UPDATE!
I have just updated a previous post for Caris Roane with a review of the fourth book in her GUARDIANS OF ASCENSION SERIES: Born of Ashes.
Click on the author's name or the book title above to go directly to the updated review.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Monday, January 30, 2012
Steven Harper's CLOCKWORK EMPIRE SERIES
Series: CLOCKWORK EMPIRE
Plot Type: Steampunk
Ratings: V4; S3; H2
Publisher and Titles: Roc
The Doomsday Vault (11/2011)
The Impossible Cube (5/2012)
The Dragon Men (11/2012)
The Havoc Machine (5/2013)
This post was revised and updated on 1/10/13 to include a review of the second book in the series: The Impossible Cube. That review appears first, followed by an overview of the series and a review of book 1:
BOOK 2: The Impossible Cube 
As book 2 opens, Alice and Gavin are on the run—actually, on the fly—from Third Ward agents Philippa, Simon, and Glenda, who are furious that Alice let loose the Clockwork cure in England, thus stopping the Clockwork Plague, closing down the Third Ward and leaving them jobless—not to mention the fact that they will no longer have access to the clockworkers who have keep England supplied with multitudes of clever mechanical weapons. Alice and Gavin are traveling with Dr. Cleff (the crazed clockworker who invented the Impossible Cube in the previous book), Feng (son of the Chinese ambassador), Kemp (Alice's mechanical valet), and Alice's menagerie of mechanicals (small, metal, mechanized devices that follow her commands). Gavin's clockwork symptoms are getting worse and worse, and Alice believes that the only way to save him is to go to China and beg the Chinese clockworkers (aka dragon men) to develop a cure.
The romantic relationship between Alice and Gavin has developed to the stage where they are now engaged, but are putting off marriage until Gavin can be cured. The situation becomes strained as Gavin occasionally goes into a clockwork fugue state during which he is uncharacteristically rude and arrogant to Alice, treating her like a lowly worker. She knows that he can't help it and isn't even aware that he's doing it, but his behavior still hurts her feelings. On the other hand, Gavin is impatient with Alice because she insists on spending much of her time curing clockwork plague victims in every city they visit. Being touched with her blood cures most of them immediately—but, unfortunately, it doesn't work for Gavin. Almost every time Alice stops to heal someone, she puts their group in danger.
The early part of the book consists of the good guys flying away and the bad guys catching up with them. Each time, a battle ensues and the good guys take off again. Eventually, Gavin leads the group to Luxembourg, where they hide themselves in a circus owned by Gavin's old friend, Dodd. When the circus train reaches Kiev, Alice and her group find a powerful enemy who is even more dangerous than Philippa and her cohorts.
Kiev is considered to be the original source of the clockwork plague, and it has more than its share of clockworkers, mostly belonging to the Gonta and Zalizniak families, who have joined together for strength. The clockworkers are kidnapping children from the streets of Kiev and turning them into clockworkers—virtual slaves to the two families. The climactic ending battle brings the Impossible Cube back into play as the primary and secondary characters on both sides nearly destroy the city of Kiev.
The bare bones of this plot include one or two meaty relationship scenes, and a few nice action sequences, but compared to the complex plot we saw in book 1, this story is more famine than feast. The lack of action is at its lowest level during the too-frequent scenes in which the Gavin and Dr. Cleff go into their clockwork mode and explain (at great length and in highly technical language) the how and why of their various projects and schemes. Frankly, I found myself skimming past those paragraphs/pages. Another problem is that Alice and her team are supposed to be quite intelligent. So...why, then, do they keep getting caught in various traps, and why don't they ever have any contingency plans? A final detriment is that Philippa's sudden change of behavior in the final scene doesn't ring true. From the very beginning of the book, she has been driven by her sense of betrayal and her daddy-related emotions to capture or kill Alice and Gavin, no matter what the cost. Her almost instantaneous change of heart strikes a definite false note. For me, this book just doesn't live up to the promise of book 1. It actually seems more like a "bridge" novel—a set up for the confrontation with the dragon men in book 3.
This is a full-on steampunk series with all of the requisite bells and whistles—all of them steam-powered and gear-driven, of course. Set in mid-Victorian London, the story depicts a population overrun by the clockwork plague, an insidious disease that either kills its victims or turns them into mindless zombie-like creatures. Some plague victims—a very small percentage—beat the odds. Instead of dying or becoming zombies, they morph into clockworkers—creative geniuses who invent impossible machines and automatons that are frequently related in some way to music. Unfortunately, their creativity is heavily tinged with madness, which eventually overcomes their minds and drives them totally insane. The British government takes advantage of the clockworkers' brief periods of genius by locking them up and using their inventions for "the good of the empire." A mysterious organization called the Third Ward has been given the task of dealing with the clockworkers in the Western world. Headed by the militaristic Philippa, the Third Ward is a body of highly trained warriors who use a variety of powerful, state-of-the-art weapons to capture and imprison clockworkers. China has its own set of clockworkers (called Dragon Men). The two countries are in a constant competition to stay one step ahead of the other in technological inventions, including weapons, so they are both anxious to wring every idea they can from their captive inventors.
In London's complex social world, the rigid class system is in full swing, with the lower classes succumbing to the plague in large numbers as they scrabble out a meager living while the nobility uses its wealth to maintain security systems, manned by both humans and automatons, to keep the infectious zombies at bay. Women have two choices in this world. They can join the Ad Hoc Women—who wear trousers, vote, and are looked down upon by patrician society—or they can live as respected ladies with no real civil rights at all.
Here is how Harper describes the creation of the series:
"It started with the THX noise. It's that weird swoopy noise they used to play at the beginning of movies. My son Aran is autistic, and the noise causes him active pain. (Autists often process physical sensations differently than neuro-typical people do.) As a result, I looked into the science of sound, and I learned how the square root of two rules music with an iron and irrational fist.
And then characters started forming. A teenaged boy with perfect pitch who lives on an airship which is attacked by pirates. A young woman who owns a mechanical cat and desperately wants to re-enter a society that snubbed her.
It came together. Dirigibles. Glass cutlasses. Automatons. Mad scientists. A world ravaged by plague and zombies. And behind it all, a single, impossible, irrational number."
The author has created a web site for the CLOCKWORK EMPIRE. Click HERE to go to that site.
