Erica Hayes: SEVEN SIGNS SERIES

Author:  Erica Hayes 
Series:  SEVEN SIGNS  
Plot Type:  Apocalyptic Horror with Romance
Ratings:  Violence—5; Sensuality—4; Humor—1
Publisher and Titles:  Berkley Sensation
          Revelation (10/2012)
          Redemption (3/2013)

This ongoing post was revised and updated on 4/23/13 to include a review of the second novel in the series, Redemption. That review appears last, preceded by an overview of the world-building and a review of book 1.

                         WORLD-BUILDING                        

     Set in a mildly futuristic New York City (now called Babylon), which is hovering on the edge of the apocalypse, this is a dark and violent series based on the biblical prophecies that describe the emptying of the seven golden bowls—or vials—of the wrath of God, which portends the End of Days. Babylon is a wretched and perverted place where the underclass is made up of mutants ("muties") whose bodies and brains have degraded gruesomely in reaction to drugs, pollution, and demonic forces. Here's a description of the city: "Garbage littered the darkened street from an overturned trash can, a single streetlight flickering above rotting paper, cans, crushed takeout tubs, a scuffle of glint-eyed rats. An abandoned car lay in the road, burned black, panels and wheels missing. The crumbling apartment blocks cast misshapen shadows over rusted playgrounds and empty basketball courts." (p. 136)

Here is an excerpt from the biblical text that drives the series mythology: Revelation (16:1-21):

¹Then I heard a loud voice from the temple telling the seven angels, “Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God.” 

² So the first angel went and poured out his bowl on the earth, and harmful and painful sores came upon the people who bore the mark of the beast and worshiped its image. 

³ The second angel poured out his bowl into the sea, and it became like the blood of a corpse, and every living thing died that was in the sea. 

⁴ The third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of water, and they became blood.

⁸ The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and it was allowed to scorch people with fire. 

¹⁰ The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom was plunged into darkness. 

¹² The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, to prepare the way for the kings from the east. 

¹³ And I saw, coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs. 

¹⁷ The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple, from the throne, saying. “It is done!” 

       ¹⁸ And there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, and a great earthquake such as there had never been since man was on the earth, so great was that earthquake. 

       ¹⁹ The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell…

     Each book follows a dual plot line: (1) the circumstances and consequences of the demonic possession of one or more of the vials, and (2) the love story of one of the seven Fallen angels—the Tainted Ones, who are the heroes of these books. The Tainted have been tasked with keeping the seven vials safe from the seven demon princes and their minions, who want the vials for their own nefarious purposes. Each vial is in the safekeeping of one of the Guardian Angels, who are called Vial Guardians. According to the Book of Revelation, if the vials are spilled by Heavenly forces, God's righteous wrath will cleanse the world, but if the demons spill the vials, that wrath will be darkly twisted and will bring on a demonic apocalypse that will destroy the world.

     The Tainted were once angels, but each one committed a grievous sin and lost his or her soul. They still work on the side of Heaven as warriors because they live in hope for a chance at redemption. Click HERE to go to a page on the  author's web site with biographies of the Tainted. Here are the seven Tainted Ones—five males and two females:

     > Dashiel ("Dash"), leader of the Tainted
     > Luniel ("Lune" (book 1) soul mate—Dr. Morgan Sterling, human)
     > Japheth ("Japh") (book 2) soul mate—Rose Harling, vampire)
     > Jadzia ("Jaz") (female) (soul mate—Shax, demon)
     > Trillium
     > Iria (female)
     > Ariel  

     This series is unrelentingly dark, dark, dark—from beginning to end, with never-ending, scenes of explicitly graphic violence of the most degrading and dehumanizing kinds. The male Tainted Ones are mostly angry, womanizing louts, awash in bloodthirstiness and spouting endless profanity. And the Archangel Michael, who is God's overseer of the Tainted, is even worse. He deals and uses drugs, tortures with little or no thought, consorts sexually with demons, sexually abuses both men and women, betrays his fellow angels (and the Tainted), and is totally corrupt. This is the angel who has complete control over the Tainted, so we can foresee from the beginning that with Michael in charge, none of the Tainted has much of a chance to retrieve his or her soul.

