UPDATE! Simon R. Green's SECRET HISTORIES SERIES

UPDATE!

I have just updated a previous post for Simon R. Green with a review of the sixth book in his SECRET HISTORIES SERIES:  Live and Let Drood.

Click on either the author's name or the book title above to go directly to the updated review.

UPDATE! Zoë Archer's HELLRAISERS TRILOGY

UPDATE!

I have just updated a previous post for Zoë Archer with a review of the FINAL two books in her HELLRAISERS TRILOGY: Demon's Bride and Sinner's Heart.

Click on either the author's name or the book titles above to go directly to the updated review.

UPDATE! Michele Bardsley's BROKEN HEART SERIES

UPDATE!

I have just updated a previous post for Michele Bardsley with a review of the ninth book in her BROKEN HEART SERIES: Only Lycans Need Apply.

Click on either the author's name or the book title above to go directly to the updated review.

Thea Harrison's GAME OF SHADOWS DUOLOGY

Author:  Thea Harrison
Series:  GAME OF SHADOWS   
Plot Type:  Soul Mate Romance (SMR), Fantasy 
Ratings:  Violence—4; Sensuality—4; Humor—1 
Publisher and Titles:  Berkley
          Rising Darkness (4/2013)

          Falling Light (2/2014) (FINAL)  

     This post was revised and updated on 4/1/14 to include a review of Falling Light, the second novel in the series.  That review appears first, followed by a brief overview of the world-building and a review of the first novel.       

             NOVEL 2:  Falling Light             

     The story picks up immediately after the climactic battle in book 1 at Michael's isolated cabin on Wolf Lake. Although Michael and Mary won that battle and escaped with their lives, they are both injured. Now that the Deceiver knows where they are, they are forced to stay on the run, rarely stopping for more than a few minutes to pick up food, steal a car, and allow Mary to do some healing to both of them. The two are trying desperately to find their mentor, Astra, whose home is on a remote island off Michigan's Upper Peninsula. 

     The story is told in the third person voice, primarily from the perspectives of Mary, Michael, Astra, and the Deceiver. As the Deceiver realizes that he is on the verge of finding all three of his prey, he pulls out the stops and releases all of his minions and power, with devastating results to the local flora, fauna, and human population.   

     In addition to the conflict between the good guys and the Deceiver, Michael and Mary have their own personal conflict: the warrior vs. the healer. Michael has spent his long, long life in constant battle, honing his skills and hardening his mind to the point that he has built a high, impenetrable wall around his emotions. Mary, on the other hand, is a healer at heart, rejecting the idea that the only way to defeat the Deceiver and his drones is always through violence. On the very first page, this conflict is laid out for the reader as Mary examines the bodies of the Deceivers' drones—all killed by Michael: "Michael had watched her gaze turn dull when she realized the men were beyond her help. She cared about everyone. That fact lay at the essence of her healing. Michael didn't care for total strangers the way Mary did. All he felt was tiredness and a grim sense of relief as he straightened to watch the bodies bleed out." Later, Michael muses about his life and recognizes that his "reason for being, his entire ageless passion, had forged into a singular purpose, and that was to bring [the] destroyer down. So he fought to save innocent worlds from dying, just as Mary did in her own way but his skill was in violence, which bore its own cost…he would either win this battle by violence or die by violence. He wouldn't stop. Not ever. Not even for the horror in her eyes as she looked at what he was..." (p. 154) This dissonance comes to a head when Michael gives Mary a gun during one of the more dangerous parts of their flight, and Mary must actually pull the trigger to defend herself—something that she has vowed never to do.

     As the story moves along, Mary remembers more and more details about her past lives and, as a consequence, remembers more and more of her powers. "Somehow, nine hundred years ago, the Deceiver had injured Mary so severely, she hadn't reincarnated for generations….Astra and Michael had….searched for her forbears but they only managed to get the occasional glimpse of her in the psychic realm. A few days ago [in book 1], events had finally come to a head. Mary had torn that old spiritual injury wide open, and Astra had leaped into an astral projection in order to try to reach her." (p. 11) Gradually, Mary's new powers develop to the degree that she is able to use them to great effect, and the couple finally locates Astra, with the help of the ghostly Nicholas. Inevitably, the book ends with a final, ultra-violent showdown between the forces of good and evil, and because this is the final book in the duology, we all know that it results in disaster for the villain and an HEA for the soul mates. 

