Review - A Kiss of Christmas Magic

Kiss of Christmas Magic: 20 Paranormal Holiday Tales of Werewolves, Shifters, Vampires, Elves, Witches, Dragons, Fey, Ghosts, and More

by Eve Langlais, Aubrey Rose, Molly Prince, Deanna Chase, Mandy M. Roth,Michelle M. Pillow, Angie Fox, Mimi Strong, Viola Rivard, Michele Bardsley, V.M. Black, Lola St. Vil, Tera Edun,Jessa Slade, Chloe Cole, Cristina Rayne, Shawntelle Madison, J.S. Hope, Carina Wilder, Dawn Michelle, Jessica Ryan

I am absolutely not going to review these each individually. Come on, there's 20 of them and the book is well over 1000 kindle pages long. The more important thing is that it is currently $0.99, and it is absolutely worth that much, but after the holidays it is supposed to go up to $20.00, and I would absolutely not pay that price. Some of the stories I absolutely loved, like Caribou Christmas and Everlastingly. Some of them I just could not finish. Some were mediocre. There were only a couple of parts of a serial (since I hate the serial thing this is a good thing). But for $0.99 it absolutely rocks.

ARC - Rocky Mountain Miracle

Rocky Mountain Miracle
by Christine Feehan

I received an ARC of this book from the Publisher, via Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review. 

This book gets a great big fat 1 star from me, for a variety of reasons. For one thing, I assumed that this was a new novella. It is most assuredly not, and while this one wasn't so memorable that reading the synopsis tweaked my memory, once I started reading it reminded me of all the things I disliked about it before.


So, this story was first published in The Shadows of Christmas Past, which includes another paranormal Christmas story from Suzanne Sizemore. It was then recycled with other previously released Christmas stories in A Christine Feehan Holiday Treasury, which is almost certainly available in your library (and the other stories in this particular anthology are much stronger IMO), or on Amazon for extremely low prices in print. So if you are considering this book, first check your shelves and then maybe check your library. I just can't see this book as being worth $4.00.

As for the story itself, I now faintly remember disliking it the first time I read it, and it simply hasn't improved with time or re-reading. Maia is insipid, Cole is irritating, I kind of like Jase and the story between the two brothers, but the dialogue for this thing really just kills me. I accept a certain amount of info dumping dialogue in paranormal and urban fantasy because sometimes the world building needs it. But this is essentially a contemporary with a bit of paranormal, so it is just frustrating and irritating. And even without the info-dumping aspect, I just could not get behind the characters or what they had to say. So I recommend this to no one and want to shame the publishers for not posting up front that this was previously released.

ARC Review - Wild Nights

Wild Nights
by Tina Wainscott

I received an ARC of this book from the Publisher, via Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review. 

This is book 3 in the Justiss Alliance, and you can see my previous reviews here.

Wild Nights picks up after Wild Ways with everyone (except Roth) settling into the Justiss Alliance, and the new relationships for the previous heroes/heroines.

Saxonby "Sooch" Cole's new assignment is infiltrating a nude resort, as a mild mannered geek, in order to uncover a date rape scheme. It's the perfect job for the confirmed bachelor of the group. Jennessy Shaw scheduled this trip to spark things up with her long-term boyfriend, but when she catches him cheating on her, she decides to explore her wild side on her own. They are both instantly attracted, but between the miscommunications as well as Sax's feeling about fidelity, (he has some really crappy men in his family), they needless to say get off to a rocky start. But, when Jennessy (who has depths not seen at first glance) winds up in Sax's arms as a victim, all bets are off.

The Justiss Alliance is like the A-Team, only with sex and romance, and in this case a nude resort. It's is a little campy, a little ridiculous and over the top, but plenty of fun. This latest installment, the writing seems to be somewhat smoother and overall the pacing issues I saw in the first books seem to be resolved.

It looks like we are set up for Knox's book next, but I honestly find myself most curious about Roth. 

Altogether, I enjoyed this book as I have enjoyed this series so far; however, there is one event with another woman on the resort. It seems like the author used this as a note that this isn't some unrealistic, not like real life plot line, but honestly, it came off as gratuitous and unnecessary. 3.5 stars and thus far, completely willing to go the distance with this series. There's nothing groundbreaking about it, but it is reasonably good entertainment.

