Lara Adrian 'Veil of Midnight'

As you have probably guessed from my last review, I liked Veil of Midnight, book five in the Midnight Breed Series.

I'm a total sucker for ass-kicking heroine's (see above title picture), although I seem to be more addicted to the movie versions of said, than the literary versions. Something about this genre works so well for me in the visual and works less well for me in the written. Enough about me....

Renata is another orphan who has gotten snared in the world of vampires when a nasty Gen One picks her up for a little human-hunting party. In the process she inadvertently uses her unique telepathic anti-vampire power. So the Gen One decides not to kill her, but to use her as a body guard.

Nikolai is one of the Breed warriors whose been sent to alert the Gen One in Montreal that some one is offing Gen One's lately in the vampire world. He finds out that this particular Gen One is pretty yucky, things go south and he and Renata gang up to clean things up.

With such a stereotypical character framework these two are enjoyable and distinct. Good read.

Paranormal Vampire 2008. 4.5 of 5 glimpses of the future in a small child's eyes.

Lara Adrian 'Kiss of Midnight'

Let's get the obvious out of the way, this series bears a striking resemblance to JR Ward's big bad vampire brotherhood. If you can't get over that, I'll understand, but for my money, this is an enjoyable well scripted book. I'll admit that I read Veil of Midnight (book 5) first, liked it enough to find the first book, Kiss of Midnight, and now here I am.

Lucan Thorne is one of the first generation of vampire (savages from another world) and human offspring. He killed his own father, than organized the other Gen One's into an army to rid the earth of these original vampires who were wreaking havoc on the human race. Now, a couple of centuries later, he's the head of a cell of warriors who police their own kind for vampires gone rogue, those who've given into blood lust and feed on human's without care.

Gabrielle is a photographer in Boston. She has a strange ability to fend off vampire mind control. She goes to a dance club with some friends and can't understand why no one else thinks the whole thing is a little off. When she witness's a pack of rogues killing a man outside the club, she is well and truly ensnared and it just a matter of whether Lucan or the Rogues will get to her first....

I gave this book some extra credit points for the fact that I liked it after reading another one in the series. In other words, I often have trouble distiguishing among the big alpha males and the perfect warrior companions in these types of series'. So, give the author credit, these characters are at least distinct from one other couple in the warrior cell. :)

SPOILER ALERT: I will say that Lucan's 'I'm so horrified by the idea of loving you.' attitude got a little (a lot) old. And the scene where he finally drinks from her felt kind of yucky, should vampire rape concern us??

Overall, I have been disappointed by a few of the paranormal alpha male brotherhood books out there and this one I liked a lot. It seems like a good idea to read this one first, but at least book 5 was easy to read out of order.

Vampire Romance 2007: 4 of 5 vertically slitted pupils.

Patricia Briggs 'Bone Crossed'

This is book four in the much touted Mercy Thompson series. Mercy is a coyote shape shifter, her boss was a fae metalworker (who sold her his auto repair garage), she was raised by werewolves, her neighbor is the Alpha for the local werewolf pack and her favorite customer is a vampire.

I'm not sure I can objectively review this book. I've been well and truly sucked into the Mercy Thompson fan club so telling you that the fourth installment in her story is really, really good, probably won't mean a lot. I can say that the plot clips along as usual and Mercy continues to be a ridiculously decent person. I do wonder when she is going to go into full system shut down with all the trouble she keeps digging up, but then I don't want the stories to end any time soon, so....

If by some chance you haven't read any of the Mercy Thompson books, and you like fantasy at all, even remotely, pick up Moon Called. You won't be disappointed.

Spoiler Alert: I like Stephen and thought Mercy was a bit hard on him with the killing innocents thing, but why are all these boys still pining for her as she and Adam solidify things?? And was Amber just a little too convenient of a character?

Fantasy Novel 2009: 4.5 of 5 animated corpses.

Julie Anne Long 'Ways to Be Wicked'

Finally! The long awaited, "Next To Be Reviewed" book that you've been on tenterhooks waiting for. (Did everyone know that word is tenterhooks and not tenderhooks? Am I the only one whose been hearing and saying that wrong for the last twenty years? Man.)

So Sylvie Lamoureux is a famous ballerina in Paris. But as a child she was separated from her sisters and when she gets a clue that one of them is in London, she puts her career and lover on hold to find her. Sylvie has some setbacks on her way and ends up having to ask for asylum from ne'er-do-well man-about-town Tom Shaughnessy. He agrees to hire her as a bawdy dancer, for which Sylvie is not entirely grateful. Tom is planning a new venture, has collected several wealthy backers and finds himself strangely attracted to Sylvie despite his vow to not touch the dancers who work for him. Sylvie is biding her time until her sister returns from her honeymoon abroad and of course, is strangely attracted to Tom as well.

I liked this book, the sex was a bit slim, but the conflict was believable, and the characters likable. But I did put this book down for almost three months without any difficulty. And so I really can't with concience say I loved it.

Historical Romance 2006: 3.5 out of 5 pas-de-deux.

Shannon Drake 'The Pirate Bride'

The Pirate Bride, hm. I'm just now thinking about the title of this book and realizing it has nothing to do with the story. Do authors lack control over the titles like they do over the covers?

I digress. Let me first admit that my favorite romance novels in my first blush of youth were ship board romance novels. The heroine stows away as the cabin boy and is discovered by the swashbuckling captain. Even though she's betrayed his trust, he can't stay away from her, and she slowly wins the crew over with her gentle sweet ways. I don't know how silly those books were since I have quite purposely not revisited them. But my sensibilities are a bit different now. So when I saw this book at the library it was with some trepidation and nostalgia that I picked it up.

I'll start with what I liked. The set up that gets these two together. She's captaining a pirate ship, he's captaining a merchantman. She comes upon him and his ship is clearly outclassed. Instead of getting all his men killed he proposes single combat. She agrees (disguised as a male pirate by the way) and she loses, narrowly. She gets to take half his goods, keep him prisoner for ransom and the rest of his men sail away.

He is the one who wiggles his way into the good graces of her crew. He figures out she's a woman pretty quickly, they pursue the dastardly man who killed her family, in the process she and he get washed over board in a storm, and come ashore on a deserted island. Another ship broke up in the storm and trunks and barrels keep washing up on shore making their stay quite comfortable, leaving them time to mess around.

I could have loved this book, but what I didn't like....well, there's a point in the book when you finally realize how ridiculous it is to think that after killing a notorious pirate, she took over his ship as THE CAPTAIN. I've been around sailors my whole life and I'm well aware that I don't know how to sail, much less captain a schooner. But in a romance, you could call that a technicality. What really bugged me was the convoluted escape/rescue plans. I've been reading a lot of Patricia Briggs lately and one of the things she does so well is the plots of rescue, revenge, and staying alive when someone wants to do you harm. The characters think through their actions and assess their risks realistically given the parameters of the fictional world they inhabit. I didn't feel that sort of clarity when it came to the action part of this book, and as a result of these characters making unclear/silly choices, I lost affection for them. Does that make sense?

Overall, good start, great middle, falls apart for me in the end. If you are dieing for a pirate book that doesn't involve old school rape, this might sate your appetite.

Historical Romance 2008: 2 of 5 good hearted whores.