Unleashed

Unleashed was an interesting paranormal anthology. Each story had a pretty great set up, unfortunately not all of them lived up to it.

Bond of Silver by Rebecca York

Bond of Silver starts with Alexander slaying dragons, scaling a large rock wall, thwarting witches, leaping tall buildings and mind merging with his soul mate. And that is just the first few chapters.

It isn’t quiet as ‘throw the kitchen sink’ at you as you might think, Alexander is dreaming. Only it isn’t any dream but a special find your soul mate type of dream. And Claire is more than willing to run off with him. Alexander is thrilled with the connection and ready to return to New Atlantis so he can track down the other half of his soul – you know while awake.

New Atlantis needs more people with mental powers to help keep the force field intact to keep out pesky nonspecial mental power type people. All Alexander needs to do is figure out how to get Clarie to agree to leave her home, her mom (the evil witch) and return with him to live happy ever after. Only problem is his stepfather has a connect to her family.

This is the longest story in the anthology and has the most going on. I wanted to like it but Bond of Silver couldn’t keep my attention. This is the second novella I have read from York and the second one I had trouble getting into. I found myself reading and rereading the same pages trying to understand what was going on. It didn’t help I was excited when the dragon showed up at the beginning because I assumed they would play in the paranormal part of the story. No such luck…
Grade D+

Red Skies at Night by Diane Whiteside

Red Skies at Night opens with Travis, a New York cop, having a cup of joe with his ex-partner now FBI agent friend Frank. Frank is hit and his death sends Travis on a road to ensure his killer pays. He is soon led to Gillian, a professional criminal and vampire. She has the notebook Frank was killed over and Travis is willing to do anything to get his hands on it. Well as soon as he can manage to get them off Gillian.

Gillian finds her life in the mitts of what she considers the lowest form of life… a cop. Travis finds himself trap with what he considers the lowest form of life… a criminal. And neither of them can keep their hands off of each other. Add in a Texas blizzard and you have a great read.

Red Skies at Night is part of Diane Whiteside’s Texas vampire universe and the story I expect to be the most uninterested in. It takes a lot to make me go wow about vampires these days. You will find yourself with yet another paranormal, glossary and all. But really if you have unique world building they can be somewhat helpful. I had no clue it was there until I was done and my very limited Spanish got me by just fine.

The characters were great and vamp lore creative and believable. It could be my lil Texan heart had no choice but when I closed the book I was excited to read the next. And very glad I owned the first two books already.
Grade A

Come Moonrise by Lucy Monroe

Ty wants Frankie and Frankie wants Ty. They have been best friends forever since they were children but the one time Frankie tried to make it more than just a friendship, Ty told gave her the old ‘lets be friends’ speech. He leaves out the part about him being a werewolf and the whole they mate for life so it is a bad idea to get involved with rotten, faithless female.

Frankie decides to go home for the holidays and give Ty one more shot before she gives up and moves on with her life. She arrives to a feud between her family and Ty’s topped off with rumors he is after the new tail in town. She is confused and hurt. Ty is frustrated, ready to lose his virginity and mate for life. Only problem is they find themselves stuck in a blizzard – alone.

I really like Lucy Monroe’s writing. And it is very rare I don’t enjoy one of her stories but this was one of them. The character just didn’t work for me. Ty’s repetitive all human women are evil and they must ALL not be trusted – ever – got to be way tiring. I could have gotten over that but the push and pull goes on too long and there are sins of omission and there are SINS of OMISSION. Ty never makes it back from in my eyes from a huge screw up.

Saying all this I still give the story a C+ because I loved the set up and am seriously wanting to read Duke’s book, which I had thought was Moon Awakening. But I was wrong, as you can see from the info on the site. Moon will be historical werewolves, so we really do go back to the beginning for this series. Sounds very interesting (although the character pictures scare me), go dig around the site. There is even a free read.
Grade C+

Beyond Limits by Susan Kearney

Samantha Bessinger is a business woman down to her Gucci covered toes. She has made millions, is self assured, capable and find herself being far too attracted to her pilot Ian. If she didn’t know better she would think he was flirting with her. Sadly once she decides he is, she also figures out Ian is a touch off his rocker.

Ari Dillon is running out of ideas on how to connect with his soul mate. He needs to get her attention, bond with her and he teach her how to shape shift. Oh and talk her into moving home with him and leaving her million dollar company behind. Since Samantha keeps herself isolated and busy with work, Ari decides his best plan is to take the shape of her pilot. He is gambling on their mutual lust being enough to get them through the rough spots until he can teach her about his home – Atlantis.

Atlantis is a super secret island, kept hidden behind a force field created and maintained by minds of the island’s people. Atlantians dream of their soul mates, go out into the world and bring them home. Atlantis needs him to succeed because their force field needs new blood and Ari needs to succeed because Samantha is in his blood, his heart and is the other part of his soul. It dawns on him too late, crashing her plane into a small island in the middle of no where might not have been the best way to start out their life together.

Sound familiar? Go ahead and scroll up and reread the first review… I will wait. I am thinking Rebecca York and Susan Kearney had no idea they were wearing the same dress to the book. And Susan’s story suffers for the comparison because I found myself spending more time doing that – comparing – then sitting back and enjoying the ride.

And it is a pretty enjoyable read. Samantha is an awesome character. Crash her plane and instead of panic she tries to get whatever supplies together she can to save herself until rescue. Strand her on an island and instead of losing control she starts to carve out a huge SOS in the sand. Ari is just as interesting even while he goes about things in the dumbest way, what can I say I am one to excuse a man in love.

Only they aren’t in love and it seems Ari’s biggest concern is Atlantis and then his soul mate. First it is a dream, then a belief they are soul mates. Lust is used to shift, convince and even show her the island in a unique way but I had a hard time believing the end of the story and in their happy ever after.
Grade C-

All in all it is an enjoyable read and worth buying for Whiteside and Monroe alone. I am really looking forward to their next books. And I do believe I am done with York’s novellas but would like to try out one of her full length novels. Susan Kearney is an author that I am keeping an eye on. Anyone have any recs for her?
Overall Grade C+