Tag Archives: PNR

The Ghost and the Graveyard

Book Review of Genevieve Jack’s The Ghost and the Graveyard

The Ghost and the GraveyardI grabbed Genevieve Jack’s The Ghost and the Graveyard from the Amazon KDP list.

Description from Goodreads:
Left destitute by an unscrupulous ex-boyfriend, Grateful Knight takes her father up on his offer to live rent-free in a house he hasn’t been able to sell. Desperate to make a new start, Grateful tries to overlook the property’s less desirable features, like the graveyard that stretches to her back door. On the bright side, the unbelievably gorgeous cemetery caretaker, Rick, is dead set on helping her feel at home. She vows to take things slow, considering her recent disastrous relationship, but is baffled when she literally can’t keep her hands off of him.

When things in Grateful’s house start moving on their own another man enters her life, a sexy ghost with a dark secret. Magical forces are at work in the tiny town of Red Grove and they’re converging on Grateful. Solving this ghostly mystery won’t be easy and with the caretaker becoming increasingly jealous of her spectral relationship, Grateful may be forced to choose between the ghost and the graveyard.

Review:
I really quite enjoyed this book. That’s despite it being told in the first person present tense, which I generally hate and involving both a love triangle and insta-lust, which usually drive me crazy. The book somehow managed to overcome all of its handicaps and provide an enjoyable read. And it did it with surprising ease. The magic irritation-nullifying ingredient? Humour. The Ghost and the Graveyard is funny. Yes, yes it’s hot and steamy too, but that wouldn’t have been enough to overcome my dislike for the parts that make up its whole. I needed Grateful’s quick wit and sarcastic internal monologue for that. She’s a great heroine. She manages to stay strong and sure of her own sense of self in the face of some fairly severe identity shake-ups. She might have gone weak at the knees in the face of Rick and his awesome sex appeal, but she was never weak-willed. I respected that.

Rick was a surprisingly complex hero. He was simultaneously strong and fragile, loyal and of a little untrustworthy. I’m sure (in my own imaginings) that there will be a lot more to him and his backstory in the future books. I liked Lucas too. He was like a lost puppy, but I was a little tired of his whinging by the end of the book.

I was a disappointed that the book didn’t quite wrap up by the end. Don’t get me wrong it ended OK, but only one small part of the larger whole was solved. There were a lot of loose threads about. I’m always left wanting when that is the case. It’s a shame the next book isn’t out yet.

Kade’s Dark Embrace

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

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

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.