Liviania’s Quick Quack Reviews of one science fiction romance and three urban fantasy novels by Cameron Haley, Ilona Andrews, Katherine Allred, and Phaedra Weldon.

Mob Rules (Underworld Cycle, Book 1) by Cameron Haley
Urban fantasy published by Luna 1 Sep 10

I love the world Cameron Haley sets up in Mob Rules. Her sorcerers are LA gang members who get power boosts from graffiti. Domino Riley, an enforcer for Shanar Rashan, is investigating a murder. Riley soon realizes that there’s something odd about Jamal’s murder when she has trouble summoning his spirit. It also means that her outfit is going to war with Papa Danwe’s outfit.

There’s a strong cast of background characters, especially the piskie Honey. The romance with Adan is nice, but ultimately a non-starter. I’m excited for the next Underworld Cycle novel. Riley’s smart and tough and Haley’s worldbuilding is off to a good start.

Grade: B+

Summary:

As LA plunges into an occult gang war, mob sorceress Domino Riley must unravel a conspiracy that reaches beyond the magic-soaked mean streets into a world of myth and legend.

Domino investigates the ritual execution of a mob associate, a graffiti magician named Jamal. The kid isn’t just dead, he’s been squeezed — the killer stole his magical power or “juice.” Domino summons Jamal’s shade, and the ghost points to Adan Rashan as his killer. This is tricky, because Adan is the favored son of Domino’s boss, Shanar Rashan, a six-thousand-year-old Sumerian wizard. It’s even trickier because only a mobbed-up sorcerer could have squeezed Jamal and Adan isn’t a sorcerer.

As the corpses pile up, Domino must confront the killer and unmask an otherworldly kingpin with designs on her gang’s magic-rich turf.

MOB RULES is an urban fantasy novel of murder and magic, betrayal and redemption set in the supernatural underworld of Los Angeles.

Read an excerpt here.

Magic Bleeds (Kate Daniels, Book 4) by Ilona Andrews
Urban fantasy published by Ace 25 May 10

I am extremely happy I finally read Ilona Andrews’ works. I read Magic Burns, Magic Strikes, and Magic Bleeds in quick succession. Thus, my memories are somewhat blended together. (I may also spoil parts of the previous novels.) Even with that handicap, I am convinced that Magic Bleeds is a highlight. Quite a bit is revealed about Kate’s mysterious past due to her adversary. Kate’s confrontation with her father is probably going to come soon, and I can’t wait to see how it plays out.

In addition, Curran and Kate’s relationship is progressing nicely. In fact, Kate’s willing to fight to stay with him. Kate’s becoming more connected to her community in a variety of ways and it makes her a stronger person. I can see why this series is so hyped, and I must say that it’s living up to all the nice things people say.

Grade: A

Summary:
Kate Daniels cleans up the paranormal problems no one else wants to deal with-especially if they involve Atlanta’s shapeshifting community.

And now there’s a new player in town-a foe that may be too much for even Kate and Curran, the Lord of the Beasts, to handle. Because this time, Kate will be taking on family.

Read an excerpt here.

Other books in this series:

Close Contact (Alien Affairs, Book 2) by Katherine Allred
Science fiction romance published by Harper Voyager 8 Jun 10

Science fiction romances aren’t that common, so I was somewhat excited by this one. Echo Adams is a Genetically Engineered Person with psi abilities. Now, instead of planning parties, she’s attempting to steal back a stolen crystal on a far-off planet and falling in love with the commander of the king’s army. But there’s something strange about Reynard and his fellow Madreans.

I found this one a little disappointing. I prefer hard SF to soft SF, and all the psi abilities being used might as well be magic. Echo and Reynard’s romance worked fine, but wasn’t overly memorable. The book is, however, better than the cover would lead you to believe.

Grade: B-

Summary:

GEPs just want to have fun . . .

A Genetically Engineered Person and self-proclaimed “party girl,” Echo Adams loves her diplomatic job entertaining alien bigwigs for the Galactic Federation. But the Bureau of Alien Affairs has discovered she’s much more than she thinks—that a rogue scientist endowed her with skills and psi abilities dwarfing those of common GEPs. And suddenly Echo’s luxury life is over, replaced with a far more dangerous one: a special agent expected to not only chase bad guys but eliminate them.

Echo hates being stuck on Madrea—a planet of technophobes off limits to Federation visitors—hunting for a stolen quartz crystal with a powerful alien life form embedded inside. She despises the Bureau’s restrictive rules—especially the one warning her away from the dangerously seductive commander of the king’s army. And if she doesn’t learn how to use her alleged super-psi powers soon, her partying days—in fact all of her days—will be over for good.

