Sunday Soup - April 14 2019

In The Soup:  Starla Night, Kresley Cole, Talia Hibbert, Elizabeth Harmon, Jessie Mihalik, Reedsy, Shelf Addiction

Soup Dish: on my mind right now
✽ This goes back a little ways, but since I've been slacking on the blog, I hope you'll forgive me. Romance Novels Are Not Junk Food

✽Trying to read more diversely? There are lots of lists out there, but here is a great one: 80 Black Romance Novels

✽Not romance, but sort of anti-romance? I love a good take-down review: Psycho Analysis, on Bret Easton Ellis' latest.

✽This tweet made me laugh and laugh-- I love the word nerds in my timeline:

Link to tweet

Stalking Me: where else to find me
✽My recent Reedsy reviews: Secrets of the Sea Lord, by Starla Night (3 stars) and upcoming in about week look for a review of The Cemetary Circle, by I.L. Cruz.  Link to come.

✽On the podcast, Tamara released our #3Bloggers1Series discussion of Endless Knight by Kresley Cole. The podcast is pre-recorded, but we are doing live listen-along commentary on the Shelf Addiction Facebook Group, which is a ton of fun. The next one, for Dead of Winter, will be Wednesday April 24th, 6 pm Pacific.  I haven't done a Shelf Byte in a while, but Tamara's got a great one for Consumed by JR Ward (which I reviewed last fall, here).

Recent Reads:
✽I am having such a hard time NOT bingeing on the Kresley Cole Arcana series (it's no good to get too far ahead of our recording schedule) that I decided to catch up on the Immortals After Dark series. I don't know how I get so far behind on these things, but I am going way back to books 9 and 10, with Pleasures of a Dark Prince, and Demon from the Dark. Yumm. I'm on a wait list at the library for the next one, so I'm taking a probably-well-advised break for a week or two. Loved them.

✽Mating the Huntress, by Talia Hibbert. I am really loving Hibbert's contemporaries, so when I found out she had a paranormal romance out in the world, I had to snap it up. Really good, and I'm sad that she isn't doing more PNR. Among other things, it inspired a bit of a riff on Twitter (be sure to click into the replies 😉 ) with the hashtag #HeSmelledLikeThreeThings:

...so maybe he'd always had this incredible scent, this heady mixture of power, fresh pine and midnight heat, and she'd never noticed. 

✽I read Pairing Off, by Elizabeth Harmon, who is an author I met through the Rust City Book Conference a year or two ago. I've never read a figure skating romance before, set mainly in Moscow, and I enjoyed those elements a lot. It wasn't overly jargon-y on the skating technicalities, but focused more on the emotional dramas and pressures between pairs partners, ex-partners, coaches, and family. There is a lot I liked about it, but I found it a bit draggy and just too long.

✽The biggest win of the last month was Polaris Rising, by Jessie Mihalik. This was a romance book club pick, and I was happy to give it a try, as it was getting so much good buzz from people whose recs generally work for me. Man, this was a five star read for sure, maybe 6 on a scale of 1-5. I loved it a lot, and I am not a space opera person. I am, however, a fabulously competent heroine on an epic adventure person, and this totally worked for me. Tech was perfectly on point, completely believable (I say this as a person who has worked in high tech for 20-plus years) and not boring. I'm already seeing some buzz about the sequel and I can't wait.

Well, it looks like these posts are coming more like monthly... that's not too bad, right?  What's going on in your reading world?

Sunday Soup - 3/17/2019

In The Soup This Week: Katy Regnery, Alyssa Cole, Cynthia Eden, Stephen Lawhead, Jennifer Estep, Kresley Cole, Book Riot, Reedsy

Soup Dish: on my mind this week
✽ Love this article from Book Riot on why the word "clean" to describe books without explicit sex is problematic, as well as this good-natured response from Delilah Dawson:

✽Emerald City ComicCon is here again, and once again I have failed to take advantage of the lonnnng list of amazing authors who are here. Maybe next year I'll make my children the happiest of teens and set aside my introvert dread of crowds and do the thing.

✽I'm now reviewing for Reedsy, which is a new site that helps indie authors find a production team, and also offers reviews. It launched about two weeks ago, with some good publicity from Forbes, Good e-Reader, and The Digital Reader.  My first review is up, a contemporary by Katy Regnery, and can be viewed here.  I'd love to hear what you think of the site!

On the podcast: the sound of my voice
✽New Shelfbyte (5- minute review) of Kill The Queen, by Jennifer Estep (5 stars!)

✽Have you been following the #3Bloggers1Series podcasts? If not, catch up with us on Kresley Cole's YA post-apocalyptic fantasy series, The Arcana. We spoiler the heck out of these in our discussions so we recommend you read along and listen AFTER you finish the book. We have just gotten started on this series so catch up and join us!  If you like to listen real-time, we are hosting listen-along parties on Facebook for this series.  Join the Shelf Addiction Facebook Group to keep up on details.  Podcast link for Poison Princess by Kresley Cole.

Recent Reads
✽A Hope Divided, by Alyssa Cole. I loved the first in this series and I'm not sure why I waited so long to get going on this one. It's a wonderful story, but at times difficult to read. As a kid I used to enjoy stories of the Underground Railroad; the stories sounded exciting and adventurous, with heroic people along the way, helping slaves find their way to freedom. Cole reframes this narrative, elevating the "passengers" in a way I haven't seen before, and pointing out that by focusing on the "heroes," the escaping slaves are subtly dehumanized. Further dehumanized, that is. I would call this book, more so than the first, uncomfortable and important to read.

✽The Iron Lance and The Black Rood, by Stephen Lawhead.  I've read some of Lawhead's books before, in his Arthurian series.  At some point, I picked up The Iron Lance and while it's a bit of a slower read, hefty with a lot of history, I really enjoyed it. So I grabbed the second in the Celtic Crusades trilogy. The first follows a Scottish noble who chronicles the sacking of Jerusalem, which is surprisingly not something I've read about before. This book pulls no punches about how gruesome and dishonorable the event was.  The second book follows his son, who returns to the Holy Lands because he believes that he's been called to reunite the four pieces of the Holy Cross, which were split up in order to be able to motivate Christian armies in more than one direction.  If that makes sense.  Epic quests, with a touch of supernatural to them. I'll most likely pick up the third this summer. Very enjoyable.