                         BOOK 1:  Revelation                        

     As book 1 begins, Babylon has recently been overrun by by the "Manhattan virus," or "zombie plague," which causes its victims to become rotting, mindless, zombie-like creatures. In the opening scene, another crisis strikes the city when the New York Harbor (aka Babylon Bay) around the Statue of Liberty fills up with blood. As Luniel surveys the horrific scene, he realizes that the outbreak of the zombie plague and the appearance of the bloody waters signify that the first two vials of God's wrath have been spilled, but by demons, not by God. In desperation, Lune calls in Dash and tries to reach his twin brother, the Guardian angel Ithiel, who has been missing for a week.

     In the meantime, a human woman, Dr. Morgan Sterling, is working in her laboratory to try to find the cause of the virus. Morgan is a city pathologist, and she has been taking tissue samples from dead plague victims and mapping out the locations of their deaths so that she can trace the plague back to Patient Zero.

     Lune and Morgan meet for the first time when Lune traces his missing brother's body to Morgan's morgue, where she has just unzipped his body bag and discovered his wings. Ithiel was the Vial Guardian for the second vial—and he has been killed by a demon prince's sword through the heart. When Lune flashes into Morgan's autopsy room, the first thing she does is shoot him, because she is a pragmatic city-dwelling woman with excellent self-defense reactions. Moments later, though, she sees Lune's bullet wounds heal and watches him raise sigils on his brother's body and then turn it to ash. Morgan believes in science, not in magic or religion, so she's sure that there is a logical explanation for all this, but before she can ask any questions, a gang of demons bursts through the ceiling to attack them. Lune has to fly her away to the safety of his apartment.

     The romance plot follows the very, very bumpy road to HEA for this difficult couple. Morgan despises everything about God and religion because her mother killed herself while under the mental control of a religious cult leader. She refuses to have faith of any kind—personal or religious. Lune just keeps trying to cope with his life as a Tainted One, knowing that when he dies, he will just fade into oblivion—no heaven or hell—just oblivion. After awhile, as Lune proves over and over that he will do his best to protect Morgan, her unceasing stubborn attitude becomes extremely annoying and impossible to understand. Even after Lune gives up his life and then his hope of redemption for her, Morgan just keeps on screaming at him, accusing him of wrongdoing, and refusing to have any faith in him at all. Let's just say that Morgan is definitely NOT a sympathetic heroine, nor is she a smart heroine. Her TSTL moments are numerous indeed, getting Lune gravely injured and getting herself turned into a zombie at one point. Even though she is enraged at Lune much of the time, she's still hot for him (and vice versa), so for every scene of screeching anger, there's one of screaming lust.

     The demonic action plot follows the Tainted Ones as they track down the two demon princes responsible for spilling the first two vials. There is an illogical plot twist that makes Lune leave his fighting team behind and go off alone with Morgan. It is a blatant authorial plot manipulation, used to stretch out the story.

     I cannot over-emphasize the dismal darkness and joyless licentiousness that fill this book to the brim. To give you a sense of the books' tone, here are some descriptive examples, the like of which are repeated over and over again throughout the book:

     Here's the scene at one of Michael the Archangel's parties: "A few naked human girls and guys swam and splashed and...more lolled and dozed and smoked crack pipes....On the other side, a bunch of them were having lazy sex, kissing and thrusting and moaning. Dash could see at least two dildos,...and stuff he didn't even know the names for going on." (p. 24) (Much of the other "stuff" going on at this party verges too close to pornography to print here.)

     Here's Morgan during a typical zombie fight—one of many: "Blood gushed, lumpy with clotting flesh. The stink made her gag. The zombie made a sick sound, halfway between a gurgle and a shriek. Red spit erupted form his grin, and he slammed into her, knocking her off balance, clawing with sticky thumbs for her eyeballs." (p. 139)

     Here's Zuul the loathsome demon as he goes on one of his numerous, disgusting rants as he watches Morgan fall from a great height: "To taste her anguish as she plummeted to her doom, the sick agony of her bowels releasing, the stabbing pain in her heart as it exploded, the lovely wet crunch of living meat slamming into earth...He'd nearly...fallen with her, just so he could be there." (p. 175) 