Read an excerpt here.

Other books in this series:

Revenant (Zoë Martinique Investigations, Book 4) by Phaedra Weldon
Urban fantasy published by Ace 1 Jun 10

Revenant is the fourth Zoë Martinique Investigation novel and an excellent example of why I like to start series from the beginning. The novel begins with a brief explanation of Zoë’s past. By the third page I was completely lost. She used a number of abbreviations and the timeline was quite confusing, plus it’s a totally made up system of magic. I may give Revenant another change if I can first read one of the earlier books. I’m not sure about the prose, however. It had a strong rhythm, with lots of staccato sentences. It seems like it would be jarring to read a full work written in Zoë’s voice.

Grade: DNF

Summary:

The smart, sassy, single, and “highly original” (#1 New York Times bestselling author Patricia Briggs) Zoë Martinique is back- and she’s seeking clues on the other side…

Zoë Martinique’s life hasn’t been ordinary for quite awhile. First she developed the ability to travel outside her body at will-where she encountered some seriously weird things. Things that left her with powers that she didn’t really want or need. Still, a person can get used to almost anything- even being a Wraith. Though more often than not, it plays serious havoc with her love life.

But for once, Zoë is glad of her abilities. Bodies are showing up all over Atlanta, drained of blood. They’re beings from another astral plane, called Revenants-and they’re being stalked by her old enemy, the Phantasm. The Revenants are hardly the nicest of creatures-but to preserve the cosmic balance, Zoë will need to put everything on the line to save them…

Read an excerpt here.

Other books in this series:

Gwen’s review of The Warlord’s Daughter (The Borderlands, Book 2) by Susan Grant
Sci-fi romance released by HQN 1 Feb 09

I really love a good sci-fi romance.  The last couple of months I’ve been lucky enough to read a couple of really good ones.  This is definitely one of them, so much so I’m going to have to glom all of Grant’s backlist. And I admit, I have heretofore been unwise to underestimate Grant’s books simply based on the rather, well, “lighthearted” titles.  I mean, How to Lose An Extraterrestrial In 10 Days? Seriously?  My unwarranted prejudice is understandable, right?

This is another of Grant’s books set in the same world/universe as I think all of her other sci-fi’s, allowing her to expand on the details, history, and characters.  This gives these books a very “real” feel because of the impression of visiting someplace that has real substance.  I think this all adds to the reader’s  enjoyment because you can just cut loose the disbelief and dive into the story without fear.  There won’t be some little  detail will jerk you out of the story’s “zone”.

I love when that happens.

This is the first book of this world/series I have read. Regardless, I had no trouble following it and yet I didn’t feel like there was any info-dumping.  The details are woven into the story in a very natural manner.  As a result, Daughter stands alone very well, though I am definitely going to read the related books.

From what I gather, Daughter‘s hero and heroine are royal members of what has largely been, until this book, the bad guys – the Drakken Horde (I know, cool name, innit?).  When they were early adolescents, they met eyes across a crowded room and from then on, they thought of nobody else.  In fact, the hero connived, maneuvered, and basically sold his soul to make sure he was able to claim the heroine as his wife.  It’s tremendously romantic.

I very much enjoyed the “quest” aspect of the story.  We’re brought along with the heroine, Wren, as she makes some heartbreaking discoveries about herself and her family. I frequently got teary-eyed as she struggled with yet more devastating news. There’s quite a bit in this book about prophecy fulfilling and the goddess aspects of this society, but it’s all fun and adds to the story.

There’s so much happening in the plot that it’s tough to pick out just one detail that really sells it.  I suppose that’s why it all worked so well for me.  I really felt like I was reading about something that happened.  Even the secondary characters have a full and interesting life.

I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a departure from the normal fare.  While it is definitely a wonderful romance, it’s got so much more – it’s got intrigue, politics, human interest, and just a rocking good sci-fi story.  Go get it.  Now.  I’ll wait here for you to comment with your own kudos.

Grade: A

Summary:

The war is finally over. But Wren’s life is in tatters. The only living offspring of the notorious Drakken Warlord, her genes could very well start a new dynasty of terror. And the Coalition can’t have that.

She alone holds the key to finding a legendary treasure. Having seen enough bloodshed, shy, petite Wren vows to destroy it before anyone, Drakken, Coalition or Earth, can get their hands on it – but she’ll need help.

The Drakken’s ruthless evil turned Aral toward the Coalition years ago. War is all he knows, until he finds passion and love in the most unlikely of women – the Warlord’s Daughter. But will trusting each other with their secrets risk not only their hearts, but their lives?

Read an excerpt here.