✽Wicked and Wild, by Cynthia Eden. I believe I acquired this book as either a freebie or a 99-cent deal. I'm not sure why else I would have picked up number 7 in a series without reading any of the earlier ones, but I want to tell you all -- it works just fine. Yes, there are characters with history that make you go "oh, I should read their book too!" but not "well crap, I don't get what's happening here." Smart heroine with a great arc; I enjoyed the worldbuilding, and the plot had some good twists. I will most likely go back and start at the beginning of this series. Thumbs up from me.

Happy New Year!

Yeah, so I haven't written a blog post since the election.  Social media has been nearly unbearable for me, and my reading has been divided between diving into my favorite escape, reading think-pieces on politics, and mindlessly playing solitaire puzzle games on my phone.

So I've been reading, a lot, but I have not been very present in the online community.  Ramping back into that always takes a bit of energy. But I'm going to try!

A few highlights - my favorites from the last couple months:

✽I have a big (for me) home project in process: I'm switching my office for my daughter's bedroom. That might not sound like much, but my office is packed full of 10 years worth of partially finished craft projects, girl scout projects, scrapbooking and quilting supplies. Both rooms needed painting, and finding space to hold all the STUFF while the swap is in progress has been painful. Bottom line is, I figured it was a good time to try audio books. I went with a YA series, thinking my daughter might like to listen along, and chose Kresley Cole's Arcana series. OMG this is good. I started it around Thanksgiving and yeah, something post-apocalyptic seemed just right. It verges on too violent for me, with some really f*cked-up torture scenes, but the story is like, steel bear-trap gripping, and I love the characters. I'm caught up in the series; the next isn't due out until next summer, and I can't get it out of my head. It's a very compelling love-triangle premise, so if you hate those, this is going to be a conundrum for you.

✽I figured that I owed it to myself to read a few sure things, so I grabbed books in Chloe Neill's Chicagoland Vampires, and Ilona Andrews' Kate Daniels series. I am not caught up there yet which makes me happy in a weird sort of way, because I can pick up another EXCELLENT book any time I want.

✽Last year about this time, I got my first taste of a Rachel Caine series, and it was awesome, so I decided to dive into the Weather Wardens. Well, I read the first book and loved it. Hmm, picking up the next book in that series might be just the thing for my first 2017 read.

✽Amid my towering stacks of book swag from RT16 and other cons, I found two Rebecca Zanetti titles, from two different series. I am on a bit of a post-apocalyptic kick right now, so I gotta say, the Scorpius series is hitting all the right notes for me. Forgotten Sins was also really good, but I have to say the hero skirted the alph-hole line pretty close for me.

✽Last for today, J. R. Ward's Blood Vow lived up to all my expectations. I'm really happy with the spinoff series.

Look at that -- all my favorites were paranormals. I do have a few contemps and historicals I could talk about, but I'll save those for another time.

Sunday Soup - March 8

Sunday Soup is... Girl Scout cookies, Shiloh Walker's backlist, lots of series catching up...

Soup Dish:  on my mind this week
✽So March may mean shamrocks and green beer to some of you, but at my house it's all about the Girl Scout cookies.  For the past 6 or 7 years, I've been the troop cookie mom for an enormous "super troop" of more than 30 girls.  Thankfully, starting last year, we've figured a way to split it up so it's gotten a bit easier.  Still, it's pretty much eating my brain.


What I'm reading
I haven't done a Soup in so long!  I have a HUGE backlog...actually, it's been so long, let's not even talk about catching up.  Let's just talk about lately. 
 
✽I spent quite a few evenings during the holidays catching up on Shiloh Walker's The Hunters series.  I had actually read one or two of the later ones but I hadn't realized that the first ones were mostly novellas and mostly more erotica than PNR.  Lately I'm finding that novellas and shorts are suiting me very nicely.  It probably means bad things about my attention span and brain function, but in the meantime, I am liking shorter pieces more than ever lately.  These definitely follow a distinct pattern, but as it turns out, I like the pattern so I pretty much inhaled these.  I was sorry to come to the end.

✽After enjoying The Master so much by Kresley Cole, I nabbed The Professional, which was handily on sale at the time (I love this trend of discounting book one in a series, it's so smart, and it hooks me EVERY TIME.) The Professional was, if possible, even hotter than The Master, although I will say the hero made me want to smack him around a little bit. If you don't like controlling alphas, this one might strike a wrong note for you, but the sex scenes burned up the page.


✽Quite a lot of my reading over the past few months involved series that I've already talked about here and still adore -- Tiffany Reisz' The King, Moira Rogers' Crossroads (Arcana #2), Chloe Neill's last two Chicagoland Vampires series (I gotta get me that new one set in NOLA), and tons more.  I would like to publish this while it's still Sunday in my timezone, so I'll have to come back later and talk about some of my reading detours.

Outlander Watch... Och. I canna wait for the RETURN of Jamie and Claire onscreen.

This was pretty cool:

 

The Master, by Kresley Cole - Review

Information
Title: The Master
Series: Game Maker
Author: Kresley Cole
Publisher:  Simon & Schuster/Gallery Books
Release Date: February 17, 2015 
Reviewing: Commercial Trade edition
Reason for reading: Love Kresley Cole, and received print copy from publisher

The Short Answer 
Total rave!

The Blurb (from Cole's website)

A need colder than Siberian winter meets an attitude hotter than the Florida sun in #1 New York Times bestselling author Kresley Cole’s sultry new Game Maker novel.

EVERYONE FEARS THE MASTER . . .
Rich, irresistible politician/Mafiya boss Maksimilian Sevastyan prefers tall, obedient blondes to fulfill his…complicated desires. That is, until the icy Russian encounters a disobedient brunette whose exquisite little body threatens his legendary restraint.