     Here's Lune as he flashes into the middle of a typical demon battle. Graphically gruesome scenes of this type are repeated over and over again: "The stink of dead flesh punched his guts and his feet slipped. He caught himself, hands sliding in muck. Blood. The floor was covered in blood. His oversensitive ears grated, screams, rending flesh, humans howling like ghouls in pain. His guts heaved...A screeching hellsnipe thrust sharp talons into his face. He tore it apart on pure instinct. Bones cracked...A vast basement, tainted with smoke, blood dripping down the firelit walls, In the center, a huge steel vat, crimson gore spilling over the sides. Corpses piled around it, throats slashed, their skin pale and drained. The air hung foul with screams and acid fear, the bitter stink of cursed souls that glowed sick scarlet in his angelsight...And everywhere, creatures of hell swarmed and feasted, hungry eyes, sharp claws, tongues drooling blood. In the corner, a rotting starvewraith tore at a child, crimson straining his beak. There, a gang of rubber-skinned bonecrushers raped a screaming girl, two holding her down while another had his way with her, munching on her throat at the same time." (pp. 275-276)

     If you like your urban romance with a big dose of mindless violence, disturbing depravity, repulsive degradation, and utter hopelessness, this is the series for you. Frankly, when I finished the book, I wanted to cuddle a kitten, or look for a rainbow, or watch an old DVD of The Sound of Music—anything to expunge those scenes from my memory. Click HERE to read the first chapter of Revelation.

                         BOOK 2:  Redemption                        
     The romantic (if you can call it that) couple in the second book are Japheth of the Tainted and Rose Harley, a relatively new vampire who was tricked and bitten by Fluvium, the demon Prince of Thirst and the creator and master of the Babylon vampires. Ever since Rose was bitten, she has been trying to appease Fluvium so that he won't kill her and send her to Hell. To Fluvium's great delight, she has been killing angels—so many that her nickname is now Angel Slayer—and Japh is planning to hunt her down and take her out. When Japh attempts to kill Rose during their hostile first meeting, his lustful attraction to her distracts him so much that he lets her go. Rose is equally attracted (physically) to Japh, but that doesn't stop her from deciding to capture him and turn him to the dark side.

     Japh is one of the Tainted because Michael tossed him out of Heaven for reasons that Japh has never understood. Japh was Michael's greatest soldier, but he was humble about his successes in battle, never trying to outshine Michael. In Heaven, Japh was the "Golden Boy," always doing his duty and succeeding in everything he attempted (including becoming a talented classical pianist, if you can believe that). He has always been noted for his complete honesty and noble character, even during his centuries with the Tainted. Throughout the past 1,400 years, all Japh has ever wanted is redemption and a return to Heaven. Japh believes that Michael looked into his soul and saw how he repressed his darkest emotions, but he learns in this book that Michael had entirely different reasons for causing Japh's fall from grace.

     Rose was an up-and-coming Broadway dancer when she went out for a booze-filled night on the town and was seduced by Fluvium, who turned her into a demon vampire. In a moment of uncontrollable blood lust on her first night as a vampire, Rose killed a little girl she was caring for, and she has been carrying the grief and pain of that act ever since. At that time, she begged God for help, but He never answered her pleas, and she now hates everything connected with Heaven—especially angels, even Tainted ones.

     The main plot follows the erratic (and erotic) romantic and action-filled adventures of Japh and Rose as they come to a shaky and unreliable truce and work together (mostly) to take down some of the bad guys, including Fluvium. The book is filled with pages and pages of Japh and Rose's anguished, angst-filled dialogues and interior monologues, bemoaning their fate and lamenting that their relationship can never develop into anything positive.

     The book includes several sub-plots that add to our knowledge of the characters, particularly the villainous archangel, Michael, and Jadzia's demon boyfriend, Shaz. It turns out that Michael is even more evil than he seemed to be in the previous book, as he continues to plot against his brother, Gabriel, and betrays both the Tainted and the angels of the Heavenly Host. 

     The over-arching series story arc involves the demon King, Azaroth (second in command to Satan), and his dastardly plans for world domination. Those plans will lead to the ultimate Apocalypse as soon as all of the seven vials are emptied. We get a bit of a shocker at the end of the book about Azaroth's earthly identity (but please don't read ahead and spoil the story for yourself).

     This book is just as dark, bloody, and violent as the first one was, and few the characters (good and bad) demonstrate any admirable character traits. The bad guys are totally one dimensional—malignant to the core. The good guys are all arrogant, womanizing, hard-drinking boors, but I'm sure that each one will turn out to have a heart of gold when it comes time to star in his own book (with the possible exception of Michael). Click HERE to read the first chapter of Redemption.

UPDATE! Sherrilyn Kenyon & Dianna Love: THE BELADOR SERIES

UPDATE!