     In this book, we learn much more about the four main characters' previous incarnations. For example, in the sixth century B.C. Michael was the renowned Chinese general and philosopher, Sun Tzu, the author of The Art of War. Through the ages, Mary's former names included Muire, Miryam, and Myrrh. The Deceiver has been known as Lucifer (aka Morning Star). Astra was called White Buffalo Calf Woman (aka PtesanWi) by the Lakota people (and three Native American men play key roles in this story). 

     I'm still having a hard time getting interested in this mythology, with its evil, one-note villain and its all-too-familiar battle between good and evil that must be fought by a tiny group of people in order to save the world. Although the world-building is inventive, it is also convoluted and cumbersome. This is a darkly serious world without a spark of humor or romantic passion. Even though the original couples that were sent to earth were soul-mated pairs, in this world soul-mates don't necessarily wind up in loving, romantic relationships. As Astra explains, "Soul mates did not always equate with romantic love. Balanced energies did not always equate with compatibility. Opposites not only attracted. They also repelled. Completion did not guarantee hearts and flowers or even friendship. Yin did not necessarily see eye to eye with yang. Sometimes the twinned pairs struggled through terrible conflicts." (p. 145) Even though Mary and Michael are among the soul mates who do fall in love, there isn't much fire—or even a small spark—between them. In fact, their characters are rather flat and predictable. The most interesting person in the series so far has been Nicholas, who has a fantastic story line in this novel. If Harrison ever decides to continue this series, I'm hoping that Nicholas will have a starring role.

              WORLD-BUILDING             

     This mythology has its roots in both classical mythology and space operas. Thousands of years ago on another plane of existence, an evil man called the Deceiver betrays his country/planet/realm. Seven people (including three soul-mate couples) are chosen to take a virulent poison that will allow them to follow him to Earth. There, they will be separated from their mates and will eventually die and reincarnate until a time that they can get back together with their mates and capture and incapacitate (or destroy) the Deceiver.  

     Here is the summary of the world-building that appears at the beginning of book 2 as the hero explains why he and his soul mate must find Astra, their childhood mentor: "Astra was also the leader of the original group of seven that had left their world six thousand years ago to pursue the Deceiver when he had escaped their prison and fled to Earth. In order to follow him, the group had needed to die as the Deceiver had died, in an arcane ritual filled with alchemy and power. The ritual transmuted their souls. As they died, they left their world and joined the Earth's natural cycle of death and rebirth, where they lived and died as humans did, over and over again." (p. 4)

             NOVEL 1:  Rising Darkness             

     I always begin reading a new series with trepidation. Will the author be able to build the new mythology in an interesting manner, or will the first book be a slog rather than a page-turner? Unfortunately for the reader, book 1 of this new series unfolds its world-building at a glacial pace, and the book really doesn't pick up speed until nearly the end. We get the story in the third person point of view from four stereotypical characters: the aloof and emotionless alpha hero, the vulnerable and fragile heroine, the wise and ancient elder, and the one-dimensional, evil-to-the-core villain. 

     Much of the early narrative comes from Mary, the heroine, a small-town Michigan doctor who has been having weird and disturbing dreams since she was a child. In those dreams, she is a healer—one of seven exotic people who take poison and go off on a mysterious journey in search of a villainous traitor. These dreams are becoming more frequent and more powerful. When Mary begins hearing voices speaking to her in her head, she is afraid that she is losing her mind and drives back to her old alma mater (Notre Dame Univ.) to pray at the famous Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes for divine assistance. There, she has a vision of "Grandmother" (aka Astra, the elder—one of the original seven travelers), who tells her that she is in danger and must quickly travel North so that she can get help.

     This kicks off both the romance plot and the action plot as the hero immediately realizes that Mary is in danger (and heads off to rescue her) and the villain immediately realizes that Mary is vulnerable (and heads off to capture her). The hero is Michael (who—based on an obscure clue deep in the story—may actually have been Achilles in one of his reincarnations). He is a warrior with magical powers who was mentored by Astra and who has been searching for his soul mate for 800 years. The Deceiver wants to rule the modern world as he once ruled the ancient world, and he needs a healer to keep him alive. For both Michael and the Deceiver, Mary is the key to their wants and needs.