EXCEPT HER.
Catarina Marín was a well-off young wife until her world fell apart. Now she’s hiding out, forced to start working as an escort in Miami. Her very first client is beyond gorgeous, but when he tells her what he plans to do to her, Cat almost walks out of the door.

IF PLEASURE IS A GAME, PLAY TO WIN
After their mind-blowing encounter burns out of control, the lovers crave more. If they escape the deadly threats surrounding them, can Maksim overcome his past–to offer Cat his future? Only then will she tempt him with what he really wants: her, all tied up with a bow.

The Whole Scoop
To be honest, the whole "powerful but angsty young billionaire with BDSM inclinations meets sassy ingenue" erotic romance sub-genre is not necessarily my favorite.  I don't seek it out.  I've read a few here and there and liked some of them OK, but as a group... eh.  They tend to either have not enough character or not enough plot, relying on the erotic scenes to bring the readers.

This one though... if you only read one "powerful but angsty young billionaire with BDSM inclinations meets sassy ingenue" erotic romance this year, it really should be this one.  If you read two, maybe check the first one in the series (I haven't read it yet, but I'm gonna-- plus it's on sale as of this writing).

What really makes this story work for me is the heroine.  She has a fantastic backstory, over the top and yet still believable.  The way she foils the hero's every expectation and every prediction is a genuine pleasure-- she just leaves him reeling at every turn.  She does nothing that she's supposed to, nothing that he wants her to do -- but she's everything he needs.

This is where I would normally pull a favorite quote -- and I love the way they banter -- but the best stuff is imbedded in the very very X-rated erotic scenes and it would make me blush too much to excerpt them here.

Speaking of the sexytimes, I will say that this is another place where the heroine shakes up expectations.  She refuses to conform to Maksim's script--which is pretty much everybody's script since 50SoG came out--and I really love that (I see what you did there, Ms. Cole).  She's not the tiniest bit submissive; she's much more in the mold of the hair-tossing, anachronistically feisty heroines of the old-skool historicals-- but without the TSTL temper tantrums and bad decisions. (Also, no sex-on-horseback scene... although the topic does come up. So to speak.)  He totally reels her in with mind-blowing sex... but then, she does the same to him.  It's just utterly fun and yet still moving and they really are just a perfect match for each other.

Downsides?
I don't love New Adult.  I just don't. I'm 48 years old, I have a teenaged daughter, and sophomoric party-animal behavior like getting drunk and barfing is more of a turn-off than any kind of entertainment for me. There was a bit of that here, and it was a bit of a downside, but it was pretty minimal.

I also felt like Maksimilian's dominance and scariness were mostly in the blurb.  He was verbally cruel to Cat at times, which generated some big-mis style conflict, but I didn't really see him as a ruthless mafiya boss.  Compared to Cat's sizzle and sparkle, he was a bit flat as a character. Although I gotta say, he um, pulls his weight? as a character in the erotic scenes.  Very nice.

Series Handicap
I haven't read the first one, and I didn't find it to be a problem at all.  We do get some time with the first book's couple, at their wedding, so I think fans of  The Professional will be pleased about that, but I didn't feel like I was missing anything important to Maksim and Cat's story.  The third brother got a bit of sequel baiting as The Most Damaged Of Them All, and Natalie's colorful party-girl BFF Jessica got some page time too.  Love the girl-on-girl dialog with those three. 

Bottom Line
This book is not for anyone who is at all squeamish about explicit pillow talk, but whether you're looking for a hot erotic or a snappy fast-paced contemporary with a bit of suspense, a bit of angst, and metric ton of chemistry, you won't be disappointed.

Bonus!
Here's a pic of the gorgeous author and myself from RT14 in N'awlins.

Even Better Bonus: 
Headphones would be a good idea here, if you're at work or have impressionable children around:

Sunday Soup - January 26

Sunday Soup is... a little of this, a little of that, not too much work, and hopefully a tasty result.

Soup Dish:  book people are talking about...
✽The most interesting articles I saw this week were again on the topic of niceness in reviews.  I think about this a lot. In What Do We Even Want From Book Reviews Anymore?  Jason Diamond makes a compelling argument against "niceness:"

Amid all the discussion about what critics should or shouldn’t do, it’s rare to hear any substantive debate over what criticism actually is — and, specifically, what function it currently serves for readers. There are plenty of talented book critics whose work we should be talking about, many of whose jobs are in constant peril, yet we seem more interested in arguing about what tone or approach the profession as a whole should take than these writers’ specific reviews and the books considered within them. This is what’s so troubling about the level of abstractness with which we approach book criticism these days. Not only is it weakening the already shaky position of the book review, but it’s making us forget why the form is so important in the first place.

And I think he has some good points. I would far rather hear about a specific post that made well- or poorly- supported comments about a book, than generalized complaining about "online tone."  He references this Slate article, which strikes me as a bit more whiny about the good old days, but makes the point:

Reviewers shouldn't be recommendation machines, yet we have settled for that role, in part because the solicitous communalism of Twitter encourages it. Our virtue over the algorithms of Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and the amateurism (some of it quite good and useful) of sites like GoodReads, is that we are professionals with shaded, informed opinions. We are paid to be skeptical, even pugilistic, so that our enthusiasms count for more when they’re well earned.

Which I agree with, but I am mostly happy to cede that responsibility to professional critics and stay mainly in the role of recommending stuff I love. Tackling hard questions and fixing problems is something I do in my professional life, but I am not obligated to take that on for a hobby I love.  I will say that I would be sorry to see the role of a professional critic go the way of the buggy whip. It's a brave new world in publishing and it's disrupting so many elements-- I hope the professional critic makes it through to the other side.

✽This review of Why I Read, by Wendy Lesser, is reviewing a book which is about how to read books, so it's a bit recursive in nature. I found the quotes from the book intriguing and enticing and they made me want to read it.  The swooning editorialization about the book was everything that Jason Diamond and Jacob Silverman bemoan, including the supercilious quote:

Lesser has nothing to say about social media, because for the true bibliophile there’s nothing to say about social media.