Other books in the series:

and Sureblood (Book 3), scheduled for Aug 2010

Gwen’s review of Beyond the Rain by Jess Granger
Science-fiction romance released by Berkley Sensation 4 Aug 09

I love me a good sci-fi romance.  When they’re done well – and this one is done very well – you can totally cut loose from your normal world and be completely transported to literally a whole new world.  (Did you see what I did there?  Pun? Yes? No? Well. It amused me.) 

Jess Granger has penned a really wonderful novel with Beyond the Rain.  I’m very much hoping it’s the first of many novels set in this world and that we get a similar stellar (heh) level of writing in the subsequent entries.

The start of Beyond has our heroine, Cyani, on the edge of exhaustion and ennui.  She’s tired of the warrior biz and ready to hang up her spurs, retiring to a dull life in the temple. Cyani suffers from PTSD and reminds me of an otherworldly version of a female Iraqi War veteran – seen and suffered too much at the hands of both enemy and friend to be comfortable with either, and is ready to just pretend none of it happened by holing up in a small job doing everyday things.

Of course, as any of us who has ever tried to do that knows, it never works out the way we thought it would.

Instead, Cyani meets and falls for our hero, Soren.  Soren is a nice being who, because of biology and what happened to him in his enslavement, has to bind with a mate or die.  Through the course of their time together, he binds with Cyani but doesn’t tell her.  He’s willing, on many occasions, to let himself die rather than take away her choice to stay with him.  He knows she’s honorable and selfless and that she may stay with him just to keep him alive.  However, Soren wants Cyani to choose him.

Soren is and uber-hot and sexy hero that isn’t overly alpha.  He’s a very down to earth (so to speak) and cares about those weaker than him.  And, even though he recognizes Cyani is very strong and capable, he cares about her in a way she never thinks to care about herself.

This book is stacked to the brim with interesting moments and very rich details about Cyani and Soren’s world.  You are immersed in it but never feel like you’re drowning.  Granger does an admirable job of keeping the alien-ness recognizable.  She has created a world that uses mostly common terms and reactions.  Sure it’s alien, sure it’s futuristic and sci-fi, but it feels more like “Serenity” or “Firefly” than “Star Trek,” if you know what I mean.  The reader can recognize large portions of the author’s undoubtedly futuristic world.  It’s a flawless little piece of world-building that Granger has done here.

The emotional development between Cyani and Soren is believable and very touching.  You see Cyani come to realize she deserves to care about someone and she deserves to be loved in return.  You see her move from being afraid to live to actually living.  It’s a lovely tale and made me really want more by the end.  And thanks to the oh-so-tantalizing epilogue, it looks like we may get more.  Soon??  Please??

The action is very fun to read and story arc is logical and complete.  We’re never left with a “wtf” feeling – even when the details stretch a reader’s ability to suspend disbelief.  I very much enjoyed the pace of the book and the author’s style.

I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a rich sci-fi romance set in an interesting, recognizable world.   I can’t wait to read more from this author.

Grade: A

Summary:
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In a universe torn apart by civil war, a warrior and a slave must fight for their freedom, for their lives, and for a love that may destroy them both…
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After five years behind enemy lines, Captain Cyani is ready to retire to her homeworld of Azra as one of the Elite – the celibate warrior sisterhood that rules the planet. But first she must complete one final mission to rescue her fellow Union soldiers. The last thing she expects to find is a prisoner, chained and beaten – but radiating feral power and an unbroken spirit…
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Soren is a Byralen, an enigmatic people who possess a unique hormone that they use to bond with their mates – and that is sold as a sexual narcotic in the shadow trade. For years, he has endured torture at the hands of his captors as they leeched his very essence. The last thing he expects is to be freed from slavery by a beautiful warrior woman with radiant blue eyes.
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Driven by her rigid sense of honor, Cyani frees Soren even though her life hinges upon the success of her mission. But after so many years in bondage, his hormones are so unbalanced that he will die if he does not bond with a woman. Can the lovely but distant warrior be the woman he needs to survive, or will the forbidden bond destroy them?
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Read an excerpt here (scroll down).

Shannon C.’s review of Hope’s Folly (Dock 5 Series, Book 3) by Linnea Sinclair
Science fiction romance released by Bantam 24 Feb 09

Linnea Sinclair is one of those authors that I feel I should love. Her books always seem to have strong world-building, which I love, kick-ass heroines, which make me squee, and nice romantic conflict. But the earlier books in this series did not do it for me. So it was with trepidation that I started Hope’s Folly because I didn’t think it was going to work for me very well, either. To my surprise, a shift from first person to third person and a more equal power dynamic between the characters worked to make this book one of my favorite reads of February.

