her only pain and abuse. Escaping one train-wreck relationship for another, she finds happiness with Aaron and Michelle as a bloodslave, a ‘pet’.

When Aaron uses his telepathy to win thousands at the gambling tables, he attracts the deadly attention of the Colombian Cartel and Aaron and Michelle are ‘disappeared’. Addicted to the bite of her vampire lovers, Ana is desperate to find them. But, Las Vegas isn’t ready for vampires mixing heroin, sex and vengeance. Ana is trapped in the spiraling chaos.

Review:
I really loved The Nightlife: New York and anticipating liking this one just as one. Such was not the case, however. Luedke’s writing is just as crisp and wonderful here as it was in the first, but a lot of what I really appreciated about the first book didn’t carry over into this one. Most notable was Aaron’s innocence. This was one of my favourite aspects of The Nightlife: New York. It seemed to have been replaced in The Nightlife: Las Vegas by The Predator. While I liked The Predator’s protective nature and general badassness it was no substitute for the nice-guy feel that was lost.

Similarly, there was a lot of sex in this book. There was plenty in the first one too and I have no problem with sex (and Luedke can write one hot scene), but here it started to crowd out the plot a little bit. A good 30% of the book passed between meeting the antagonist the first time and him taking any action toward Aaron and Michelle. There was very little in the intermediate 30% but sex of every imaginable sort. Plus it all felt a little one sided. Michelle, Aaron, and Ana are all about reckless abandon, but apparently only with girls. Never once is another man brought into the mix. There are countless women and just Aaron’s ‘sole penis,’ four on one at one point. Even Michelle seemed to prefer a female partner. It didn’t feel very natural.

As one should probably expect of Las Vegas it all takes a bit a turn toward the depraved too. No longer are the pages full of Aaron’s appreciation of Michelle’s beauty and sexuality or lines like, “Being in love was the biggest turn-on he’d ever known.” Instead they are littered with what every power-hungery scumbag would like to do to ‘that piece of ass,’ ‘whore,’ ‘tramp,’ ‘slut,’ etc (sometimes in quite shockingly lewd detail). At the conclusion of The Nightlife: New York I praised Luedke for writing a male oriented PNR that women could relate to. This one just felt like some sleazy, male fantasy run amok. I didn’t find this to be an improvement. It felt like something indefinable had been corrupted.

The ending was fairly predictable, but the addition of the new character Michael intrigued me. I’d be interested in knowing where that plot line goes.