ARC Review - Beyond Possession

Beyond Possession
by Kit Rocha

I received an ARC of this book from the Publisher, via Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review. 

This is listed as book 5.5 in this series. You can read previous reviews here and here.

This is a novella in what is a rather gripping post-apocalyptic dystopian world. While the author states she tries to make the novellas more accessible to new readers, at this point I don't think it is possible. The world building and characterization of the other main characters in the series are simply too far along. So new readers, don't start here, and don't read this review if you don't want spoilers for the previous books.

I really enjoyed Zan and Tatiana's story. Zan is recovering from when he almost died attempting to protect Trix. Tatiana on the other hand is struggling to maintain her balance in Sector 4 as her father was the ruler that O'Kane over threw in order to come to power. O'Kane isn't universally loved so this puts her, and her sister, in a hard place. When rebellion starts brewing, and her sister trapped on the wrong side, few choices falls down to none. Since this is a short story, there isn't much to the courtship process, so Zan and Tatiana's connection relies on back-story not seen on the page, which I infinitely prefer to the insta-connection. They are sweet and sexy, and Zan for all his dominant ways was remarkably sensitive to Tatiana's needs. And Tatiana for her part recognizes this and learns to bend and to trust, but I appreciate the level of independence she maintained compared to some of the other heroine's in this series. This book is grittier than the previous one and gives us some new insight into the politics within Sector 4. Overall 4 stars, but I couldn't rate it any higher because Tatiania seemed a bit shoehorned into joining the O'Kane's. I absolutely cannot wait for the next book, because that one should be another full-length one.

Review - Burn for Me

Burn for Me
by Ilona Andrews

Ilona Andrews, the husband and wife writing team of the Kate Daniels Series and The Edge Series, and just all around awesome couple who seriously interact with their fans on their blog and who do free serial writing projects (really check out their blog) have started a new series, Hidden Legacy.

The Hidden Legacy series is in a divergent world where in 1863 we discover a serum that unlocks untapped magic potential. Shenanigans ensue and the world decides this is much too dangerous to be let loose. Of course, there are all the people who have already had the serum, and these traits are passed down genetically to their offspring, so magic, and thus power, prestige, and money are concentrated into the hands of these families, known as Houses.

Nevada Baylor, so far as the world is concerned, is magically a null. She owns an investigation service that is mortgaged to a powerful House, and has a host of responsibilities from her family and the business. When a deranged pyrotechnic starts a series of crimes, and his family wants him peaceably captured, Nevada is conscripted, because her chief qualification is she's expendable. If only they knew she is an extremely powerful human lie detector, it would be so much worse.

Connor Rogan, also known as Mad Rogan, is the most powerful telekinetic known. He's a former soldier and something of a sociopath. But when his cousin who he hasn't contacted in a decade comes to him for help in getting her son who has been pulled into the plot into custody rather than dead, he decides to become involved.

Naturally this sets Nevada and Mad Rogan onto a collision course. I have to say, I did not like the way they met. Mad Rogan was in my opinion reprehensible, and his future behavior didn't endear me to him as we went along. I am typically cool with morally ambivalent and even to an extent, sociopathic ones, but Rogan really kind of irked me. And it didn't help that the POV was completely from Nevada's side, nor that Nevada started out displaying TSTL heroine characteristics with an overwhelmingly unsuitable hero and in the most inappropriate moments.  But, as the story progressed and they were in dangerous situation after dangerous situation where Rogan kind of shined, and where Nevada stuck to her guns about not going after what she wanted when it wasn't good for her, well I started to see it better. Then Nevada gave us a bit of insight to how Rogan looked to someone with such an unusual magical ability.

"Mad Rogan, unlike other people, rarely lied. I didn't know if it was because I would call him on it or if it was simply his way. When he said he would kill you, he meant it. He didn't make threats or promises, he stated facts, and when he wanted something, he'd do whatever he had to do to get it"

That, to me, really seemed to make it make sense. I mean, how seductive would it be to a human lie detector to be around someone who didn't lie to her?