I have just updated a previous post for Sherrilyn Kenyon and Dianna Love with a review of the third book in their BELADOR SERIES: The Curse.

Click on either of the authors' names or the book title above to go directly to the updated review.

Rosalie Lario: DEMONS OF INFERNUM SERIES

Author:  Rosalie Lario   
Series:  DEMONS OF INFERNUM  
Plot Type:  Soul Mate Romance (SMR)  
Ratings:  Violence—4-5; Sensuality—4; Humor—2
Publisher and Titles:  Entangled Publishing
        Blood of the Demon (7/2012)
        Mark of the Sylph (3/2013)
        Touch of the Angel (11/2013)
        "Heart of the Incubus" (e-novella, 12/2013)

        Call of the Siren (3/2014) (FINAL)  

     This post was revised and updated on 4/30/14 to include a review of Call of the Siren, the fourth and FINAL novel in the series. That review appears first, followed by an overview of the world-building and reviews of the first three novels and the novella.   

            NOVEL 4:  Call of the Siren           

     At the end of Touch of the Angel, Ronin was reunited with his long-lost adopted sister, Iolina (aka Lina), who is both an angel and a skilled mercenary. As Call of the Siren opens, Lina and Ronin are still trying to establish a peaceful reacquaintance while Dagan tries hard to heed Ronin's warning to stay away from his sister. Ronin knows all about Dagan's womanizing and hard partying life, and he doesn't want Dagan anywhere near Lima. In fact, when Ronin suspects that Dagan has been seeing Lina, he throws some harsh words at Dagan: "Lina can do a hell of a lot better than a one-night stand with an emotionally damaged man-whore." (chapter 3) This ugly discord between Ronin and Dagan soon escalates from verbal abuse into physical assault as an enraged Ronin watches the Dagan-Lina relationship evolve from bud to blossom to full bloom.

     Meanwhile, the evil dark elf, Belpheg, continues his plan to decimate the Council and take over the world. His latest action is to rescue Mammon, the brothers' villainous father, from the Council's supposedly impenetrable dungeon. Belpheg plans to use Mammon as the twelfth man in his circle of power. He has a plan to lure Mammon's four sons to his Romanian castle where he will drain their powers into Mammon. Then he will perform a ceremony that will transfer the powers of Mammon and his eleven other captives into himself, thus becoming the most powerful being in the world. At that point, he will destroy the Council as revenge for their destruction of his clan so many years ago. Towards the end, Lario makes a last-ditch attempt to add some pathos to her depictions of Belpheg and Mammon by portraying their motivations sympathetically and by trying to cajole the reader into viewing them with some level of compassion. Unfortunately, that doesn't quite work—too little too late, I'm afraid.

     As usual, the plot follows two story lines: the romance and the action. In the romance story, Dagan and Lina are mutually attracted to one another and gradually become more and more romantically inclined, all the while trying to hide their attraction from Ronin. Both Dagan and, especially, Lina have shameful events in their pasts that they are afraid to reveal to the other, but eventually they come clean and their love flourishes. 

     In the action part of the story, Belpheg plots and re-plots; Mammon tries to figure out a way to get out of Belpheg's clutches; and another one of Mammon's sons makes an appearance. Since this is the final novel in the series, you can be sure that all of the good guys and gals get their HEAs and all of the bad guys get their just punishments. But first, they all must go through lots of angst, heartbreak, and danger. 

     This is a satisfying conclusion to what has been a mostly solid paranormal romance series. All of the loose ends are woven together in the final chapters, and the brothers and their wives go off into their happy, domesticated futures. Although the series features the usual alpha males and submissive females, the overall story arc plays out in a convincing manner, and the four brothers are well defined, particularly by the time we get to this final book. Once again, the prickly, but always supportive, camaraderie among the all-for-and-one-for-all brothers is quite poignant—and sometimes very humorous. Just as in the earlier novels, the women play important, but mostly supportive, roles. If you haven't read the earlier novels, I recommend that you read them first—in order—before reading this book. Click HERE and scroll down a bit to read the first two chapters of Call of the Siren.

     Just one last point: I read this as an e-book (Kindle) and was disappointed to find many copy-proofing errors, mostly incorrect word usages. Here are a few examples: "she'd banned together with Ronin" (banded); "she'd be rearing to go." (raring); "for all intense and purposes" (intents).  