Unlike Gabriel’s Ghost and Shades of Dark, the first two volumes in this series, Hope’s Folly follows newly minted rebel leader Philip Guthrie as he brings a stripped-down military cruiser turned fruit hauler to an alliance-controlled planet where the ship can be repaired and a full crew outfitted. He’s working with a crew he’s not familiar with, some of whom may actively be trying to kill him. Added to his dismay is Rya Bennton, the daughter of his former commanding officer, a rebellious, insubordinate and pretty woman who questions the things he’s always held true about himself.

I really liked Rya, who totally made this book for me. She’s resourceful and smart and she does what she needs to do, without being a complete hard-ass. I liked that we were introduced to her as she was leaving her lover, something that only ever seems to happen to heroes most of the time. She had all the qualities that seem too rare in romance heroines: she was smart, resourceful and competent. Because I liked her so much, I wasn’t even bothered by the niggling question of whether her feelings for Philip were genuine, or weren’t merely a case of hero worship. Then again, that question bothers Rya, too.

Philip. Oh my. He was my type of hero: charismatic, vulnerable in the right moments, and deeply, deeply honorable. I know most girls want bad boys, but I’ll take Philip’s strong moral code and sense of honor over rakes and rogues any damn day. I liked that he was alternately exasperated and delighted by Rya, and yet he respected her as a person. I was rooting for these two to get together throughout, because they were genuinely perfect for each other. And while the love scenes weren’t explicit, because I loved the two leads so much, they totally worked for me.

I liked that the universe is expanded. Sully and Chaz are mentioned, but they don’t actually make any appearances in the book, which gives Ms. Sinclair time to bring in and flesh out new characters. Unfortunately, if I have a quibble with this book it’s that the rest of the cast, being larger than it has been in previous books, is not as developed as I’d like.

The plot was intense, and kept me turning virtual pages until the end. The mystery of who is sabotaging the ship is handled deftly, and I didn’t figure out who it was until just shortly before Rya did. But even after that mystery is solved, I was genuinely not sure how Philip and Rya and the rest were going to make it to their destination, which made the last climactic space battle nail-bitingly suspenseful.

I still wish that the setting was a little more original and less Star Trek-tastic. And as I said, I could have handled a bit more development of secondary characters, but I finally see what the fuss is all about regarding this author, and I’m curious to see where else she can take this series.

Grade: B+

Read more reviews by following the series’ tag.

Summary:
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It’s an impossible mission on a derelict ship called HOPE’S FOLLY. A man who feels he can’t love. A woman who believes she’s unlovable. And an enemy who will stop at nothing to crush them both.
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Admiral Philip Guthrie is in an unprecedented position: on the wrong end of the law, leading a rag-tag band of rebels against the oppressive Imperial forces. Or would be, if he can reach his command ship—the intriguingly named Hope’s Folly—alive. Not much can rattle Philip’s legendary cool—but the woman who helps him foil an assassination attempt on Kirro Station will. She’s the daughter of his best friend and first commander—a man who died while under Philip’s command, and whose death is on Philip’s conscience.
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Rya Bennton has been in love with Philip Guthrie since she was a girl. But can her childhood fantasies survive an encounter with the hardened man, and newly-minted rebel leader, who it seems has just become her new commanding officer? And will she still be willing follow him through the jaw of hell once she learns the truth about her father’s death?
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Read an excerpt.

Other books in the series:

Sandy M’s review of Menagerie by Lara Santiago
Erotic Sci-Fi Romance released by Siren 23 Jul 08

My biggest beef [Ed.: heh] with erotic romance most of the time is the gratuitous sex and no storyline to be found (I do have my moments when I don’t mind reading über-horniness), and there’s a lot of those out there. This book comes close to that, and while the story itself is not thought-provoking, it is full of imagination, at least giving the reader an okay “reason” for all that sex.  And for good measure it’s sci-fi, in essence, asking you to suspend disbelief for a while longer, just enough to get in that much more going on between the sheets.

Valerie is sucked up into an alien spaceship by mistake, a side effect of its inhabitants passing so close to earth when accessing a wormhole to take them home. Earthmen cannot survive in their world without sex at least every thirty days. The more the better for the men. So because the ratio is five to one in favor of men, each earthwoman must service five men to help keep them alive during the three years it takes for the ship to return near enough to Earth to return everyone within seconds of where and what they doing when they were abducted.

So before she enters the mob of men looking for a woman for his “team,” she meets Hauser and he gives her the lowdown on how the choosing will work.  They agree she’ll pick him, assuring her she’ll like the other four men she’ll soon meet. Johnny, Fraiser, Mark, and Dominick each have their own merits, of course, their own way of making love.