     The rest of the story follows the development of the romance between Mary and Michael as they try to reach Astra before the Deceiver and his forces catch up with them. All along the way, Mary's memories of her various incarnations keep coming back, and she remembers just what her relationship with Michael was those many centuries ago.

     The author has salted the book with direct and indirect literary and historical allusions, including the Bible (quotations from Isaiah); Greek and Roman mythology (Castor and Pollux); French history (Joan of Arc); mass market Scottish literature (Dorothy Dunnett); and Christian theology (Uriel, Ariel, Michael) but these are mostly extraneous and don't contribute at all to the depth of the characters or the complexity of the plot.

     I'm still not sure how this series is going to develop quality-wise. In this first book, the lead couple doesn't have much charisma. Mary spends most of the book in utter bewilderment, unsure of the meaning of her dreams and confused by her feelings for Michael. Until nearly the end of the book, Michael's words and actions are mostly unemotional and robotic. In the end, though, it's the classic story line of the two mutually attracted/connected strangers on a road trip facing life-threatening dangers. In a paranormal romance, that's always a formula for a good old HEA. I'll withhold judgment on this series until I read the next book.

     Just one personal note: Michael and Mary spend their few happy hours in a cabin on Wolf Lake in the Manistee National Forest—the very same lake where my family spent many summer vacations back in the day. Who would have thought that my childhood summer destination would turn up in a paranormal novel!

UPDATE! Jeaniene Frost's NIGHT PRINCE TRILOGY

UPDATE!

I have just updated a previous post for Jeaniene Frost with a review of the second book in her NIGHT PRINCE TRILOGY: Twice Tempted.

Click on either the author's name or the book title above to go directly to the updated review.

Ashlyn Chase: FLIRTING WITH FANGS SERIES

Author:  Ashlyn Chase 

Series:  FLIRTING WITH FANGS 
Plot Type:  Soul Mate Romance (SMR) with a touch of Chick Lit (CH) 
Ratings:  Violence—3; Sensuality—4; Humor—3 
Publisher and Titles:  Sourcebooks Casablanca
          Flirting Under a Full Moon (4/2013)

          How to Date a Dragon (9/2013)

          Kissing with Fangs (3/2014) (FINAL) 

This ongoing series-review post was revised and updated on 4/23/14 to include a review of Kissing with Fangs, the third (and final) novel in the series. The post begins with an overview of the world-building followed by reviews of the three novels. 

                         WORLD-BUILDING                         

     This series takes place in the same world as Chase's STRANGE NEIGHBORS SERIES. In this mythology, humans are unaware of the existence of supernaturals, which in this series includes mostly vampires and werewolves, but also makes room for a few wizards and dragons. Set in an alternate Boston, the stories follow the romantic adventures of various couples, each made up of one harebrained human woman and one irresponsible supernatural man. 

     Although the series is meant to be humorous paranormal romance, the humor generally falls flat and the romances are completely predictable and angst-free. Click HERE to read my reviews of the novels in the STRANGE NEIGHBORS SERIES. 

                       NOVEL 1:  Flirting Under a Full Moon                       

     In the series opener, Nick Wolfensen is a Boston policeman and the twin brother of Konrad, the hero of one of the STRANGE NEIGHBORS books. Nick has just quit his job to become a private investigator. His first PI case is to find and rescue a young girl who happens to be a fire mage. The victim is the cousin of Brandee Hanson, a waitress at the Boston Uncommon, a bar catering to the supernatural community (even though—oddly—all of its staff are humans who know nothing about the supernatural world). When Brandee finds out about her cousin's misfortune, she insists on "helping" Nick with the case (although she has absolutely no investigative experience), and contributes a number of TSTL moments that result in various bad things happening to the couple. Despite Brandee's air-headed approach to life, Nick falls for her (and vice versa). The romance takes off quickly—too quickly—and they fall into true love almost immediately.

     If Chase had spent some time developing this plot line and adding some interesting twists and turns, this might have been a better book, but instead, she allows Nick's case to be partially resolved without much drama and then starts another story line—and then another (e.g., irrelevant scenes involving such things as a jealous girlfriend of one of the vampires attacking Brandee, previously undetected Brownies showing up in the middle of the night to clean up the bar, Brandee's ex-boyfriend making a half-hearted attempt to get her back, and a string of bank robberies by an enslaved supernatural). The low point in the book comes in a seriously gross scene that graphically depicts the consequences of Brandee's lactose intolerance. 

