Tag Archives: romance

dragon fall

Book Review of Dragon Fall, by Katie MacAlister

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Dragon FallI borrowed a copy of Katie MacAlister‘s Dragon Fall from my local library.

Description from Goodreads:
YOU FLIRT WITH FIRE…

For Aoife Dakar, seeing is believing—and she’s seen some extraordinary things. It’s too bad no one else believes that she witnessed a supernatural murder at an outdoor fair. Returning to the scene for proof, Aoife encounters a wise-cracking demon dog—and a gloriously naked man who can shift into a dragon and kiss like a god. Now thrust into a fantastical world that’s both exhilarating and terrifying, Aoife is about to learn just how hot a dragon’s fire burns.

WHEN YOU DATE A DRAGON

Kostya has no time for a human woman with endless questions, no matter how gorgeous or tempting she is. He must break the curse that has splintered the dragon clans before more of his kind die. But his powerful attraction to Aoife runs much deeper than the physical—and there may be more to her than even his sharp dragon eyes can see. To survive the coming battle for the fate of his race, he needs a mate of true heart and soul . . 

Review:
Well, that was seriously disappointing; I mean basically complete tripe. There where aspects I appreciated, the POC main character that’s in her mid thirties should be a win. But instead she acted and spoke like a twelve-year-old. Seriously, using words/phrases like owie and four million variations of suffering succotash in otherwise terse situations! It was beyond unbearable. The dialogue was atrocious, there was no character development (and I didn’t even like any of them) and it ended without wrapping up.

number 11Additionally, and this is twice in two days I’ve had to have this rant, this book is labeled #1, but it’s actually first in a spin-off of another series, which it is #11 in. I would NEVER have picked up an 11th book in a series I haven’t read the first ten of. This pisses me off completely. Because I have come to the conclusion that authors/publishers do it to draw in readers just like me. ‘Won’t pick up a number 11? How about a first if I hide the fact that it’s actually number 11?’ While this author did a descent job filling in missing information by making the heroine clueless and ask a lot of questions, I very much felt my lack of reading the previous books and didn’t much enjoy it.

Sweet Agony

Book Review of Sweet Agony, by Charlotte Stein

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Sweet agonyI purchased a copy of Sweet Agony, by Charlotte Stein.

Description from Goodreads:
New job, new boss, and he’s cold, strict, but terribly attractive. Does Molly Parker stay or does she go? Because beneath Cyrian’s chilly front, there may be a heat that’ll burn her up.

Giving in was vicious bliss.

The live-in position is an opportunity for Molly to earn and escape a problematic family. There’s just one drawback. Her employer is the most eccentric, aloof and closed off man she’s ever encountered. His rules are bizarre and his needs even more so, and caring for his ramshackle Dickensian home is far more than she ever bargained for. Only their increasingly intense conversations stop her heading for the door. Cyrian Harcroft is a man of many mysteries and secrets, and the more she learns the greedier she is for each and every one. Especially when she discovers his greatest fear: any kind of physical contact. Now all she has to do is dig a little deeper, to unearth the passion she knows he can feel…

Review:
“Oh, that was just marvelous.” This is what I exclaimed, out loud, when I hit the last page of this book. I really, truly enjoyed it. Granted, the first half more so than the second, but still an over all win. The voice was just to die for.

I call the first half the comic half and the second the erotic, and I imagine if either one wasn’t the sort to thrill you they would feel they went on forever. But for me, I ended happy. The first chapter alone had me laughing so hard I bounced the hammock I was laying in, which of course just made me laugh harder. Eventually, I just put the Kindle down and let myself have a minor hysterical moment. Alternatively, the second half left me wishing for a few moments alone with my other half. Unfortunately, my 5-year-old declared, quite innocently, “You will never get rid of me,” so…

Stein’s humor, though a little on the juvenile side for a 34-year-old protagonist, managed to hit just the right note for me and I thought the sex was hot. There was a lot of it once it eventually hit the page. It was maybe even too thick, but it still scalded my knickers. All in all, though not a perfect book (I was especially squinked out by the use of sex as a rudimentary cure for past abuse and psychological illness), it left me wanting more and I’ll be looking for further Stein novels.

Book Review of The Vampire’s Mail Order Bride (Nocturne Falls #1), by Kristen Painter

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The Vampire's Mail Order BrideI picked up a free copy of The Vampire’s Mail Order Bride, by Kristen Painter, on Amazon. It was still free at the time of posting.

Description from Goodreads:
Welcome to Nocturne Falls, the town where Halloween is celebrated 365 days a year. The tourists think it’s all a show: the vampires, the werewolves, the witches, the occasional gargoyle flying through the sky. But the supernaturals populating the town know better.

Living in Nocturne Falls means being yourself. Fangs, fur, and all.

After seeing her maybe-mobster boss murder a guy, Delaney James assumes a new identity and pretends to be a mail order bride. She finds her groom-to-be living in a town that celebrates Halloween every day. Weird. But not as weird as what she doesn’t know. Her groom-to-be is a 400-year-old vampire.

Hugh Ellingham has only agreed to the arranged set up to make his overbearing grandmother happy. In thirty days, whatever bridezilla shows up at his door will be escorted right back out. His past means love is no longer an option. Not if the woman’s going to have a future. Except he never counted on Delaney and falling in love for real.

Too bad both of them are keeping some mighty big secrets…

Review:
This was a cute, fluffy idea that turned out to be heavy on the fluffy and short on just about everything else. There’s an interesting set up, but that’s all it is, a set up. The situation that sends Delaney into Hugh’s arms pops up now and again, then drops away. It carries no tension and is never satisfactorily concluded.

Other predictable problems show up and resolve themselves with ease. Hugh has a pathological, phobic, paranoia-level fear that dissolves into thin air to such a degree that he goes to great sacrifice to obtain a magic to alleviate this fear and then starts the process in question before he even has it in hand.

Delaney is apparently a strong-willed woman because she speaks her mind (Yep, this is one of those he-loves-her-because-she-talks-back and isn’t feminine books.), but it’s never really believable because it lacks any sort of depth of character. All-in-all, that last comment kind of carries my opinion of the book in general. It’s cute, but lacks any sort of depth or character.

Oh, and there is no mail-order bride. There’s a vampire bride and a potential arranged marriage, but no mail order bride. It’s a cute title, sure, but maybe it should have been made relevant. It is a clean read though, if that’s your thing.