BOOK 1: The Doomsday Vault
In the meantime, a young American airman, Gavin Ennock, finds his life irrevocably changed when his airship is captured by pirates and he escapes to roam the streets of London, earning a pittance by busking in Hyde Park. Gavin is blessed with an angelic voice and an extraordinary talent for playing his violin. Soon, though, Gavin is kidnapped by a mysterious woman and placed in solitary imprisonment in a tower with only with his violin for company. The plot follows Alice and Gavin as both try to make the best of the difficult situations in which they find themselves. Gavin yearns to be free so that he can continue his life in the air, while Alice dreams of a life that would free her father from his debts and thus allow her to refuse Norbert's marriage offer. Her primary interest is in technology, specifically automatons.
As the story advances, Alice and Gavin meet and are mutually attracted, although they both realize that a romance between them would never work. After all, he's an American commoner and she's a Baron's daughter. When a mysterious masked clockworker begins to shadow and taunt Alice, the action ratchets up, until eventually the romantic leads get themselves involved in capturing gigantic automatons, freeing an imprisoned clockworker, and leading a rebellion. The most outrageous automaton is in the shape of a giant tree.
This is a fresh and inventive story, with interesting characters and lots of steampunk-inspired action, including airship pirate battles, political intrigue, wild weaponry, automatons of every size, shape, and ability—and always plenty of clockwork zombies! Particularly entertaining are Alice's two automaton sidekicks: Kemp, her persnickety manservant, and Click, her clever cat. Alice also uses a bevy of tiny flying automatons to lace up her corsets and perform other housemaid duties. Those scenes put me in mind of the Disney Cinderella movie in which Cinderella receives personal assistance from a flock of tiny bluebirds and some mice. Click HERE to read chapter one of The Doomsday Vault.Sunday, January 29, 2012
UPDATE! Caitlin Kittredge's BLACK LONDON SERIES
UPDATE!
I have just updated a previous post for Caitlin Kittredge with a review of a new novella from her BLACK LONDON SERIES entitled The Curse of Four.
Click on the author's name or the title above to go directly to the updated review.
Friday, January 27, 2012
UPDATE! Jennifer Ashley's SHIFTERS UNBOUND SERIES
UPDATE!
I have just updated a previous post for Jennifer Ashley with a review of the third book in her SHIFTERS UNBOUND SERIES: Wild Cat.
Click on the author's name or the book title above to go directly to the updated review.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Sara Humphreys: THE AMOVEO LEGEND SERIES
Series: THE AMOVEO LEGEND SERIES
Plot Type: Soul-Mate Romance (SMR)
Ratings: Violence—4; Sensuality—4; Humor—3
Publisher and Titles: Sourcebooks Casablanca
1 Unleashed (10/2011)2 Untouched (4/2012)
2.5 "Undenied" (e-short story, 10/2012)
3 Untamed (11/2012)
4 Undone (5/2013)
5 Unclaimed (12/2013)
5.5 "Unbound" (e-novella, 1/2015)
This post was revised and updated on 5/12/2017 to include my review of novella 5.5, "Unbound." That review appears last—at the very end of this post—and is preceded by an overview of the world-building and my reviews of all of the previous books.
WORLD-BUILDING
In this world, the Amoveo are a species of shape shifters divided into ten animal clans (e.g., eagle, bear, fox, coyote, lion, tiger) who live in the mortal world, but are mostly unknown to humans. Only two groups of humans are aware of their existence: the Caedo, fanatic bigots who want to kill all Amoveo, and members of the Vasullus family, who have protected the Amoveo from harm and discovery for centuries. The Caedo are all descendants of Victor Caedo, a human man who was in love with an Amoveo woman. When that woman spurned him for her Amoveo mate, Caedo followed them and saw them shift into their animal forms. His love turned to hate, and the Caedo have been hunting down the Amoveo ever since.
The Amoveo are led by their Prince, Richard Muldavi, and by their Council, which is made up of one representative from each clan and two members of the Vasullus family. For the most part, the Amoveo find their mates within their own species, but there are exceptions to this, and the focus of the first book is on one of these exceptions.
The Amoveo believe that each one of them has a predestined mate. Generally, the mates find each other in the dream realm first and then get together physically after that. An Amoveo who doesn't complete the mating destiny by his or her thirtieth birthday begins to lose his or her powers, including the ability to shift. Eventually, all powers fade away and the Amoveo becomes human—a fate worse than death.
Along with the Caedo fanatics, another villainous group emerges in book 1 and continues to threaten our heroes and heroines: the Purists. Even though the Purists are all Amoveo, they are as bigoted as the Caedo. The Purists are opposed to intermarriage between the Amoveo and humans. Unknown to the rest of their clans, some Amoveo males have been impregnating human women over a period of many years. Many of their children—called hybrids—are now growing up and having mating dreams with pure-blood Amoveo. The Purists want to eliminate all of the hybrid offspring.
Humphreys is also writing a spin-off series to this one: DEAD IN THE CITY. Click HERE to go to my review of the books in that series, which is set in New York City. The lead characters in that series are vampires instead of shape shifters, and they live in Manhattan, where they are members of a coven led by Olivia Hollingsworth, best friend of Marianna Coltari, the bear-shifter who married the half demon Pete Castro in Undone (the fourth AMOVEO novel). In that book, Pete was turned into a vampire by Olivia just as he was on the verge of death.
NOVEL 1: Unleashed
As the story begins, Samantha Logan is leaving New York City and heading back to her childhood home on the oceanfront in small-town Rhode Island. Samantha tried to to make it as an artist in NYC, but she hasn't had much success, and now she has started to have dreams of home—dreams that include a sexy man whose face she cannot see. So...off she goes, leaving an angry ex-boyfriend in her wake. Waiting for her in Rhode Island is Malcolm Drew, who knows that Samantha is his one true mate. He also knows that Samantha has never heard of the Amoveo and that she has absolutely no idea that she herself has latent shape-shifting abilities. Here is yet another paranormal fiction heroine who was orphaned early in life and is totally unaware that both of her parents had supernatural powers. In this case, Samantha's father was an Amoveo wolf, and her mother was a powerful human psychic, so Samantha is a hybrid who has not yet manifested her considerable powers—always a prime target for the villains of the paranormal fiction world.