Pretty much all the quotes made me want to read the book, and all the original material in the article made me want to slap the writer of the article.

✽Loved this post from Kaetrin on the default characters in our heads, and what it takes for an author to put their own character there.

✽I saw a tweet linking to this article, filled with righteous outrage, and followed it to the source.  To be honest I don't really understand all the outrage. C S Lakin (a pseudonym) discusses how she analyzed the construction and marketing of a niche genre e-book.  And seems to have met with pretty good success.  I didn't see condescension or lack of respect-- but maybe it's distressing to hear about an author who can succeed at writing a genre that she herself doesn't love?  Interestingly (to me, anyway), Lakin doesn't seem to understand that the key to her success is more about how she managed the keywords and the Amazon positioning than how she wrote the book.  I read a page or two from the preview and wasn't particularly impressed (it sounded a lot like my own attempt to write an historical romance, and you'll just have to take my word for it that that is NOT a compliment). Seems to me that there is good stuff to learn there, and if you don't like the "attitude" of the writer, then you don't have to take on the attitude to see what she's done to succeed in marketing.  I think it might be interesting to read the book, and then read the Catherine Anderson title that she says she used to analyze the structure... but I'm not sure I can be bothered; it's two genres I don't love (sweet and western) in one package. 

What I'm reading

✽Blazed through Kresley Cole's MacRieve this week. I thought the plot twists were a little bit pat, but the characters made up for it, for me. I wouldn't say it's my favorite title in the series, but a solid addition.

✽See, writing stuff down sometimes helps. I was browsing my stash for something to read, and after my Thursday Thirteen on historicals, I grabbed up a Jennifer Haymore title, Twice Tempted, to nibble on.  First in a series! Identical twin, lost at sea! But, no body found, so we know what that means, right soap opera fans? Am I right? Pretty sure I'm right.

✽And then sometimes I'm just in the mood for something a little grittier, so I'm also reading Beyond Pain, by Kit Rocha. Hot damn, I love this series.


Outlander Watch... Och. I canna wait for Jamie and Claire onscreen.

✽Nice article with the latest gossip and the second version of the official series trailer, with a bit more of Jamie and Claire together.

Jamie pic of the week:

Angels and Demons

Ciara thinks the next big thing in romance is steampunk.

I'm a little less cutting edge than that. My predictive powers are weak at best--witness my manufacturing degree, ca 1988 (should've minored in Chinese), and my MBA, ca 1993 -- talk about trend busters! But I think I may have identified a mini-trend already in progress. I'm clearly way better at that.

So while vampires and shifters have been the big story for the last few years, I'm thinking that demons and angels are the next--OK, current-- big wave in paranormal fiction, whether romance, UF, or horror.

Kim Harrison's Hollows series kicked off in April 2004 with some scary-ass demons. I'm only on book 2 so I can't say if they end up being a love interest/hero but at the moment? not. But it could go that way.

While I was a little lukewarm on Jenna Black's vampire world, I really like her Morgan Kingsley series, kicking off with Devil Inside back in November of 2007. Her demon is both sexy and seriously scary. I think she will somehow end up with him romantically (maybe she already has; I'm not caught up yet even though the latest is waiting in my TBR pile!) So, he's kind of a hero, but like Facebook says, It's Complicated.

So romances, with demons as the hero, I didn't start noticing until more recently. The first one I saw was Christine Warren's The Demon You Know, from May of 2007, and Rule is seriously yummy. But demons are only one of a whole pantheon of paranormals in Warren's world, and not the most prevalent.

Then I found Meljean Brook, whose Guardian series features angels most prominently, and a demon as the series' first heroine. Though Brook is kicking off a new steampunk series shortly, the Guardians are continuing-- hot off the presses is the cover for Demon Forged, tentatively due out in October of this year. We haven't gotten a demon hero yet; they're almost by definition bad/evil, but I have to admit I'm intrigued by the demon who plagues Charlie Newcomb and her sister in Demon Night. Since Charlie's sister opts to keep Sammael around, I have to wonder why... coughcoughnovella!cough maybe?

About the same time, I was burning through Kresley Cole's Immortals After Dark, and let me just say that Cade Woede can eat crackers in my bed any ol' time.

Larissa Ione debuted her popular "Demonica" series last June with demon heroes. She has a big following but I have to admit I'm not that into them, so no telling if angels will make an appearance. If they do, you won't hear it here first, but you can keep an eye on Literary Escapism -- Jackie always has the scoop.

But wait, there's more.

Nalini Singh, author of the Psy/Changeling series, launches her new Guild Hunter series on March 3 with Angels' Blood. For a sneak peek, an e-novella called "Angels' Pawn" set in the same world will be available tomorrow (check Nalini's site for the right link). Isn't that a gorgeous cover? I love the platinum-blond hair.

And finally (that I know of), last Halloween, J.R. Ward somewhat unofficially announced (read down in the comments) her new series starting off this October, which she describes thusly:

COVET: A Novel of the Fallen Angels is the first of the books and let’s just say it’s all about angels and Harleys and evil and redemption. The tag line’s Destiny’s a witch and then you die… but love always brings you back.

She goes on: So far as I’m aware, the hero of the whole series is a guy named Jim Crane who’s a carpenter and it’s all about him going up against the devil (who’s a very hot brunette, btw) with the help of his two partners, a scruffy dog and his bad attitude. There are other heros who come in along the way and there is a love story in every book. Things may change as I get into the writing, but the bare bones are set and I can’t wait to get started!

Now, I confess, this description kind of gives me bad flashbacks to studying The Red Badge of Courage in sophomore English class with Mrs. Harris in her fluorescent blue eyeshadow, bludgeoning us all about the heads and shoulders with the allegory: "Notice his initials are Jayyyyyy.... Ceeeeeeee...and he sacrifices himself.... What other important historical figure do we know with the initials Jayyyyyy.... Ceeeeeee... ?"