Valerie begins the time of her life until it’s Dominick’s turn.  He’s a huge biker-type guy and he scares her, but he’s also the one that makes her feel the most in bed and out of it. There are strict rules the aliens have laid down, but both Valerie and Nick are rule-breakers.  The number one rule is not to play favorites among the men, but her feelings begin to grow for Nick, much to her surprise, and she wants to spend her free time with him and only him, while still servicing the others, whom she also loves but just in a different way.

While this book is by no means a keeper, it amused me enough on the premise alone that I kept reading.  I have to admit that I did like the relationship between Dominick and Valerie from the beginning.  I was disappointed here and there in the dialogue and there were a few little inconsistencies in Valerie’s past, and her feelings and actions in what she’s doing in the present. I was curious how the author was going to end it all due to a certain theme that ran throughout the book, but she pulled it off it credibly enough.  In fact, I rather enjoyed that ending when they were all back on Earth after their adventurous journey.

I almost wish she’d gone with a romantic suspense with Dominick and Valerie as the hero and heroine.  They definitely could have pulled it off.

Grade: C-

Summary:

What’s a girl to do with five hot guys who need her for their sexual survival? Create a weekly schedule.

Accidentally transported to an alien spaceship, Valerie Thornhill inadvertently volunteers to be a virtual sex slave for five men.

A shortage of females and her blatant curiosity aboard the alien vessel conspire and set fate in motion. The fact that the five are sexy and attractive is helpful when she learns the term of service is three years.

Forbidden to show favoritism within her unusual household for the duration of the long trip, Valerie still can’t help falling in love with the most intriguing one of her male harem. The fact that she is apprehensive about his demeanor and overall size only heightens her desire for him.

When the aliens discover Valerie’s indiscretion, the ultimate price for her desire may jeopardize the return trip to Earth for all of them.

Read an excerpt.

Shannon C.’s review of Shades of Dark (Dock 5 Series, Book 2) by Linnea Sinclair
Science fiction romance released 29 Jul 08 by Bantam

I think I’ve just about resigned myself to the fact that I’ll never be happy as a reader. I want strong heroines. I got one in this book. I want complex plots that go in interesting directions. I got that in this book. I like when characters make difficult choices. They do in this book. But I did not love it.

Shades of Dark picks up right where Gabriel’s Ghost left off, so if you’re thinking about reading the series, this would not be a good place to start. We reconnect with Sully, space mercenary and handsome bastard as well as super-powerful telepath, and Chaz, capable and competent ship captain and former pride of the Sixth Fleet, on board their ship as they continue to stop a diabolical scheme we found out about in the first book. A monkey wrench gets thrown into their plans when it turns out that Chaz’s brother Thad has been captured.

Thad knows about Sully’s gifts, and it’s likely he will be made to talk. But much as Chaz wants to go rescue her brother, that seems just as likely to be playing into the hands of their enemies, so they agree to meet a contact they need, who brings his own brand of trouble to the crew, and Sully must deal with the fact that his powers are growing exponentially and have a definite dark side.

I didn’t like this book nearly as much as I liked Gabriel’s Ghost. While it was nice to check back in with Chaz and Sully, I never really felt the danger as well as I was meant to. I also felt a certain distance from Chaz as the book progressed, which is not a good thing in a first-person narrator, and since I wasn’t really involved in her character to any emotional degree, I ended up feeling that the first three quarters of the book dragged. I also still think the world-building is a shade derivative. Chaz in my head sounded quite a bit like Janeway from “Star Trek Voyager”, and I found myself bothered by a few minor little details, the revelation of which constitute spoilers.

That being said, after slogging through a huge part of the book, things do pick up. I really loved the introduction of Dell, who was the most fascinating character in the book. His motives were complicated, and I wish what had happened to him in the end hadn’t, because he would have been great as a redeemed hero in a future book.

The story also ends at a definite happy for now type ending, after Ms. Sinclair put her characters through the ringer. I liked that things weren’t resolved too neatly, and I found the end of the book gripping.

I do have an ARC of Hope’s Folly which, as of this writing, I intend to dive into. I know Ms. Sinclair is a writer with a lot of potential to write something I will find brilliant, and I’m hoping the POV shift from Chaz to a third person narrator will mean better things as far as my enjoyment goes. If you’re a fan of this series, definitely don’t miss this one. But for me, it wasn’t as good as I’d hoped.