In this world, the Amoveo are a species of shape shifters divided into ten animal clans (e.g., eagle, bear, fox, coyote, lion, tiger) who live in the mortal world, but are mostly unknown to humans. Only two groups of humans are aware of their existence: the Caedo, fanatic bigots who want to kill all Amoveo, and members of the Vasullus family, who have protected the Amoveo from harm and discovery for centuries. The Caedo are all descendants of Victor Caedo, a human man who was in love with an Amoveo woman. When that woman spurned him for her Amoveo mate, Caedo followed them and saw them shift into their animal forms. His love turned to hate, and the Caedo have been hunting down the Amoveo ever since.
The Amoveo believe that each one of them has a predestined mate. Generally, the mates find each other in the dream realm first and then get together physically after that. An Amoveo who doesn't complete the mating destiny by his or her thirtieth birthday begins to lose his or her powers, including the ability to shift. Eventually, all powers fade away and the Amoveo becomes human—a fate worse than death.
Humphreys is also writing a spin-off series to this one: DEAD IN THE CITY. Click HERE to go to my review of the books in that series, which is set in New York City. The lead characters in that series are vampires instead of shape shifters, and they live in Manhattan, where they are members of a coven led by Olivia Hollingsworth, best friend of Marianna Coltari, the bear-shifter who married the half demon Pete Castro in Undone (the fourth AMOVEO novel). In that book, Pete was turned into a vampire by Olivia just as he was on the verge of death.
NOVEL 1: Unleashed
As the story begins, Samantha Logan is leaving New York City and heading back to her childhood home on the oceanfront in small-town Rhode Island. Samantha tried to to make it as an artist in NYC, but she hasn't had much success, and now she has started to have dreams of home—dreams that include a sexy man whose face she cannot see. So...off she goes, leaving an angry ex-boyfriend in her wake. Waiting for her in Rhode Island is Malcolm Drew, who knows that Samantha is his one true mate. He also knows that Samantha has never heard of the Amoveo and that she has absolutely no idea that she herself has latent shape-shifting abilities. Here is yet another paranormal fiction heroine who was orphaned early in life and is totally unaware that both of her parents had supernatural powers. In this case, Samantha's father was an Amoveo wolf, and her mother was a powerful human psychic, so Samantha is a hybrid who has not yet manifested her considerable powers—always a prime target for the villains of the paranormal fiction world.
The plot has the usual two strands: the romance, first and foremost, and, secondarily, the threats to the heroine by various villains, not all of them Caedo fanatics. The identities of the real villains are telegraphed early on in the story, but the author throws in a red herring to try to throw us off the track. Unfortunately, this story line follows an entirely predictable path, from beginning to end, so I doubt that you will be fooled.
The hero and heroine are the stereotypical paranormal romance leads: strong, handsome, arrogant male and feisty but fragile, heroine with really low self-esteem. The villains are also stereotypical—bad-to-the-core bigots who have no redeeming qualities. Here is one of them admiring a big black crossbow and plotting the next move: "This was a graceful weapon. Exactly the kind of weapon one of God's chosen would wield...He was a chosen one. He was sent to save the earth and save the humans from annihilation. He knew that one arrow in the wing wouldn't kill it...Best thing of all, it would suffer. A smile spread across his face at the very thought of it." (p. 197) You can almost hear the scumbag laughing out loud, "Bwaaah, Haah, Haah," like a cartoon villain. Click HERE to read an excerpt from Unleashed. Scroll down the page a bit to find it.
The mythology for the series is inventive, but the plot and the characters (at least in book 1) are genre retreads.
NOVEL 2: Untouched
PROTOCOL FOR VILLAINS: In order to prevent spoilers, every time I mention the villain, I will use the gender-neutral pronoun "it" or "that" rather than "he" or "she" in order to keep the identity a complete secret. If you know the gender of the villain you can easily guess the identity. (I hate spoilers!)
The heroine of this book is Kerry Smithson, childhood BFF of Samantha (from book 1). Kerry is a gorgeous super-model who can't bear to touch anyone because her raw psychic abilities would force her to read their emotions. As the story opens, the only person she can touch without pain is Samantha, and when they touch, Kerry visualizes a gray wolf—but she doesn't tell Samantha about that and she doesn't have any idea what it means. When Kerry heads to New Orleans on a modeling assignment, Malcolm and Samantha hire a bodyguard to accompany her because Kerry's crazy cousin (from book 1) is still lurking around somewhere. That bodyguard is Malcolm's sexy cousin, Dante Coltari, a fox shifter who has been giving Kerry hot shivers ever since she first laid eyes on him. When Kerry discovers that she can touch Dante painlessly and that his touch actually feels good, she can hardly believe it.
The story follows the quick development of their romance and mating, along with Kerry's introduction to her Amoveo heritage. The secondary story line involves a mysterious villain calling itself "the Punisher." Humphreys uses an old horror story device here as the Punisher always refers to itself by that term—never by name—so we don't know who it is until the big climactic reveal scene. I have to say that I was surprised by the Punisher's identity, but I was disappointed at the stereotypical creep that Humphreys created. Just as in book 1, the culprit had the cardboard quality of a cartoon villain.
The falling-in-love part of the story happens too quickly, with little or no angst, and the couple's lovey-dovey behavior soon gets to be cloying. Once again, the heroine accepts the whole idea of OMG-I'm-an-animal-shifter without much fuss, so no excitement there, either. The only drama in the book is really melodrama, with the overblown antics of the over-the-top villain and with huge family secrets coming out of the woodwork at the very last moment. All in all, this is a mostly predictable story, except for the identity of the villain. If you enjoyed the previous book, you'll probably like this one as well.
Click HERE to go to this novel's Amazon.com page where you can read an excerpt by clicking on the cover art at.
E-SHORT STORY 2.5: "Undenied"
As of the date of this posting (5/12/2017), you can click HERE for a free Kindle download of this story. This is the mating story of Boris Zankoff, an Amoveo Bengal tiger and Lillian Cordero, a psychic human palm reader. When Lillian arrives in New Orleans without a place to stay, someone recommends Boris, who rents her a room behind his bar. (Boris is the brother of the female tiger shifter who was killed in book 2.) Lillian has dreamed about tigers all her life (she even has a tiger tattoo on her back), and when she sees the snarling tiger picture over the door of Boris's bar, she feels as if she has come home.