            WORLD-BUILDING            

     To know what you're getting in this series, all you have to do is look at the cover art: lots of hunky alpha heroes, each of whom falls head over heels in love with a spunky but submissive 21st century woman. This is a typical paranormal romance series, better written than most, but still populated by a series of one-dimensional characters and suffering from quite a few bumps in the plots.

     In this multiverse, supernatural beings live on other planets, or dimensions. Demons and angels live in Infernum; Greek gods and goddesses live in Olympia; shifters live in Enevora; and water creatures live in their own undersea dimension. Together, these dimensions are known as the Otherworlds, and they are ruled by the Elden Council, a group composed of elders from each of the worlds. Travel between dimensions, including Earth, is supervised by the Council, and each major city on Earth has a portal. Although demons and angels exist in this multiverse, they have no connection with Christian theology, and there is no concept of Heaven or Hell.  

     The heroes of the series are four half-demon brothers, each of whom was fathered by the villainous and demonic Mammon, but they all have different supernatural mothers, each of whom was raped by Mammon with the specific purpose of creating half-breed offspring for himself. This means that each brother was born with a different set of powers: 

    > Keegan, the eldest: His mother was a dragon. His powers include healing as well as a few dragon powers. (Novel 1)

    > Taeg: His mother was fae—an air sylph. His powers include healing, teleportation (aka flashing), and the ability to charm others through a form of mind control. (Novel 2)

    > Ronin: His mother was an angel. His powers include the ability to calm others and the ability to fly—with wings. (Novel 3)  

    > Dagan, the youngest: His mother was a siren. His powers include a great singing voice, breathing underwater, and sex appeal. (Novel 4)   

     The brothers' incubus friend, Cresso Taylor, helps them out from time to time, and his story is told in the novella, "Heart of the Incubus."

     The brothers were raised—and constantly abused—by Mammon, who sought to turn them into replicas of himself. They escaped some years ago and are now employed by the Council as Detainors, which means that they are basically inter-dimensional bounty hunters who hunt down supernatural law-breakers and bring them to the Council for punishment.

     Mammon is a stereotypically cruel and arrogant villain. He is a greed demon (an avaritia) who seeks world domination, and he'll let nothing and no one stand in his way—especially not his sons. By the end of book 1, another villain emerges in the person of Leviathos, Mammon's demonic right-hand man, who was a boyhood friend of the brothers but who has turned against them.

            BOOK 1:  Blood of the Demon            

     The romantic protagonists in the series opener are Keegan and Brynn, who is the owner of an art gallery in New York City. As the story opens, Keegan kidnaps Brynn because she is supposed to be the heir—the only living ancestor of Iyri, an ancient Egyptian priest who concocted a secret spell to raise the dead. When the Council had Iyri killed, they buried the book containing the spell with his body and kept no records as to the location of Iyri's tomb. Before he died, Iyri impregnated an incubus named Sitha, and Brynn is the last one left in their bloodline. Only a direct ancestor of Iyri can open the book and read the spell. 

     Both the brothers and Mammon want the book. Mammon wants to use the spell to raise his own undead army, and the brothers want to destroy the book. The big problem for Keegan is that he falls for Brynn, knowing that the Council has ordered her death to keep Mammon from getting the spell. The romance plot follows the couple through their angst-filled romantic journey, and the action plot follows the brothers and Mammon as each attempts to retrieve the book.

     The plot has more than a few holes. For example, even though Mammon's use of the spell might cause the destruction of the population of the world, the Council sends only the four brothers to find it and refuses to give them any assistance. In another improbable scene, Brynn somehow knows that Keegan's brothers have been captured by Mammon even though Keegan makes a point of not telling her. Another problem is that Mammon is such a stereotypical, one-note villain who is violently cruel to everyone, even his supporters. In one scene, he kills one of his minions because she didn't ensure that his bed had 1,000-thread-count sheets. At one point, we learn that Mammon has fathered many more half-breed children, most of whom he's lost track of, and I'm sure that some of them will be turning up in later books.