Grade: C+

Summary:
Can love alone save the day? Award-winning author Linnea Sinclair returns with a vibrant interstellar thriller of romance and adventure in which two lovers are tested in the crucible of deep space, where there are only…

Before her court-martial, Captain Chasidah “Chaz” Bergren was the pride of the Sixth Fleet. Now she’s a fugitive from the “justice” of a corrupt Empire. Along with her lover, the former monk, mercenary, and telepath Gabriel Ross Sullivan, Chaz hoped to leave the past light-years behind—until the news of her brother Thad’s arrest and upcoming execution for treason. It’s a ploy by Sully’s cousin Hayden Burke to force them out of hiding, and it works.

With a killer targeting human females and a renegade gen lab breeding jukor war machines, Chaz and Sully already had their hands full of treachery, betrayal—not to mention each other. Throw in Chaz’s Imperial ex-husband, Admiral Philip Guthrie, and a Kyi-Ragkiril mentor out to seduce Sully, and not just loyalties but lives are at stake. For when Sully makes a fateful choice, changing their relationship forever, Chaz must also choose—between what duty demands and what her heart tells her she must do.

Read an excerpt.

Other books in the series:

Shannon C.‘s review of Visions of Heat (Psy-Changelings, Book 2) by Nalini Singh
Paranormal science fiction romance released by Berkley Sensation 6 Mar 07

I don’t know what it is with me and certain series out there. I start a series of books, adore the first book, and then invariably find something else shiny to read. That’s what happened with the Psy-Changeling books. I loved the first one, and meant to pick up the rest of the series, but life intervened. Then I decided that I wanted something I could guarantee would be a good read, because I was under the weather, and Nalini Singh popped into my head. I feel like I’m the last blogger ever to embrace these books, and for that I should be ashamed, because they really are that good. 

This installment of the Psy/Changeling series features Faith Nightstar, a specially-designated F-Psy. She has the gift of foresight, and her predictions are almost never wrong. She is kept in isolation, monitored remotely. But she is beginning to feel darkness creeping upon her, and the tenuous control she has over her mind is threatening to fracture. She seeks advice and answers from Sascha Duncan, the only Psy she can think of who isn’t going to snitch on her to the Psy Council. But in the process of finding Sascha, she meets Vaughn, a jaguar Changeling whose animal is rather closer to the surface than most Changelings, and the two of them find themselves embroiled in a plot including murder, scheming, and romance.

I found it pretty darn impossible to put this book down. I’m usually the kind of reader who stretches her reading out over a couple of days. Not so this book, which I finished in a matter of hours. Ms. Singh writes the kind of alpha men who work really well for me, and she writes heroines who mesh well with them. I never felt that Vaughn’s personality seriously overpowered Faith’s, and I absolutely adore the sensual, touchy-feely Changelings. As I said on my twitter at the time, I want one of these guys for my own.

Faith herself wasn’t as compelling a heroine as Sascha from Slave to Sensation. There was a sense of fragility about her that distanced her a little from me. I don’t think I’m likely to remember her quite as well as I remember Sascha. That being said, the romance here works beautifully, and Ms. Singh sells me on a fated mates storyline, which is quite difficult.

I liked seeing some of the secondary characters, particularly the members of the Dark River Changeling pack. I further enjoyed the Psy Council, and I absolutely loved the small twist at the end involving Faith’s father. They all weave seamlessly into the plot, and I didn’t get the sense of “OMG look at me, I am a sequel-bait” from any of them. That being said, I would have liked to see a bit more of the Changelings in particular, as the quiet scenes with Nate and Tammy and their cubs were among my favorites in the first book. But I suppose their absence was necessary, since neither Faith nor Vaughn are particularly communal people.

I liked Slave to Sensation slightly better than I liked Visions of Heat. But given the fact that VoH was impossible to put down, it still gets an A, and I hope that the rest of my 2009 reads are just as stellar.

Grade: A-

Read more about the Psy-Changelings series by clicking on its tag.

Summary:
Hailed as a major new talent in paranormal romance, Nalini Singh takes us deeper into the world of the Psy and the changelings in her latest extraordinary novel, where a gifted woman sees passion in her future-a passion that is absolutely forbidden by her kind… Used to cold silence, Faith NightStar is suddenly being tormented by dark visions of blood and murder. A bad sign for anyone, but worse for Faith, an F-Psy with the highly sought after ability to predict the future. Then the visions show her something even more dangerous-aching need…exquisite pleasure. But so powerful is her sight, so fragile the state of her mind, that the very emotions she yearns to embrace could be the end of her. Changeling Vaughn D’Angelo can take either man or jaguar form, but it is his animal side that is overwhelmingly drawn to Faith. The jaguar’s instinct is to claim this woman it finds so utterly fascinating and the man has no argument. But while Vaughn craves sensation and hungers to pleasure Faith in every way, desire is a danger that could snap the last threads of her sanity. And there are Psy who need Faith’s sight for their own purposes. They must keep her silenced-and keep her from Vaughn…

Read an excerpt.