When Lillian meets Boris, his voice sounds like the voice of her dream tiger. Then, she reads Boris's palm and sees visions of shape-shifting tigers, and when she touches him, they both are overcome by the usual waves of lust felt by Amoveo mates. To top things off, she hears his voice in her mind. This is all a big shock to Lillian, since she doesn't yet know anything about the Amoveo or the mating destiny. But it doesn't take her long to sort things out, and before they have known each other for 24 hours, the two have officially mated. (I believe that this is the fastest true-mating I've come across so far in all my reading of paranormal romances.)
Of course, there is a villain in the story to make sure that the road to love isn't totally smooth. This villain is a Purist who wants Boris to join their side in the coming civil war within the Amoveo, and that villain is not happy to discover that Boris's mate is a human. This is a very short story with an HEA for the happy couple, but no resolution to the conflict with the Purist. If you want to get a taste for the series, this is a good—and free—way to do it.
NOVEL 3: Untamed
The third book tells the love story of the peevish and pretentious gyrfalcon shifter, William Fleury, who is a friend of Malcolm and Dante. In the first two books, the buttoned-down William was a constant thorn in the sides of the soul-mate couples as he disdainfully looked down on his friends for behaving so foolishly around their mates. Now it's time for William to be humbled by a mate of his own—a sassy and independent hybrid (human mother, Amoveo father) who takes one look at what she calls William's "bossy pants" ways and runs as fast as she can in the opposite direction.
The bulk of the book follows William and his destined mate, Layla Nickelsen, along the extremely rocky road to their eventual HEA. Layla was the photographer on Kerry's photo-shoot in New Orleans in the previous book, and as soon as she and William met, that old familiar soul-mate electricity began to simmer between them. Since then, William has been pursuing Layla in the dream realm, but she has been hiding from him, refusing to face him. As the story opens, William has had enough of Layla's blocking him in her dreams, and he decides to face her down in person at her childhood home, where she believes she is safe from discovery.
Layla was raised on a rural farm by Rosie, a human, who also raised two other Amoveo hybrids, twins Raife and Tatiana. Layla is a cheetah, and Raife and Tatiana are timber wolves. The twins have been able to shift since they hit puberty, but Layla has not yet been able to shift, so she feels inferior. All three were abandoned by their parents and have been told little about Amoveo history and culture. One thing they have been warned about, though, is that they will each probably succumb to the Amoveos' predestined-mate tradition, and that scares Layla. She wants to be in complete control of her own life, and she doesn't need any snooty pure-blood grabbing her up and trying to control her.
Layla holds on to this attitude almost to the very end of the story, even though William does his best to get her to understand that's not what mating is all about. I have to say that even though I could understand Layla's initial reticence, I got sick of her anguished interior monologues (all very self-centered) and her constant whining that "I have to be me." William is actually a pretty nice guy in this story, without all the sneering attitude we saw in the first two books. He is very patient and understanding with Layla, trying not to push her into anything and keeping her protected in the least alpha-ish way that he can manage.
The villain doesn't show up until well into the story, and its identity is fairly obvious. Needless to say, the Amoveo boys leap into action to protect Layla and her family, so all's well there. The real conflict in this book goes back to the series story arc with the good-guy Amoveos squaring off against the intensely bigoted Purists. The situation gets tense and then explodes in this book, changing everything for all of the clans and forcing each clan member to choose a side in the dispute, which is turning into a civil war.
This plot runs its course in much the same way that as the first two books, with the building of the angst-filled romance and the interference by various villains who try to make life difficult for the starring couple. At least in this book the heroine already knows that she is a hybrid Amoveo, so we don't have to deal with the shock and awe that we had with heroines 1 and 2 when they found out that they were shifters. This heroine, though, is so obnoxious in her self-centeredness that her bad attitude gives all her scenes an uncomfortable, caustic edge. Click HERE to read an excerpt from Untamed. Scroll down the page a bit to find it.
Book 4 will tell the love story of pure-blooded Amoveo bear-shifter Marianna Coltari (Dante's sister) and Pete Castor, a human retired police officer who works for Dante's security firm.
NOVEL 4: Undone
The fourth novel does a gender switch, with the female of the lead couple being the Amoveo and the male being seemingly human. Marianna Coltari is the pure-blood, Kodiak bear-shifter sister of Dante, the hero of novel 2. At this point, the Amoveo are in the middle of a civil war, with the Purists fighting dirty under the leadership of the evil Artimus against the good-guys, who are led by Dante and his friends (the heroes of the first three books). The Purists want to put an end to all inter-species marriages. They want only pure-blood Amoveo in the world and have no qualms about destroying any hybrids they find. Now they have come up with a plan to engineer pregnancies between non-mated pure-bloods with the help of a misguided scientist. They don't want to experiment on their own pure-blood women, though, so they kidnap unmated Amoveo pure-blood women from the other side. Unfortunately for Marianna, she is at the top of their wish list, and they want to force her to mate with Artimus' spoiled and arrogant son, Hayden, who has been leering at Marianna for years.
As the book begins, Marianna is acting like a spoiled, stubborn adolescent, even though she is 30 years old. She has not committed herself to either side in the civil war, although in truth, she sides with Dante and his belief that species diversity will strengthen the Amoveo. Her mantra is that no one can tell her how to live her life and that she'll do anything she wants because she can take care of herself against any danger. Dante knows that Marianna is in danger from the Purists, so he assigns Pete Castro, a 30-something former human policeman, to be her bodyguard. Pete knows all about the Amoveo, but Marianna doesn't know that he knows. She believes that he is just her human chauffeur. The two are attracted to one another, but both believe that because Pete is human, they cannot have a future together. That all changes when they share a dream walk.
The story focuses primarily on the romance, of course, as Marianna and Pete are forced to hide away in a snowbound, isolated cabin. There, they come to grips with the fact that they are truly mates and begin to act on the lust-filled attraction between them. When Artimus puts Marianna in danger, Pete comes to the rescue, but only after he learns some shocking, life-changing news about his own genetic heritage.
This is a stereotypical paranormal romance, right down to the snowed-in cabin in the woods. At first, Marianna's character is annoyingly naive and petulant, but when she realizes the danger posed by Artimus, she straightens up and deals with reality. She does have one TSTL moment, though, and it gets her into big trouble.