Later on her forum, Ward says that the name Crane was an error and the name is actually Jim Heron. I don't know if she changed her mind or if "Crane" came out instead of Heron because Stephen Crane's analogies got beaten into her by an English teacher with fluorescent blue eyeshadow too or what... but in any event, "Heron" just strikes me as a little weird. Is it an homage to Stephen Crane? It probably wouldn't bug me if I hadn't seen Crane first, but now it's just going to be "Jim Long-Legged-Bird; Heron/Crane/Flamingo etc" in my mind and will probably distract me every time I see it.

Not that I overthink things or anything.

But Ward has me by the short little fan-girl hairs so I will certainly read the first one, and assuming it's better than Phury's book, probably the second one as well. As always, you can keep an eye on my sidebar for the countdown to the next JR Ward book.

Did I miss any good angel/devil series? Chime in!
___________________
angel/devil image used with permission, courtesy of Mark Stivers.

Kresley Cole’s MacCarrick Brothers Trilogy – Review

When I find an author I love, I go to some trouble to find everything they’ve done. Often though, an author’s earlier books are not as good as the more current ones—and hey, there’s a good reason for that; we should all get better at what we do as we get more experienced. So I never know exactly what I’m going to get.

Last spring, I discovered and devoured the Immortals After Dark series by Kresley Cole. In a happy coincidence, just as the date approaches for the release of Kiss of a Demon King, my favorite used bookstore just happened to have all three of the MacCarrick Brothers books: If You Dare, If You Desire, and If You Deceive. Yoink! Now they are MINE. And I burned through them this past week.

Are they as good as the Immortals After Dark? Well, it’s a bit of apples and oranges. Aside from a small paranormal plot device element, the “If You...” books are straight-up historicals. The MacCarrick brothers definitely read a bit as the proto-Lykae, minus the whole shape-shifting thing. And like the Lykae and vampires—and demons, come to think of it—the MacCarrick men each stumble upon their one and only, pre-destined true love. So if you love Cole’s alphas and the one-and-only trope, with or without the paranormal trappings, you should definitely check this trilogy out. Cole’s trademark humor is more understated as well, but you’ll still find those snicker-out-loud moments.

I rather like the brogue she uses for the brothers, and it’s consistent, but it was pretty pervasive. So if that kind of thing bugs you, it might be annoying. One thing that kind of jumped out at me was in the second book, where Jane’s upper-crust Brit accent was written in explicitly, instead of just being the “default” language. You really never see that, but it makes a lot of sense, since the books are mostly from the Scotsmen’s point of view. The other two heroines were not English, so they each had a bit of dialect too.

Another thing that sets this trilogy apart from the standard regency historical is that it’s set a few decades later, in Victorian mid-nineteenth century. Most of the action takes place away from high society, so it doesn’t play a huge factor, but the second two books had some interesting scenes in what seems to be the Victorian equivalent of a rave. Cool.

The paranormal element is a curse, which goes beyond mere superstition: the book where the curse is recorded cannot be destroyed and tells the fate of ten generations of MacCarricks, all of which have been accurate. As a result, the men believe that they are cursed to be alone, walk with death, and other unpleasant portentous sorts of things. Their lives have been spent in a self-fulfilling prophecy, avoiding women and falling into soul-damaging (yet heroic, of course) work. Cole works very hard to make these men dark, damaged, and in their own minds, beyond redemption—at times, maybe a bit too hard.

The men are not terribly different from each other, but the heroines, oh my. Awesome. From an outcast Castilian princess with repressed sexuality Issues, to a reckless Victorian libertine (my personal favorite), to a plucky orphaned waif from the Parisian slums (OK, that one sounds a little Dickensian but she’s fun to read, trust me), these are interesting, courageous women who call their men on the bullshit and there’s not a TSTL moment in the bunch. Well – there might be one in the first book, but I rather liked how it was handled. YMMV.

The external plot drivers are not especially memorable—in the case of the last book, there actually isn’t one—and the paranormal loophole by which the brothers escape their presumed fate is facile, but you won’t mind too much, because the *real* story is about developing trust (which I think Cole does fantastically well), and struggling to understand when your desire for someone is selfish, and when it isn’t – another way to put it would be struggling to understand where the needs of the individual end and the needs of the relationship begin.

Usually I get very impatient with the “she’s too good for me, I’m staying away for her own good” damaged-hero mentality, but it’s done well in these books. There’s a pretty compelling reason for the men to feel that way. And the vulnerability they show when they come to understand that their partner loves them in spite of their darker side, and even find some parts of that darkness compelling, attractive, and heroic—it’s moving.

Overall I give it a very solid thumbs up; maybe not the runaway genius of the IAD series, but still an entirely satisfying read.

Now, if you've managed to stay with me all this time, you get a reward: I'm going to ***GIVE AWAY*** this whole trilogy to a random commenter. These copies are well-thumbed so if you care about that, don't enter, but if you are interested in the story inside the slightly battered covers, sign right up. I figure I'll use a flat rate postage box which, who knows, might have room for another book or two, so in your comment, tell me if your favorite subgenre is historical, contemp, or paranormal and there might be an extra goodie for you. If it fits.

I'll announce the winner on Friday sometime after noon Pacific time.

edited to add:

Here are some other reviews around the blogosphere for the MacCarricks:

Pearl's World of Books

The Good, The Bad, and The Unread

Smut N Stuff

Thursday Thirteen, Edition 2

Thirteen reasons to read an anthology this month: 1. Novella is the perfect length to read after the turkey is put away and before you pass out from the tryptophane. 2. Lots of cute holiday-themed books to get you in the spirit. 3. Too busy shopping, decorating, cooking and wrapping to read a full-length book 4. Need to sample some new authors to prep for Jackie’s 50 New Authors challenge in 2009. 5. Can’t miss any of the events in Nalini’s and Meljean’s worlds. 6. Keep one stashed in the car for when you’re waiting to pick the kids or in line at Starbucks for a gingerbread latte. 7. This is a test to see if anyone noticed that I could only think of twelve. 8. Where else can you get demons and werewolves, vampires and time-travelers, minotaurs and sirens, all in one book? (Umm, a Kresley Cole novel? Hmmm, you might be – no, wait, she doesn’t do time travelers. So far.) 9. Obsessed with JR Ward. 10. You *need* more Lady Whistledown. 11. Too tired from NaNoWriMo to read a full-length book. 12. Even if you don’t like some of the stories in the anthology, you still might like others. Therefore, an anthology represents a diversification of risk on your investment of $7.99*. In today’s economy, every bit helps. (“Look Ma, no hands-- I’m usin’ my MBA!”) 13. Be one of the kewl kids playing along for Antholopalooza! ____________ *… or in the case of The Magical Christmas Cat, $14.99. I’m still bitter about that.