Other books in the series:

Branded by Fire, Book 6 - coming 7 Jul 09

Shannon C.’s review of Gabriel’s Ghost by Linnea Sinclair
Science fiction romance released by Bantam 25 Oct 05

I understand that Linnea Sinclair is quite popular among readers of science fiction romance. Which, of course, explains why I haven’t read her until now. I am the absolute last to know about this stuff, I swear. Anyway, I started with Gabriel’s Ghost because it has sequels that I will be reviewing soon. And I’m glad I read it. Ms. Sinclair has a great gift for storytelling, and I was entranced from the beginning. Despite its flaws, I will definitely eagerly read the rest of the series.

Chasidah “Chaz” Bergrin has been exiled to a prison planet for a crime she didn’t commit. A long-time captain in the Fleet, this has been pretty devastating for her, but she finds herself rescued by none other than Sully, a man she spent years of her career chasing through the galaxy, a man she has always been attracted to. Sully wants Chaz’s help to stop the breeding of an alien monster. Along the way, they face danger, and their attraction grows.

This story is told in Chaz’s first-person POV. This was both a strength and a weakness for the book. I liked Chaz’s narrative voice, since it was pleasant and relatively snark-free, but I really didn’t get a very good sense of who she was. I have my ideas, but I don’t feel I got to know her as well as Sully or the others, and that’s a shame, because I did like her. Except for the times that I thought she should have picked up on a few things a lot faster than she did.

The true star of this book, though, is Sully. Sully has a huge secret, the extent of which is not revealed for quite a while. It’s a secret that has deeply influenced the kind of person he’s become, and he totally had me from the beginning, mostly because, as I’ve said before, I love me some emotionally repressed tortured heroes. The chemistry between Sully and Chasidah was obvious, and though the sex scenes were more lyrical than explicit, there were definitely more than a few squirm-in-my-seat moments reading them.

The other characters we meet are equally well drawn. Sully’s crew is made up of fascinating people, and I hope we get to see more of them as the series progresses. Even Chasidah’s ex-husband, featured near the end of the book, is painted sympathetically. There are villains, too, but their motives aren’t simply maniacal and evil, and I really appreciated that.

The plot moves along at a brisk pace, which kept me reading as quickly as I could. I also liked that the romance arc and the more action-packed sci-fi arc really couldn’t have existed without each other, which, to my mind, is what creates believable science fiction romance. I do think some of the world-building could have been better — I felt at times like I was reading something just a shade too derivative of Star Trek — but that’s a minor quibble, because I liked the rest of what I was reading.

Overall, this was a good introduction to Ms. Sinclair. I hope that, in the sequels to this book, she has chosen to provide more insight into Chaz’s character so that I can fall in love with her as much as I did Sully. Other than that, though, I think fans of science fiction romance and Star Trek should definitely give this one a go.

Grade: B

Summary:

A life-and-death battle where giving up the ghost has a whole new meaning…

After a decade of cruising interstellar patrol ships, former Captain Chasidah Bergren, onetime Pride of the Sixth Fleet, finds herself court-martialed for a crime she didn’t commit—and shipped off to a remote prison planet from which no one ever escapes. But when she kills a brutal guard in an act of self-defense, someone even more dangerous emerges from the shadows.

Gabriel Sullivan—alpha mercenary, smuggler, and rogue—is supposed to be dead. Yet now this seductive ghost from Chaz’s past is offering her a ticket to freedom—for a price. Someone in the Empire is secretly breeding jukors: vicious and uncontrollable killing machines that have long been outlawed. Gabriel needs Chaz to help him stop the practice before it decimates imperial space. For Chaz, it’s a matter of survival. For Sully it means facing the truth about who—and what—he really is. The mission means putting their lives on the line—but the tensions that heat up between them may be the riskiest part of all.

Read an excerpt.

Other books in this series:

Shannon C.’s review of Taken Unaware by Summer Devon
Futuristic romance eBook released by Samhain Publishing 7 Oct 08

I like aliens-come-to-Earth stories. I think it’s interesting to speculate about what people would actually do if that happened, and what changes would take place. In Summer Devon’s latest, she explores these themes in a story that starts out really well but wraps up a bit too neatly. 