If you are following the series, this book is quite similar in nature to the first three. If you are unfamiliar with the series, you should be able to read this as a stand-alone and understand what is going on because the author summarizes key points in the first chapter. Click HERE to read an excerpt from Undone. Scroll down the page a bit to find it.
One of the pivotal characters in this book (although his appearance is brief) is the demon, Asmodeus. Humphreys has written a self-published, serial novel entitled Asmodeus: The Demon of Lust. Click HERE for more information about that novel. The next novel in the AMOVEO LEGEND series will feature Tatiana, the timber wolf shifter we met in book 3.
NOVEL 5: Unclaimed
Tatiana Winters is the wolf-shifting halfbreed Amoveo we met back in Untamed, the novel that featured her sister, Layla. Tatiana is a veterinarian in small-town Oregon, and she wants absolutely nothing to do with the Amoveo culture and traditions—especially the mating legend. When Layla begs Tatiana to come to the Amoveo compound in rural Montana, Tatiana is reluctant because she has been having dreams about a sexy tiger, and she wants to stay far away from all of the Amoveo. Eventually, though, she agrees to visit the ranch when Layla explains that Prince Richard's prize Arabian horses are sickening and dying and no one can figure out the cause.
Dominic Trejada, a pure-blood Amoveo tiger shifter, is nearing the age of thirty, and he hasn't yet found his mate. He has had some dream-walks during which he senses her presence, but she hides in the shadows and refuses to let him see her. Dominic would prefer to skip the whole mating process, but if he doesn't find his mate soon, he will lose his Amoveo powers and become a mere human. That means that he will no longer be able to shape shift or visualize, and his strength will drop to minimal levels. Dominic is the Guardian of the ranch—the head of security—and if he loses his powers, he's not sure that he will be able to continue in his job, which is the center of his life.
Needless to say, when Tatiana and Dominic meet for the first time at the ranch, sparks fly and romantic heat begins to simmer. The story line follows the development of the romance as both of these stubborn, independent people attempt to overcome their fears and distrust and come together as mates.
The action part of the plot involves two separate threats to the people at the ranch. Recently, there was an attack by the Caedo fanatics (humans who want to kill all Amoveo), which ended with the death of one attacker and the escape of the other. Dominic fears another Caedo attack, so he has increased security at the ranch. Then, there is an unexpected threat from the Purists (pure-blood Amoveo who want to kill all half-breeds), a group that the good-guy Amoveo thought that they had vanquished (in the previous book). I was able to figure out the identity of the traitorous bad guy early in the story, but I have to say that it was mostly based on intuition, because there are no obvious hints. The book ends with two major show-down scenes and one plot twist involving a pure-blood Amoveo couple and their baby.
This novel is typical for the series with its alpha male, feisty heroine, and attacks by various hate groups. It is also typical of other paranormal series in that as soon as each couple completes their mating process, the heroine gets pregnant almost immediately. At this point, most of the couples from the previous books either have a child or are in the process. Tatiana isn't pregnant yet, but I can almost guarantee you that when she shows up in a supporting role in a future novel, there will be a baby on the way.
If you enjoyed the previous books, you'll probably like this one as well. Click HERE to go to the amazon.com page for Unclaimed where you can read an excerpt by clicking on the cover art. "Unbound," the e-novella due in January 2015, will tell Zachary's story. He plays a supporting role as a wise-cracking guard in Unclaimed.
E-NOVELLA 5.5: "Unbound"
PUBLISHER'S BLURB:
The forces that bind them can also tear them apart...
Zachary McKenna is a warrior shapeshifter from the Lion Clan, trying to catch a break in the sun and surf of Mexico. Mai Tais and scantily clad beach beauties are just what he needs after his last battle. But the fun doesn’t last long before a beautiful young woman is mugged on his doorstep and Zach is pulled right back into the fray.
The hero and heroine are the stereotypical paranormal romance leads: strong, handsome, arrogant male and feisty but fragile, heroine with really low self-esteem. The villains are also stereotypical—bad-to-the-core bigots who have no redeeming qualities. Here is one of them admiring a big black crossbow and plotting the next move: "This was a graceful weapon. Exactly the kind of weapon one of God's chosen would wield...He was a chosen one. He was sent to save the earth and save the humans from annihilation. He knew that one arrow in the wing wouldn't kill it...Best thing of all, it would suffer. A smile spread across his face at the very thought of it." (p. 197) You can almost hear the scumbag laughing out loud, "Bwaaah, Haah, Haah," like a cartoon villain. Click HERE to read an excerpt from Unleashed. Scroll down the page a bit to find it.
NOVEL 2: Untouched
The heroine of this book is Kerry Smithson, childhood BFF of Samantha (from book 1). Kerry is a gorgeous super-model who can't bear to touch anyone because her raw psychic abilities would force her to read their emotions. As the story opens, the only person she can touch without pain is Samantha, and when they touch, Kerry visualizes a gray wolf—but she doesn't tell Samantha about that and she doesn't have any idea what it means. When Kerry heads to New Orleans on a modeling assignment, Malcolm and Samantha hire a bodyguard to accompany her because Kerry's crazy cousin (from book 1) is still lurking around somewhere. That bodyguard is Malcolm's sexy cousin, Dante Coltari, a fox shifter who has been giving Kerry hot shivers ever since she first laid eyes on him. When Kerry discovers that she can touch Dante painlessly and that his touch actually feels good, she can hardly believe it.
The story follows the quick development of their romance and mating, along with Kerry's introduction to her Amoveo heritage. The secondary story line involves a mysterious villain calling itself "the Punisher." Humphreys uses an old horror story device here as the Punisher always refers to itself by that term—never by name—so we don't know who it is until the big climactic reveal scene. I have to say that I was surprised by the Punisher's identity, but I was disappointed at the stereotypical creep that Humphreys created. Just as in book 1, the culprit had the cardboard quality of a cartoon villain.
Click HERE to go to this novel's Amazon.com page where you can read an excerpt by clicking on the cover art at.