         When Jeaniene Frost had Cat and Bones make passionate love while soaring through the air above an Iowa cornfield (in One Grave at a Time), she unleashed a new paranormal romance trope, which Lario uses (but not as effectively as Frost) in one scene in this book. Although Lario is a good-enough story teller, there is nothing new or inventive in the world-building. We've seen this whole set-up many times before: the jocular, wise-cracking, alpha brothers; the evil, power-mad father figure; the corrupt Council; and the sassy-but-submissive heroine. The final outcome of the plot is predictable, although it does take some twists and turns along the way. If you've read many paranormal romances, you'll realize early on that at some point the hero and heroine will be forced to make life-threatening sacrifices for one another...and they do. So...although Lario is an above-average writer, her story has been told many, many times before. If you're crazy about paranormal romance, maybe this won't bother you, but for me, it was a turn-off. Click HERE and scroll down a bit to read an excerpt from Blood of the Demon.    

            NOVEL 2:  Mark of the Sylph           

     This novel tells the soul-mate love story of Taeg Meyers, the second demon brother (half demon/half air sylph), and Maya Flores, a human librarian who is immune to all magic. This means that Maya is unaffected by all supernatural glamours. She sees right through them to the real physical appearance of supernatural creatures. Taeg meets Maya at the local library, where he is researching Excalibur, King Arthur's legendary sword, hoping that he can locate the ancient weapon and use it to destroy the Book of the Dead, thus freeing his sister-in-law, Brynn (heroine of book 1) from being sought after by all of the megalomaniacal villains in the supernatural world. Like Keegan in book 1, Taeg has to kidnap Maya in order to talk her into helping him.    

     Maya has had the typical unhappy childhood of every paranormal fiction heroine. Her parents and younger sister were butchered by a pair of demons after the demons realized that Maya could see through their glamours. Not long after her family's death, Maya was adopted and moved to New York City, but she still has nightmares about that night and she still blames herself for their deaths. Since that time, Maya has made a habit of killing demons, believing that all demons are as evil as the ones who killed her family. When she realizes that Taeg is a demon, she attacks him in an alley, where she accidentally knocks herself out, forcing him to carry her home.  


     Soon enough, the two are having oh-so-lustful thoughts about one another, but at first, neither wants to act on those feelings. Taeg wants to concentrate all of his energy on finding the sword and destroying the book, while Maya hates demons so much that she has a hard time believing that Taeg and his brothers are not evil creatures from hell.     


     The story follows Taeg and Maya as they figure out the location of the sword and fly off to retrieve it, facing a few obstacles along the way, primarily Leviathos, Taeg's former best friend—now a power-mad, vengeance-seeking enemy. In addition to Leviathos, there is another enemy that the demon brothers don't know about: Belpheg, a powerful dark fae energy manipulator. He is a fugitive from the Elden Council who is currently hiding out in his home dimension of Faelan. Belpheg is plotting the Council's destruction, but he needs the Book of Death to complete his plans. Although Leviathos and Belpheg are working together to retrieve the Blook, each plans to double-cross the other and keep the Book for himself.  


     Once again, this is a typical paranormal romance, with the starring couple constantly going up against evil forces, but taking love breaks every chance they get. As usual, both are forced to make huge sacrifices and put their lives on the line for each other as various conflicts are resolved. For readers looking for erotic sexual antics, this book should do the trick because it contains an abundance of graphically detailed bedroom scenes.   


     As in book 1, the plot is rife with improbabilities, but it moves along at a such a rapid pace that if you don't think too hard about some of the plot bumps, you're soon past them and on to the next piece of action or sexual adventure. If you love erotic paranormal romance, you'll probably enjoy this series. It helps to have read the first book so that you are up to date on the situation regarding the Book of the Dead. Click HERE and scroll down a bit to read an excerpt from Mark of the Sylph.

            NOVEL 3:  Touch of the Angel           

     The series story arc that revolves around the villainous dark elf, Belpheg, continues in this novel. This time around, Belpheg has enlisted the services of Asmodeus, a paranoid, sociopathic incubus who has bound a small group of succubi to him, forcing them to do his bidding. As part of Belpheg's evil plan, he has taught Asmodeus to drain the energy that the succubi gather from powerful male supernaturals and then transfer it to Belpheg. Asmodeus keeps his succubi on the verge of starvation so that they are always weak and willing to bend to his will. Asmodeus believes that he and Belpheg are equal partners, but, of course, Belpheg plans to double-cross him after Asmodeus gathers the energy from supernatural males having twelve different powers. Belpheg is an old friend of Mammon, the demon bothers' father, so you know immediately that he is not to be trusted.