When we hit the last chapter and I saw how much stronger Nevada was than she thought (it seriously closed the power differential between her and Rogan), and how she kept up her distance for the most part, despite her attraction and him pushing, I was ready to give it 3.5 stars or so and be cautiously optimistic about the rest of the series. Then, OH MY EFFING GOD, we got to the epilogue. There was a hellacious twist that I never saw coming and we finally got into Rogan's head. It immediately bumped up to 4.5 stars for me and I am extremely excited about the next book in the series. I can't wait to see how Rogan unfolds. Do I forgive him right now? Nope, but he's got all kinds of room for growth and interesting stuff.

Review - Archangel's Shadows

Archangel's Shadows
by Nalini Singh

This is book 7 in the Guild Hunter series. If you haven't already been hooked into this series, it's a delightful blend of paranormal romance and urban fantasy. The world is controlled by Angels and Archangels who are the progenitors of vampires. These are strictly secular angels with evolutionary rather than religious origins. And both the vampires and the angels are extremely other, not just humans with accouterments strapped to them, which I adore. What's the point of having paranormal characters if you can't tell them from mortal ones? Vampires are naturally quite dangerous creatures and so a human organization, the Guild Hunters, have set themselves up as a sort of police organization. They must work with the Angels and Archangels, as they are the powers, but the Guild is largely an independent organization. The series primarily revolves around the Archangel Raphael and Guild Hunter Elena Deveraux; however, it sidles off to explore the lives and relationships of the more integral secondary characters. In that way it is more like Eileen Wilks' World of Lupi than her Psi-Changeling series (which is another excellent series if you haven't yet been sucked in).

This is one of those series that makes me wish for a time machine so I could sit in a library and devour ALL THE BOOKS! I can't savor these on the first read; I gulp them down and save the savoring for the re-reads. And I can guarantee you that I will be re-reading any of her books. So, that being said, this book is absolutely not the place to start with this series. The mythology and the relationship backgrounds are entirely too intricate to start in the middle. Go ahead, start at the beginning, I'll wait right here :)



So, this is nominally Janvier and Ashwini's book. We already had a peak into their relationship dynamic through other books and most particularly in the novella Angel's Pawn. Ash has been notoriously reluctant to become involved with Janvier and this book gives us a bombshell about exactly why. I don't want to spoil it, but it was excellent. This is not one of those little nothing turned into BIG MISUNDERSTANDING situations that I find so exasperating. It was a serious issue, albeit one which as this is a romance we knew would be resolved.

There was a bit of a mystery and investigation involved, but it really served more as a backdrop to the politics and world building, and to giving a platform to all the main characters. It was a good plot line, but honestly, I cared much more about the characters than the suspense part this time. We got to get into plenty of our favorite characters heads, learned more about Legion, and....Naasir absolutely stole the show and has completely supplanted my wish for Ilium to be next. Ilium just isn't ready, but Naasir is, and I am oh so ready for Naasir. I can't believe I hadn't previously seen the possibilities of a tiger-like vampire. That isn't to say Janvier and Ash were sidelined, they were front and center and much of the story is devoted to them, but they are so closely tied to the families they have made that it is impossible to separate them out.

5 absolutely breathtaking stars, and if it weren't for the fact Ilona Andrews' Burn for Me is up in my que next, I'd be re-reading it tonight.

ARC Review - Full Contact

Full Contact
by Sidney Halston

I received an ARC of this book from the Publisher, via Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review. 

This is the second book in Halston's Worth the Fight series. My previous review can be found here.

I'll admit now, that in retrospect, a bit of my liking for this first book was because of the new buzz of actually being picked for a Netgalley Arc. If I read it now my rating may have been lower because I have become more critical of rough spots and pacing issues. That being said, Halston has really smoothed out in Full Contact.

We met Jessica Cross as a victim and Slade Martin as an eff-up in Against the Cage. In Full Contact, they are both trying to heal and get into some semblance of adult life. This is a Loveswept, so naturally in this fluffier line; we have a caricature villain, stupid misunderstandings, and a lack of communication. But with such relatively one-dimensional main characters, you've got to have something for tension and conflict. Where Halston really shines though is her humor. I had many laugh out loud moments and for the most part I really enjoyed seeing these two very different people get together. Plus, the rest of the ensemble is really enjoyable too. You just know that everyone else is sequel bait, but it didn't lessen my enjoyment in the slightest.

So I am giving it 3.5 stars and am ready and willing to read the rest of the series.