E-SHORT STORY 2.5: "Undenied"
When Lillian meets Boris, his voice sounds like the voice of her dream tiger. Then, she reads Boris's palm and sees visions of shape-shifting tigers, and when she touches him, they both are overcome by the usual waves of lust felt by Amoveo mates. To top things off, she hears his voice in her mind. This is all a big shock to Lillian, since she doesn't yet know anything about the Amoveo or the mating destiny. But it doesn't take her long to sort things out, and before they have known each other for 24 hours, the two have officially mated. (I believe that this is the fastest true-mating I've come across so far in all my reading of paranormal romances.)
Of course, there is a villain in the story to make sure that the road to love isn't totally smooth. This villain is a Purist who wants Boris to join their side in the coming civil war within the Amoveo, and that villain is not happy to discover that Boris's mate is a human. This is a very short story with an HEA for the happy couple, but no resolution to the conflict with the Purist. If you want to get a taste for the series, this is a good—and free—way to do it.
The bulk of the book follows William and his destined mate, Layla Nickelsen, along the extremely rocky road to their eventual HEA. Layla was the photographer on Kerry's photo-shoot in New Orleans in the previous book, and as soon as she and William met, that old familiar soul-mate electricity began to simmer between them. Since then, William has been pursuing Layla in the dream realm, but she has been hiding from him, refusing to face him. As the story opens, William has had enough of Layla's blocking him in her dreams, and he decides to face her down in person at her childhood home, where she believes she is safe from discovery.
Layla was raised on a rural farm by Rosie, a human, who also raised two other Amoveo hybrids, twins Raife and Tatiana. Layla is a cheetah, and Raife and Tatiana are timber wolves. The twins have been able to shift since they hit puberty, but Layla has not yet been able to shift, so she feels inferior. All three were abandoned by their parents and have been told little about Amoveo history and culture. One thing they have been warned about, though, is that they will each probably succumb to the Amoveos' predestined-mate tradition, and that scares Layla. She wants to be in complete control of her own life, and she doesn't need any snooty pure-blood grabbing her up and trying to control her.
Layla holds on to this attitude almost to the very end of the story, even though William does his best to get her to understand that's not what mating is all about. I have to say that even though I could understand Layla's initial reticence, I got sick of her anguished interior monologues (all very self-centered) and her constant whining that "I have to be me." William is actually a pretty nice guy in this story, without all the sneering attitude we saw in the first two books. He is very patient and understanding with Layla, trying not to push her into anything and keeping her protected in the least alpha-ish way that he can manage.
The villain doesn't show up until well into the story, and its identity is fairly obvious. Needless to say, the Amoveo boys leap into action to protect Layla and her family, so all's well there. The real conflict in this book goes back to the series story arc with the good-guy Amoveos squaring off against the intensely bigoted Purists. The situation gets tense and then explodes in this book, changing everything for all of the clans and forcing each clan member to choose a side in the dispute, which is turning into a civil war.
This plot runs its course in much the same way that as the first two books, with the building of the angst-filled romance and the interference by various villains who try to make life difficult for the starring couple. At least in this book the heroine already knows that she is a hybrid Amoveo, so we don't have to deal with the shock and awe that we had with heroines 1 and 2 when they found out that they were shifters. This heroine, though, is so obnoxious in her self-centeredness that her bad attitude gives all her scenes an uncomfortable, caustic edge. Click HERE to read an excerpt from Untamed. Scroll down the page a bit to find it.
Book 4 will tell the love story of pure-blooded Amoveo bear-shifter Marianna Coltari (Dante's sister) and Pete Castor, a human retired police officer who works for Dante's security firm.
NOVEL 4: Undone
As the book begins, Marianna is acting like a spoiled, stubborn adolescent, even though she is 30 years old. She has not committed herself to either side in the civil war, although in truth, she sides with Dante and his belief that species diversity will strengthen the Amoveo. Her mantra is that no one can tell her how to live her life and that she'll do anything she wants because she can take care of herself against any danger. Dante knows that Marianna is in danger from the Purists, so he assigns Pete Castro, a 30-something former human policeman, to be her bodyguard. Pete knows all about the Amoveo, but Marianna doesn't know that he knows. She believes that he is just her human chauffeur. The two are attracted to one another, but both believe that because Pete is human, they cannot have a future together. That all changes when they share a dream walk.
The story focuses primarily on the romance, of course, as Marianna and Pete are forced to hide away in a snowbound, isolated cabin. There, they come to grips with the fact that they are truly mates and begin to act on the lust-filled attraction between them. When Artimus puts Marianna in danger, Pete comes to the rescue, but only after he learns some shocking, life-changing news about his own genetic heritage.
This is a stereotypical paranormal romance, right down to the snowed-in cabin in the woods. At first, Marianna's character is annoyingly naive and petulant, but when she realizes the danger posed by Artimus, she straightens up and deals with reality. She does have one TSTL moment, though, and it gets her into big trouble.
If you are following the series, this book is quite similar in nature to the first three. If you are unfamiliar with the series, you should be able to read this as a stand-alone and understand what is going on because the author summarizes key points in the first chapter. Click HERE to read an excerpt from Undone. Scroll down the page a bit to find it.
One of the pivotal characters in this book (although his appearance is brief) is the demon, Asmodeus. Humphreys has written a self-published, serial novel entitled Asmodeus: The Demon of Lust. Click HERE for more information about that novel. The next novel in the AMOVEO LEGEND series will feature Tatiana, the timber wolf shifter we met in book 3.
NOVEL 5: Unclaimed
Tatiana Winters is the wolf-shifting halfbreed Amoveo we met back in Untamed, the novel that featured her sister, Layla. Tatiana is a veterinarian in small-town Oregon, and she wants absolutely nothing to do with the Amoveo culture and traditions—especially the mating legend. When Layla begs Tatiana to come to the Amoveo compound in rural Montana, Tatiana is reluctant because she has been having dreams about a sexy tiger, and she wants to stay far away from all of the Amoveo. Eventually, though, she agrees to visit the ranch when Layla explains that Prince Richard's prize Arabian horses are sickening and dying and no one can figure out the cause.Dominic Trejada, a pure-blood Amoveo tiger shifter, is nearing the age of thirty, and he hasn't yet found his mate. He has had some dream-walks during which he senses her presence, but she hides in the shadows and refuses to let him see her. Dominic would prefer to skip the whole mating process, but if he doesn't find his mate soon, he will lose his Amoveo powers and become a mere human. That means that he will no longer be able to shape shift or visualize, and his strength will drop to minimal levels. Dominic is the Guardian of the ranch—the head of security—and if he loses his powers, he's not sure that he will be able to continue in his job, which is the center of his life.