     Then there's a new addition to the mythology: the unpleasantly rude, crude, and profane Mother Nature (aka "Gaia," which is the acronym for the Gods and Immortals Association, of which she is the head goddess). Chase handles plots in the STRANGE NEIGHBORS series in this same manner: too many story lines and too many distracting, non-essential scenes—all lacking complexity and depth. By the time the end finally arrives (and believe me, I was really looking forward to it), the characters have been involved in several more situations (mostly meant to be humorous, but failing) before the original case comes to its anti-climactic ending. One final problem: Each story line is full of holes (which is also a problem in STRANGE NEIGHBORS). Click HERE to read an excerpt from Flirting Under a Full Moon.

     To sum it up: The lead characters are flat and lifeless; the dialogue is clumsy and stiff; and the plot lines are paper-thin and unexciting. If you're looking for really funny chick lit paranormal romance, you might want to try Michelle Bardsley's BROKEN HEART series, Nina Bangs' CASTLE OF DARK DREAMS series, Vivi Andrews' KARMIC CONSULTANT series, Teri Garey's DEVIL'S BARGAIN series, Molly Harper's NAKED WEREWOLF series (and others), Sandra Hill's DEADLY ANGELS series, Katie MacAlister's DRAGON series, and Vicki Lewis Thompson's WILD ABOUT YOU series. Click on any of the series titles above to go to my reviews.

                       NOVEL 2:  How to Date a Dragon                       
     Twenty-seven-year-old Bliss Russo is one of three finalists in a television reality show contest. It's like Project Runway, but instead of designing clothing, the contestants design greeting cards. Bliss calls her design line Hall-Snark, and imagines that her cards are sarcastically and ironically humorous. Unfortunately, her so-called snarky rhymes tend more towards adolescent silliness. Early in the story, Bliss's apartment building burns down and she is rescued by a tall, blond (not at all like the cover image) fireman named Drake Cameron. Bliss is a human, and Drake is a dragon shifter—one of the last dragons in existence.

     Although Bliss and Drake share a moment of connection during the fire, Drake can't find her afterwards to find out who she is and to ask her out. This seems improbable since he could just ask the owner of the building where Bliss is now living (she would have to have her mail forwarded, after all). Anyhow…Drake is lonely, so he signs up with an on-line dating service and meets a female dragon named Zina who turns out to be the villain of the story. Zina is determined to mate with Drake because female dragons can mate only during a very brief period every five years, and this is her time. Drake, however, is not interested in Zina, who comes across as a truly unpleasant, arrogant, aggressive person/dragon. 

     After the fire, Bliss moves to an apartment over the same bar/restaurant we saw in the first book: Boston Uncommon. This place is owned by a vampire and is frequented by supernaturals, but employs humans as waitresses and bartenders. There, Bliss and Drake eventually run into each other and fall immediately and completely in love—another one of those insta-matic romances that regularly turn up in paranormal romances. Zina, of course, does everything she can to put a stop to their romance because she wants Drake for herself. Throughout the story, Bliss continues to work on her Hall-Snark greeting card entries for the TV finale. 

     SIDE NOTE: Bliss's technology skills are woefully behind the times because she initially keeps all of her greeting card files on her laptop, which is destroyed in the fire—no back-ups, even though these are the final designs that she must submit to the TV show. Then, after she recreates the designs on a different computer, she decides that the best thing to do is save them to CD disks and store them in a safety deposit box in a bank (which burns down later in the story). Has this woman never heard of a flash drive?

     Mother Nature (aka Gaia) shows up again—just as she did in book 1—in a series of disconnected scenes that interrupt the flow of the already thin plot. Gaia's primary purpose is to send Drake some help with Zina and to serve as a deus ex machina near the end to offer a solution to the problem of Bliss's mortality.

     Once again, the plot is simplistic and full of holes; the characters have little depth; and the humor is strained. Here's an example of a plot hole: At one point, Zima kidnaps Bliss in full view of two police officers. You would think that would set off a citywide search, but no, we never hear anything from the police again. It's as if that scene never happened. Another plot improbability occurs when Bliss—for the first time in her life—writes a "diary" entry in the notebook she uses to jot down greeting card ideas. That entry happens to contain incriminating information about Drake, and it sets up a situation in which another character accidentally reads the "diary" and discovers that Bliss thinks Drake is a dragon. Not only is the scene completely improbable, it is also silly and unnecessary to the story. And here's an example of the predictable humor: Since Bliss comes from an Italian family, we are treated to an overload of stereotypical Italian-mother humor centered around getting Bliss married off to a suitable man so that she can pop out some grandchildren. This series isn't getting any stronger, and I don't have much hope for future books, which would need more complex plots, fleshed-out characters, a more nuanced romance, fewer superfluous supporting characters, and a much less stereotypical villain. Click HERE to read an excerpt from How to Date a Dragon.