I liked Leah, our plucky heroine. She has predictable reactions when she spots Gabriel, a half-Dar who has joined the infiltration of Leah’s hometown. at first, the two mistrust each other, but gradually, hormones kick in and they find themselves dealing with some intense lust. But not all of the Dar arrivals are good people, and not all of them have humanity’s best interests at heart, so Leah and Gabriel must journey to find allies who will believe them about the aliens and fix things.

The first half of the story was entertaining. It was a little bit campy, but I liked both Leah and Gabriel, and I loved the chemistry between them. But then Devon throws in a plot twist that I thought wrapped things up a little too neatly. A paranormal woo-wioo element is also present that irritated me, and after the characters wstarted relying on this element a lot, they started to lose me.

I do think this is a fun story, with a couple of nice characters and a pleasant romance. The cheesy campiness of the setting was well-done, and this stands alone quite well, though I think Ms. Devon could write more in this universe easily. I hope her next effort keeps the pace going throughout the book instead of petering out at the end. I know I’ll definitely be reading other things she’s written, though.

Grade: C+

Summary:

Resisting alien invaders is easy. Protecting her heart is another story…

Leah’s plans for the weekend didn’t include dealing with an alien invasion in her kitchen. But there’s something about the wary, vulnerable, refugee half-breed Gabriel that compels her to hide him when the authorities come knocking on her door.

Gabriel has good reason to be suspicious of both humans and his own kind alike. He’s a halfling—half human, half Dar—the product of a breeding program undertaken for one purpose. To use the offspring’s inbred powers to influence humans on a deeply emotional level. So deep, they won’t know until too late that the Dar have gained more than a toehold on Earth.

Raised in subhuman conditions, all Gabriel knows of life is how to endure it. Then Leah opens his eyes to a life richer than any he’s ever known. Suddenly he’s not so sure he wants to be a pawn in the Dar’s non-violent, but no less insidious, plans.

Leah and Gabriel go on the run to seek help from the government, only to discover the invasion’s tentacles have gotten there ahead of them. In the final confrontation, the bond Leah and Gabriel have forged may be more than an emotional haven. It could save her world.

Warning: contains explicit sex, alien encounters.

Read an excerpt.

Shannon C.’s review of Warrior (Time Hunters, Book 1) by Angela Knight
Sci-Fi romance released by Berkley 1 Jul 08

Angela Knight is one of those authors everyone recommends when suggesting erotic romance authors, but I’ve never read any of her books. And even though I made fun of the blurb when it came up for review over at Duckie Central, Gwen’s review made me eager to read it when Sybil sent me a copy.

The book didn’t work for me as well as it did for Gwen. It wasn’t that I had a hard time keeping up, not having read Jane’s Warlord. My major stumbling block was the fact that some of the sci-fi aspects of the world were more cheesy than anything else. (Warfems? Seriously? Why not just call them female warlords?) But once I accepted all the cheese, I enjoyed this book.

Jessica Kelly, the twenty-first century artist heroine, is remarkably resilient considering what she’s been through, snatched out of her time and place and brought to the future. I liked that she was assertive without being feisty, and while she will not make my top ten list of romance heroines, she did kick ass in her own way.

Galar Arvid, our temporal enforcer, was the kind of hero that a lot of readers seem to like but which leaves me cold. He is totally alpha, totally determined to protect his woman, and he demonstrates this at times by being patronizing. I thought he really should have listened to some of the things Jessica tried to tell him long before he actually did. That said, I bought the chemistry between himself and Jess, and I believed their HEA.

The plot is interesting, too, though I wasn’t sure what Ms. Knight was going to do to resolve it. Unfortunately, there seemed to be a lot of people out to kill Jess and Galar, and I felt that the sections in their POV weren’t handled terribly well. Chapters also seemed to start and stop at random points, for no discernible reason. I also thought the book had an excess of secondary characters, some of whom are doubtless destined for sequels.

I’m not sure how to grade this. On the one hand, the plotting was uneven, and the characters weren’t memorable enough that I’ll be able to tell you much about them in a month or so, but at the time I was reading I was pretty much hooked completely, and I definitely think I’ll enjoy reading more from Ms. Knight if she finishes the series. That counts for a lot with me, hence the slightly higher grade.

Grade: B-

Summary:

In the 24th century, anyone can leap through time at will. To police the time jumpers, the Temporal Enforcement Agency has established a precinct in time. Galar Arvid is a genetically altered warlord and agent who’s been sent back to 2008 to save a pretty Atlanta artist from a Xeran time traveler who intends to kill her for profit. What Galar doesn’t count on is the powerful desire Jessica Kelly ignites in him. But could a romance between them work? A three-hundred-year chasm separates them and, even if they dart through time, there’s still a maniacal killer on their tails.

Read an excerpt here