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others' comments. It’s easy, and fun! Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
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Warriors of Atlantis, by Alyssa Day, Series Review

I’m really enjoying this series. It’s a work in progress, so it’s yet another one of those series where I need to write down the date of the next publication and dial back my impatience. Not until June. Arggh. Happily though, books 6 and 7 are out within a couple of months of that, so this time next year I should be gorged and sated on Day’s gorgeous defenders of civilization as we know it.

I hinted earlier that there was a comparison to be made with the Black Dagger Brotherhood. Another cadre of warriors, yadda yadda. When I say that they compare favorably, one of the things I mean is that this is not a copycat series. At stake is THE FUTURE OF MANKIND. Compared to the BDB, where it’s the fate of this small, mostly unknown population of vampires, and you’d think that the Poseidon adventures would feel darker and heavier, but no. I’m not sure why, but for me at least, the BDB books are still more immersive and resonant.

I’d say Day’s style is closer to Kresley Cole’s with the plethora of different magics and the mythological mash-up. Roman gods, vampires, were-creatures, witches, empaths, and who knows what else on the horizon, share Day’s universe. I never really lose sight of the notion that this is a work of fiction, so the scary stuff doesn’t haunt me the way it does with the BDB.

Now, this is not to say that Day’s books are inferior to Ward’s – they’re just different. They’re quicker, less dense reads. The warriors are less entangled in each others’ lives. The books so far have little or no set up for the follow-ons, so in that respect they are more stand-alone – we just get little hints as to some of the warriors’ individual burdens without going into too much foreshadowing. I’m also really adoring Day’s heroine’s; they are enormously powerful in their own right and thus worthy partners to the hunky heroes.

I also love authors that can lace their characters with a right touch of humor. In Day’s case, the humor isn’t as constant of a factor, like you might find with Jennifer Crusie or Loretta Chase, or even Kresley Cole, but little touches are deftly applied at perfect moments:

From Shifter’s Lady, a male human/jaguar, internal narrative:

Control.

Pleasant dinner.

No pouncing on the Atlantean.

Marie glanced back over her shoulder and smiled at him, and he stumbled, his inherent feline grace deserting him. Screw that. There was definitely going to be pouncing.

And from Atlantis Awakening-- paraphrased, because my books are temporarily misplaced (children!—grrrr!)-- there is a scene where Erin (the heroine) meets Quinn and Jack. When Ven (the hero) and Jack start a macho conversation about Erin’s mated status, she knocks them both on their asses with a little burst of power. Their response (and Quinn’s: “I think I’m going to like you!”) are really entertaining.

OK then, without further ado, allow me to present the next installment in my spreadsheet series:

Item	Warriors of Poseidon	Black Dagger Brotherhood
Premise	Elite band of warriors tasked with protecting humans from vampires and shapeshifters	Elite band of warriors tasked with protecting their own race from specific enemies of the race.
Sponsoring Deity	Poseidon, duh	The Scribe Virgin
The Big Bad	Anubisa, daughter of Chaos, goddess of death, immortal, evil, vampirish. Has a particular vendetta against the royal family of Atlantis. Super creepy.	The Omega, apparently a sibling of some sort to the Scribe Virgin. Unredeemedly evil, he uses humans in his war against vampires by excising the individual's heart, soul, and blood, and replacing it with some essence of himself. This seems to be a singularly unpleasant process, details of which are thankfully left largely to the reader's imagination
Mating Stuff	Beginning with Conlan, the warriors begin finding their soul-mates, the only person in the world with whom a soul-meld is possible. The soul-meld enables one partner to read every significant event in the other's life. The soul meld has been the stuff of legends until now.	Bonded mates very nearly cannot survive the death of the mate, and males are fiercely territorial. No indication that the individuals are pre-ordained, or that only one mating is possible, but the males typically recognize their mate on some level instantly. Can be married without being bonded.
What do they eat?	Normal stuff.	Require the blood of an opposite-sex vampire (not human) for sustenance and strength. Will die without it, but may survive on human or animal blood for a time. Also regular food, and for the warriors, enormous quantities of it.
Special Powers	Can manipulate water, ice, etc. Can travel at high speed in mist form (with limited ability to carry stuff). Some can manipulate other elements, such as wind. Atlanteans are forbidden to call Fire. Some individuals have additional magic, mostly exhibited as sort of lightning bolts lobbed at the enemy.	Can dematerialize from one place to another. In short hops, this kind of looks like flying. Super-rapid healing. Can manipulate human minds, wipe memories, etc. Strongest vampires can also probe other vampires' minds. Vishous has additional powers as a result of his maternal line.
Kryptonite	Not really, but if sufficiently shielded from water sources, cannot use their power.	Sunlight & salt water. Cannot dematerialize through steel.
What about the women?	Riley, Quinn and Erin, in different ways, have extremely rare and impressive powers that have not been seen by Atlanteans in 2000 years. Their appearance now seems to signal a prophecy involving rising again, IKYWIM.*	Meh.**
Does anyone go off to die alone in a cave?	So far, so good, but it ain't over yet	Yes.

*No, Betsy, the answer is NOT "The South."


**OK, the "meh" isn't really fair, but really, the heroines are nothing special in the BDB. I like that Day's are more equal in powers and partnership.


That's it. Go read 'em. Good, clean fun.