                       NOVEL 3:  Kissing with Fangs                       
     The third novel in this series has a ring of finality to it because it pretty much wraps up all of the romances and ties up most of the loose ends from the previous novels. This time around, two supporting characters from the first two novels ascend to starring roles: Anthony Cross, the vampire who owns Boston Uncommon—a paranormal bar/restaurant, and Claudia Fletcher, who manages the place. During the climax of the second novel, Boston Uncommon burned to the ground, torched by a jealous, sociopathic dragon. Now, Anthony is trying to decide how to rebuild, and Claudia is drinking herself into a permanent stupor. Even though Claudia has worked closely with Anthony for the past five years, he never once suspected that she had a severe drinking problem (hard to believe!), but when Anthony goes to her apartment to offer her a job when he gets the bar rebuilt, he finds her barely coherent and her apartment overflowing with empty liquor bottles. A few days later, Claudia confesses to him that she is an alcoholic and has now joined Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), so she can't work in a bar. That's not a problem for Anthony because he'll do anything to keep Claudia close to him. The two have crushed on each other from afar through all their years of working together, but neither one has made any kind of a romantic move. That's about to change!

     The couple decides to turn Boston Uncommon into a tea room. That way, Claudia won't be tempted by liquor, and Anthony's "Aunt" Sadie (who is really his niece) can read tea leaves. There's just one problem: As Anthony and Claudia get closer and closer to admitting their mutual love, they are constantly on the alert for Anthony's jealous and violent ex-girlfriend, Ruxandra, who has vowed that Anthony will to come back to her and that no other woman will live to stand in her way.

     Meanwhile, some of the other paranormals have learned that a group of "researchers" have captured some shape shifters and vampires and are experimenting on them in a secret laboratory. Their search for the laboratory is the crux of the action part of the plot. 

     The romance takes up most of the plot time as Claudia battles her alcohol demons, attends multiple AA sessions, gets kidnapped by Ruxandra, and deals with her new and sexy relationship with Anthony. At the same time, Anthony is trying to assist in the search for the laboratory, keep Ruxandra away from Claudia, and figure out how to tell Claudia that he is a vampire. Just as in the first two novels, Mother Nature meddles in the lives of this small group of paranormals, particularly focusing on Anthony and Claudia.

     As I mentioned at the beginning of this review, this feels like the final book in the series. By the end of the story, all of the paranormal characters from the STRANGE NEIGHBORS series have been drawn into the plot, the Ruxandra situation has been settled once and for all, and all of the possible couples appear to have paired off. 

     This book suffers from all of the same problems seen in the first two novels: a choppy story line, improbable events, fatuous dialogue, flat characters, and unnecessary story lines (like the early scene in which Claudia's parents show up unexpectedly, leave town the next day, and are never seen again in the story). The novel presents an extremely unrealistic picture of alcohol detox and rehabilitation. Actually, Claudia never even goes through detox. She is supposed to be heavily addicted to alcohol, but she never shows a single withdrawal symptom, and she is able to get herself clean and sober just by reading the AA manual and going to a few meetings—highly improbable. Equally improbable is the fact that no one—not Anthony and not her best friends—ever knew that she was a heavy drinker. That just doesn't happen in real life. When an author selects a life-tragedy for a character, he or she should do enough research to present it with authenticity and realistic detail. Because this is a relatively light romance and there is nothing light about alcoholism, my feeling is that alcoholism was absolutely the wrong choice for Claudia's "big life problem." Click HERE to read an excerpt from Kissing with Fangs. (Scroll down and click on the "See More" icon in the "Excerpt" section.)

UPDATE! M. J. SCOTT: HALF-LIGHT CITY SERIES

UPDATE!

I have just updated a previous post for M. J. Scott with a review of the third book in her HALF-LIGHT CITY SERIES:  Iron Kin. 

Click on either the author's name or the book title above to go directly to the updated review.