Needless to say, when Tatiana and Dominic meet for the first time at the ranch, sparks fly and romantic heat begins to simmer. The story line follows the development of the romance as both of these stubborn, independent people attempt to overcome their fears and distrust and come together as mates.
The action part of the plot involves two separate threats to the people at the ranch. Recently, there was an attack by the Caedo fanatics (humans who want to kill all Amoveo), which ended with the death of one attacker and the escape of the other. Dominic fears another Caedo attack, so he has increased security at the ranch. Then, there is an unexpected threat from the Purists (pure-blood Amoveo who want to kill all half-breeds), a group that the good-guy Amoveo thought that they had vanquished (in the previous book). I was able to figure out the identity of the traitorous bad guy early in the story, but I have to say that it was mostly based on intuition, because there are no obvious hints. The book ends with two major show-down scenes and one plot twist involving a pure-blood Amoveo couple and their baby.
This novel is typical for the series with its alpha male, feisty heroine, and attacks by various hate groups. It is also typical of other paranormal series in that as soon as each couple completes their mating process, the heroine gets pregnant almost immediately. At this point, most of the couples from the previous books either have a child or are in the process. Tatiana isn't pregnant yet, but I can almost guarantee you that when she shows up in a supporting role in a future novel, there will be a baby on the way.
If you enjoyed the previous books, you'll probably like this one as well. Click HERE to go to the amazon.com page for Unclaimed where you can read an excerpt by clicking on the cover art. "Unbound," the e-novella due in January 2015, will tell Zachary's story. He plays a supporting role as a wise-cracking guard in Unclaimed.
E-NOVELLA 5.5: "Unbound"
PUBLISHER'S BLURB:The forces that bind them can also tear them apart...
Zachary McKenna is a warrior shapeshifter from the Lion Clan, trying to catch a break in the sun and surf of Mexico. Mai Tais and scantily clad beach beauties are just what he needs after his last battle. But the fun doesn’t last long before a beautiful young woman is mugged on his doorstep and Zach is pulled right back into the fray.
Zach has no idea of the danger Annabelle has unwittingly
brought to his doorstep, until he discovers that losing her will almost
certainly destroy him.
MY REVIEW:
At the very beginning of the story, Zach is a womanizing playboy on his way to Mexico for a vacation he hopes will be filled with bikini-clad beach babes. Zach is a bit worried because he's been having dreams about a gorgeous redhead who keeps ignoring him, so he figures that getting away from Montana will clear his head. Little does he know that his true mate, the beautiful, auburn-haired Annabelle Caedo is having the same dream, and she is headed for the same little Mexican village.
Annabelle and her father have been staying at Silvio Caedo's compound in northern California ever since her mother died ten years ago. The Caedos don't really trust Annabelle because she expresses sympathy for the Amoveo and because she has psychometric abilities. They allow her and her father to remain at the compound only because they plan to use her talents in the future to help track down the Amoveo. When Annabelle begins having dreams about a friendly tiger, she confides in her father, who—in turn—tells Silvio. Annabelle overhears their conversation, in which Silvio says that Annabelle is "tainted" and must be taken to the basement for "debriefing." She knows that people who get "debriefed" disappear forever, so she runs away to Mexico with only the clothes on her back. Annabelle has never believed all of the terrible things that the Caedos say about the Amoveo, and she is intrigued by the handsome tiger in her dreams—a tiger that makes her feel safe and loved.
The story follows the quick progression of Zach and Annabelle's romance as they meet cute and immediately fall in lust. Knowing that Zach is an Amoveo tiger, Annabelle realizes that she can't tell him that she is a Caedo—who are sworn enemies of the Amoveo. Keeping secrets is always a bad thing, and this particular secret leads to major problems for the mated couple in the inevitable showdown scene that ends the novella.
This is a typical story for this series, but since it is a novella, there is more story and less angst than usual—a welcome relief. The lead characters are nicely developed, and even though they are quite similar to the usual Amoveo couples, their personality quirks and back-stories are interesting enough to keep the story fresh.
MY REVIEW:
At the very beginning of the story, Zach is a womanizing playboy on his way to Mexico for a vacation he hopes will be filled with bikini-clad beach babes. Zach is a bit worried because he's been having dreams about a gorgeous redhead who keeps ignoring him, so he figures that getting away from Montana will clear his head. Little does he know that his true mate, the beautiful, auburn-haired Annabelle Caedo is having the same dream, and she is headed for the same little Mexican village.
Annabelle and her father have been staying at Silvio Caedo's compound in northern California ever since her mother died ten years ago. The Caedos don't really trust Annabelle because she expresses sympathy for the Amoveo and because she has psychometric abilities. They allow her and her father to remain at the compound only because they plan to use her talents in the future to help track down the Amoveo. When Annabelle begins having dreams about a friendly tiger, she confides in her father, who—in turn—tells Silvio. Annabelle overhears their conversation, in which Silvio says that Annabelle is "tainted" and must be taken to the basement for "debriefing." She knows that people who get "debriefed" disappear forever, so she runs away to Mexico with only the clothes on her back. Annabelle has never believed all of the terrible things that the Caedos say about the Amoveo, and she is intrigued by the handsome tiger in her dreams—a tiger that makes her feel safe and loved.
The story follows the quick progression of Zach and Annabelle's romance as they meet cute and immediately fall in lust. Knowing that Zach is an Amoveo tiger, Annabelle realizes that she can't tell him that she is a Caedo—who are sworn enemies of the Amoveo. Keeping secrets is always a bad thing, and this particular secret leads to major problems for the mated couple in the inevitable showdown scene that ends the novella.
This is a typical story for this series, but since it is a novella, there is more story and less angst than usual—a welcome relief. The lead characters are nicely developed, and even though they are quite similar to the usual Amoveo couples, their personality quirks and back-stories are interesting enough to keep the story fresh.
Click HERE to go to this novella's Amazon.com page where you can read an excerpt by clicking on the cover art.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
UPDATE! Kate Pearce's TUDOR VAMPIRE CHRONICLES
UPDATE!