Series Reading Order:
1. Atlantis Rising
2. Wild Thing (anthology/short: Wild Hearts in Atlantis -- re-issue in mass market (ie, cheaper) format in Jan 2009)
3. Atlantis Awakening
4. Shifter (anthology/short: Shifter's Lady)
5. Atlantis Unleashed (due June 2009)
6. Atlantis Unmasked (due July 2009)
7. Atlantis Redeemed (due fall 2009)

_____________

Series Reading Order

It’s been pointed out to me that I generally don’t bother to list the reading order for the various series that I review. I figure that it’s usually pretty easy to ferret out from either Amazon or the author’s website, but I’m all about the feedback, so if that’s a service my readers want, I’m happy to oblige.

So here’s the reading order for a few of the series that I’ve talked about in the past:

Historicals

The Bridgertons, by Julia Quinn

1. The Duke and I


2. The Viscount Who Loved Me


3. An Offer From A Gentleman


4. Romancing Mr. Bridgerton


5. To Sir Phillip, With Love


6. When He Was Wicked


7. It's In His Kiss


8. On The Way to the Wedding

The Cynsters, by Stephanie Laurens

1. Devil’s Bride


2. A Rake’s Vow


3. Scandal’s Bride


4. A Rogue’s Proposal


5. A Secret Love


6. All About Love


7. All About Passion


8. The Promise in a Kiss


9. On a Wild Night


10. On a Wicked Dawn


11. The Perfect Lover


12. The Ideal Bride


13. The Truth About Love


14. What Price Love?


15. The Taste of Innocence (wasn’t crazy about this one)

The Bastion Club, by Stephanie Laurens

1. Captain Jack’s Woman (prequel—meh)


2. The Lady Chosen


3. A Gentleman’s Honor


4. A Lady of His Own


5. A Fine Passion


6. To Distraction


7. Beyond Seduction


8. The Edge of Desire

The Carsington Brothers, by Loretta Chase

1. Miss Wonderful


2. Mr. Impossible


3. Lord Perfect

Contemporaries:
Huh. It looks like most of the contemporaries I’ve talked about are not part of series, but more stand-alones. Leave me a comment if there are series that I’ve missed!

Paranormals:
Ah, paranormals. So many series, so little time. I’m just going to do a few here, or this post will be ridiculously long.

First up, of course, is JR Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood:

1. Dark Lover


2. Lover Eternal


3. Lover Awakened


4. Lover Revealed


5. Lover Unbound


6. Lover Enshrined


7. The Black Dagger Brotherhood: An Insider’s Guide (coming in October 2008)


8. Dead After Dark* (coming in December 2008)


9. Lover Avenged (coming in May 2009)

Meljean Brook’s Guardian Series:

1. Hot Spell*


2. Demon Angel


3. Wild Thing*


4. Demon Moon


5. Demon Night


6. First Blood*


7. Demon Bound (coming in November 2008)

Nalini Singh's Shifter/Psy series:

1. An Enchanted Season*


2. Slave to Sensation


3. Visions of Heat


4. Caressed by Ice


5. The Magical Christmas Cat* (coming October 2008)


6. Mine to Possess


7. Hostage to Pleasure


8. Branded by Fire (not yet released, but the exerpt is page-meltingly hot)

Kresley Cole’s Immortals After Dark series:

1. Playing Easy to Get*


2. A Hunger Like No Other


3. No Rest for the Wicked


4. Wicked Deeds on a Winter’s Night


5. Dark Needs at Night’s Edge


6. Dark Desires After Dusk


7. Kiss of a Demon King (coming in Feb 2009)


8. Not That Innocent* (coming in May 2009)

Lynn Viehl’s Darkyn Series

1. If Angels Burn


2. Dark Need


3. Private Demon


4. Night Lost


5. Evermore


6. Twilight Fall


7. Stay The Night (coming in Jan 2009)

*Titles with an asterisk are anthologies which contain a novella or short story within the same universe as the series.

That help, Erin? I hereby promise to include the reading order for any series I review in the future. :-)

Immortals After Dark, by Kresley Cole – Series Review

Sad to say, I’m still kind of a snob about vampire romances. Cuz when they’re bad? They’re just way more extremely bad than any other kind of bad romance. I think so, anyway. “Mwah-ha-hah, I vant to suck your bloooooooood.” Uh huh.

You’d think that after getting hooked on JR Ward, Lynn Viehl, Christine Warren, and Meljean Brook I’d’ve learned. But no. And this cover art didn’t help:





It took quite a bit of nudging for me to give Kresley Cole’s Immortals After Dark series a try. But, finally I did, and..... I LOVED IT. So, to the nudgers out there (you know who you are): thanks. Seriously, THANK YOU.

Fairy Tale + Wacky Humor + HOTT (omg, SO hott) Sex = Kresley Cole.

It also sort of sounds like a recipe for disaster. I’m frankly not sure how Ms. Cole managed to make everything work, but she does.

The Immortals After Dark tap a number mythologies for inspiration. The dainty, fragile-looking Valkyries are a particularly unique addition to the crowded paranormal romance shelves, if not especially true to Norse mythology. Fiercer than any other of the Lore kind, they are a sorority of foul-mouthed immortal warriors who enjoy movie nights, X-Box marathons, mani-pedis, and beheading vampires. Their only weakness? They are easily distracted by shiny objects, especially high-quality diamonds. Seriously.

Cole’s heroes so far are vampires, werewolves, and demons – of the three, the vamps actually rank last among my favorites – they’re still good, mind you, but the werewolves and Cadeon the Rage Demon fairly set the pages on fire. And how can you not love a romance where the big bad werewolf is chasing a girl in a red hooded cloak? (Fortunately, there was no mention of grandma or a basket of goodies; that would’ve been taking things a bit to far.)

I mentioned in a previous post that Cole’s paranormal world isn’t high up there on my infamous credibility index. Suspension of disbelief is something of a conscious decision. But the Lore world is such a rockin’ good time, why wouldn’t you want to? These books are pure escapism. Cole goes for the wink and the nod rather than the mysterious, dark, gritty "realism" that’s currently in vogue for paranormal romance, and succeeds brilliantly at sheer entertainment.