I have just updated a previous post for Kate Pearce with a review of the third book in her TUDOR VAMPIRE CHRONICLES SERIES: Mark of the Rose.
Click on the author's name or the book title above to go directly to the updated review.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Sarah Wendell's "Everything I Know About Love I Learned from Romance Novels"
Title: Everything I Know About Love I Learned from Romance Novels
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca, 2011
Although this nonfiction book is more about regular romance novels than paranormal romance novels, much of the content applies to both. Two paranormal fiction authors and/or works are referenced: Nalini Singh and Kresley Cole. Wendell is the co-author of the 2009 book, Beyond Heaving Bosoms: The Smart Bitches' Guide to Romance Novels, which is an entertaining look at the genre. She is also a co-founder of the blog, Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, a popular book review blog devoted to the romance genre.
In this book, Wendell mines the minds of her blog readers and a handful of romance authors to analyze just what life lessons we can take away from romance novels. As she did in her previous book, Wendell strongly opposes the popular notion (among people who don't read romance novels) that reading "those" books means that romance readers have unrealistic expectations of real life because they believe that their lives should mirror the ones of the romantic heroines. On the contrary (or, as Wendel says, "Wrongity wrong wrong wrong"). She goes on to say, "That accusation implies that we don't know the difference between fantasy and real life, and frankly, it's sexist as well. You don't see adult [male] gamers being accused of an inability to discern when one is a human driving a real car and when one is a yellow dinosaur driving a Mario Kart, but romance readers hear about their unrealistic expectations of men almost constantly." (p. 6)
In the "Introduction," Wendell asks romance writer Loretta Chase for her perspective on hero and heroine behavior and on character traits that are required for a romance. Chase immediately points to the movie, The Wizard of Oz, saying, "The Lion, Scarecrow, and Tin Man are seeking traits that, combined, make my idea of a romance hero—Courage, a Heart, a Brain—and Dorothy, who has all those traits, is a heroine. Equally important, we can relate to all of them at some very basic level." (p. 18) After the lengthy (25 pages) and rambling "Introduction," Wendell divides her book into these nine chapters.
Chapter 1: We Know Who We Are, and We Know Our Worth: aka: Seeing Yourself in a Romance Novel Is Not a Bad Thing!
In this chapter, Wendell makes the point that in modern romance novels, the heroine is much more important to the relationship than she was in the romance novels of 20-30 years ago. She goes on to say, "romances teach readers that we should know ourselves, and value ourselves, in order to find happiness....That's the first lesson of romance novels, really: romance is found in how we treat ourselves." (p. 28)
Chapter 2: We Know More Than a Few Good Men
Here, the point is that in our real lives we don't really want a clone of a romance hero. "And because of the over-the-top, top-heavy images of males in romance, one of the most common accusations tossed in the direction of readers is that all that romance reading gives women unrealistic expectations of love, of sex, and of men in general." (p. 56) Wendell calls this theory, "deep-fried bullpucky." (She uses a lot of colorful language.) She goes on to analyze the traits of romance heroes: the care-giving alpha male, the heroes who tackle and learn from their problems, the heroes who honestly recognize their own worth, and the hero who is full of mystery. This chapter concludes with a discussion of the top nine romance heroes, based on her blog survey.
Chapter 3: We Know What Not to Want
Here, Wendell points out that romance readers can use their reading to recognize and avoid certain traits of romantic heroes. A prime example is possessiveness. If you've read even one paranormal romance, you know that the hero—be he werewolf, vampire, or whatever—is nearly always supremely possessive. Although this makes for entertaining reading, in real life some of these guys would be considered to be stalkers, and the girl would be filing for a restraining order. Wendell's point is that "romance readers recognize traits they love in fiction and in heroes which they would abhor in actual people—and...these readers can absolutely identify the differences and similarities in their own lives." (p. 89)
Chapter 4: We Know How to Spot Real-Life Heroes and Heroines
In this chapter, Wendell lists the traits of an ideal romance character (respect, honesty compassion, etc.) and proposes that seeing these traits in the behaviors of romance heroes and heroines allows us to extrapolate those experiences to real-life situations.
Chapter 5: We Know Good Sex
The first point Wendell makes in this chapter is that "sex depictions in romance novels have changed drastically, and the rapetastic romances are things of the past....In romances published today, not only is the sexuality a variable part of the pilot...but both parties participate in making sure the sexuality is fantastic for all involved." (p. 113) She makes the argument that readers can explore levels of sexuality in romance novels that may help them make decisions within their own sex lives. "Reading about passionate sex and sex as a method to express emotional passion has two benefits. First, you get to think about, or mentally try out, acts that you're curious about without actually doing them...Second, you are able to read and learn in privacy." (p. 117)
Chapter 6: We Know How to Solve Problems
Here, Wendell lists various problems that must be solved within hero-heroine relationships and suggests using the characters' problem-solving methods to take care of your own, way-less-severe problems. She makes the point that in romance novels, there is always plenty of conflict, but almost all of it gets worked out by the end of the book. She says, "Repeatedly reading about courtship and the problems facing each one also allows readers to see and consider problems that are solved in myriad patterns." (p. 158)
Chapter 7: We Know How to Ask for What We Want
In this short chapter, Wendell uses excerpts from romance novels to make her point: "The characters figure out what they want and decide to go after it. This step...usually means revealing everything the person feels, and what that person wants. It's risky, but the payoff is worth the terror." (p. 179)
Chapter 8: We Know That Happily Ever After Takes Work
Wendell calls this the number one lesson to be learned from romance novels: "Happily-ever-after isn't sometime in the future. It exists right now, and starts with you." (p.181) She ends the chapter with three easy steps for romance and courtship.
Chapter 9: The Final Chapter: The Happy Ending Starts...Now
In this brief concluding chapter, Wendell includes a table entitled "Life Lessons Hidden in Romance Novels." She also summarizes her main points in the book and closes by saying, "May we all be happy, may we all feel the joy of romance, and may we all live happily ever after." (p. 214)
This is an entertaining book that romance readers will probably enjoy. Wendell lards her pages with many, many quotations from her blog readers, which I found myself skipping over to get back to the author's witty rants.
This is an entertaining book that romance readers will probably enjoy. Wendell lards her pages with many, many quotations from her blog readers, which I found myself skipping over to get back to the author's witty rants.
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