Each individual book is a fairly straightforward quest sort of story. In each, there is a prize sought by one or both of the protagonists, and the other poses either the key to the prize, or a barrier to it. Or both. Plotting isn’t a weakness of Cole’s, but it’s not the main attraction, either. Clever, unique characters are a big part of it, but for me, the development of the attraction between the hero and heroine is the real gem here. Setting up a couple whose backgrounds are completely incompatible is certainly not new territory in romance. The journey up over, around, or through these incompatibilities to a believable happily ever after is what either makes or breaks a romance author—whatever the subgenre—and in my not-so-humble opinion, Cole does a stellar job.

I like to keep this blog fairly family friendly, so on the topic of teh hott, let me just say, READ CADE & HOLLY’S STORY. And if you want really steamy, check out Cole’s novella in the anthology “Playing Easy to Get,” which pretty much falls off the edge of romance and into erotica (or “romantica.” Whatever that is.)

Reading a whole series at once is always fun. In this case, I thought Cole’s characters definitely got better and better, especially the female ones. Lachlain, the first hero, is one of my faves, but I didn’t love his halfling mate. By the last book, Dark Desires After Dusk, I felt like the women characters were living up to the men. There’s a scene in DDAD (and by the way, WHO comes up with these titles? ackk) where Holly is struck by lightning and receives her full complement of heretofore-suppressed Valkyrie powers… and it’s STUNNING. A fantastic scene. And I will say this: each of Cole’s heroines are extremely unique. No stereotypes, no archetypes, no recycled characters with different hair color.

I don’t always like teasers, but I have to say that I adored the scene between Cade and his brother Rydstrom at the end of the book. Cade and his brother, the heir to a demon throne, have a rocky history, and Cade’s parting line both cracked me up and left me curious as hell: "Fuckall... does this mean I'm no longer the bad brother??"

So check out the series. As for me, I’m going to look into the MacCarrick brothers, and come February, I’ll be adding Kiss of a Demon King to my Borders’ haul.

.

On the Suspension of Disbelief

Let’s face it, the notion of immortal undead bloodsuckers living among us has some flaws.

First of all, if they are immortal, and we are not…. Shouldn’t they eventually outnumber us?

Secondly, if they are immortal, and they turn humans into immortal vampires… Shouldn’t they eventually outnumber us?

Thirdly, if they have superhuman strength, can fly or teleport, etc – basically, if they’re nearly inescapable deadly predators—plus immortal, plus turning…. Shouldn’t they eventually outnumber us?

It’s your basic lion-and-gazelle sort of question.

And beyond just the population balance question, don’t you think if they’d been around for THOUSANDS of years, they’d’ve made it beyond fairy-tale status? I mean, if they were real? Wouldn’t they eventually be sort of… noticeable?

I have to admit, Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood universe is one of the most immersive, plausible fantasy worlds I’ve come across in a really long time. And I’ve been thinking a lot about what makes that true. How can some authors take the same premise and turn it into a world that seems so real, that resonates so hard in my head that I have difficulty believing that it only exist between the pages of a book? While others might provide a good read, but when I close the cover, my brain is right back to grocery lists and emails for work and the stuff I need to pick up for my daughter’s science project and the film I need to drop off at Target to get my mother-in-law off my back… And then there’s the other end of the spectrum that just induce eye-rolling. So, as I'm prone to do, I started thinking about this way too much. Which led me to…

To: O’Donovan
From: Nicola
Subject: I am such a dork.

See spreadsheet.

<<Vampire Credibility Index.xls >>

To: Nicola
From: O’Donovan
Subject: Re: I am such a dork.

I fucking adore your brain.

We should add Laurell K. Hamilton (whose total would be 0) and there are a couple of others. If one wanted to add a "quality of writing" category, I think the numbers would change dramatically.

To: O’Donovan
From: Nicola
Subject: Re: Re: I am such a dork.


<g>

Thought you might like that.

Totally agree on the quality of writing, but I thought it might be too subjective.

I’m also trying to figure out how to capture the mind control/thrall aspect; that seems to be a common element in most of the vamp books. Not binary, though.

What other questions belong on the grid?


To: Nicola
From: O’Donovan
Subject: Re: Re: Re: I am such a dork.

Maybe whether vampires are portrayed as dangerous predators, disinterested observers, or benevolent protectors? We should add Kelley Armstong, too. I can't abide Feehan or Kenyon, but I can fill in the Hamilton gaps.


To: O’Donovan
From: Nicola
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: I am such a dork.


Check. The other thing I was thinking was the origin of the species, but that will come down the eye of the beholder. I just finished the first Lara Adrian and apparently the entire vamp population came from 8 aliens who were responsible for several of the earth's mysterious population wipes -- Egypt, Maya, etc. I liked the book, but totally don’t buy that.

Apparently aliens trip my "Oh please, you must be kidding" trigger while incandescent demigods do not.

------------<<end of email string >> ---------------

OK, we resolved the origin of the species question, and here is the sublimely dorky result:




Is that not a thing of beauty? The normalized line accounts for the fact that some authors had been read by both of us and some had not (I have taken masters' level courses in statistics, thank you very much).

The funny thing is, these scores are not at ALL about how much I (or we, if I may speak for O'Donovan) enjoyed the books. But it does a fair job of ranking how believable the universe is.

Strangely enough, sometimes vagueness is your friend in world building. I have no idea how Susan Sizemore's vampire race came into being. And it doesn't seem to matter. Lara Adrian, on the other hand, writes a far more nuanced world, with better characters and more complex plot, but when she starts talking about crash-landing aliens, it's a total bucket of cold water. For me, anyway.

And I adored the Kresley Cole series (totally recommend, review on its way) BUT I don't believe in her Lore universe for a second--it's just fun. Ward on the other hand... catches me looking for Caldwell, NY on a map and speculating, speculating, speculating...

_______________
Final note: I'd be happy to justify any and all of the rankings if you have any disputes, but rest assured that EACH AND EVERY ONE represents an explicit thought process and far more brain cells than could possibly be justified.