     A succubus is a female sex demon who preys on males; an incubus is a male sex demon who preys on females. In both cases the sex demon requires sexual energy to survive—either from a sex demon of the opposite sex or from another demon of the opposite sex. Here is how the succubus heroine of this book explains it: "Sex was what she needed to survive. It was the only thing that would replenish her depleting life essence. But the chemicals her body produced during sex were toxic to everyone but other sex demons. As an incubus, Asmodeus was one of the few men who could feed her without dying in the process." (p. 37)

     One of Asmodeus' succubi is Amara; another is Amara's mother, Solara. Amara allowed herself to be bound to Asmodeus in order to save her mother from Asmodeus' vicious treatment. One night, Amara is sent out to track down and drain a particular male supernatural, but instead she runs into Ronin, the third demon brother (half demon/half angel), in a club. Naturally, it's lust at first sight for both of them, but for Ronin, it's almost death at first touch. Amara is so sex starved and so attracted to Ronin that she allows herself to drain his life force and he nearly dies. His life is saved by the brothers' friend, an incubus named Cresso Taylor, who is experimenting on a vaccine that will immunize a person against incubi and succubi body chemicals. Although Ronin slowly recovers from his brush with death, his demonic strength and his angelic powers have become muted and slightly changed.

     Meanwhile, the brothers are bored because they haven't received a bounty-hunting assignment from the Council for months. One night, several weeks after Ronin's near-death experience, they get a call from the Council to investigate Asmodeus' activities. When they stake out Asmodeus' lavish mansion, Ronin is stunned to see Amara leaving the house, and he immediately assumes that she is working for the incubus voluntarily on some evil mission.

     The brothers capture Amara, and from that point, the action begins to kick in, both in the bedroom and on the field of battle. Amara soon reveals her complicated situation with Asmodeus, and she and Ronin begin a series of bedroom scenes that consist of some extensive, graphic foreplay (because she will drain him again if they consummate the act). The brothers also continue to spy on Asmodeus, but he has a powerful magical shield in place around his house, so they can't get inside.

     As the story line plays out, the brothers are attacked several times by demonic mercenaries hired by Asmodeus  (They always win, of course.) By the end, both Ronin and Amara have put their lives at risk for the other, but they also find a way to consummate their relationship without killing Ronin. Just before the final showdown battle, Ronin is shocked when someone from his childhood turns up to help them fight. It won't surprise you to learn that this mystery woman becomes Dagan's love interest in the next novel.

     This is another typical erotic paranormal romance featuring feisty, but submissive females and cocky alpha males who fight against the evil forces in the supernatural world at the risk of their own lives. If you've been reading the series, you'll be relieved to know that Brynn's baby (conceived in book 1) is FINALLY born safe and sound. Click HERE and scroll down a bit to read an excerpt from Touch of the Angel.

            E-NOVELLA 1:  "Heart of the Incubus"             

     Just as in Touch of the Angel, one of the lead characters in this novella is a sex demon, but this time it's an incubus rather than a succubus. The story opens in London about a month after the end of Touch of the Angel. Dr. Cresso Taylor, an incubus, works in the demon research section at Elcorp Lab, the research facility funded by the Elden Council. For the past three years, Cresso has been working on a cure for the toxic compound secreted by sex demons (incubi and succubi) during sex. In Touch of the Angel, Cresso saved Amara's life with his newly developed vaccine that neutralizes the effect of the toxin, but he still hasn't found a cure.

     Cresso has fallen hard for Dr. Genevieve (Gen) Russell, the human female scientist who helped him create the vaccine. Unfortunately, Gen doesn't return his affections. In fact, she can't stand him. As it happens, the reason that Gen took the Elcorp job was to get as far as possible from her cheating ex-fiance. Just before their wedding, Gen walked in on him while he was in a three-way with two young and attractive women, and she has vowed never to give her heart to another man. Gen has categorized Cresso as being the same type of two-timing playboy as her ex-boyfriend because she constantly sees him in the company of gorgeous succubi. Even though she is attracted to him, she assumes that he is using his incubus sex powers on her, and she hates him for it. Poor Cresso is desperately in love with Gen, and he can't help himself from exuding all kinds of incubus pheromones whenever he is near her. 

     Their situation seems hopeless until one day when Cresso happens to be in Gen's office when she opens a seemingly harmless package and finds a skinned dead rat inside. Gen confesses to Cresso that she has been receiving sick and threatening anonymous letters for several weeks, so he insists on trying to track down the villain. As the stalker's threats against Gen accelerate, she moves into Cresso's apartment, where their mutual attraction revs up both their libidos. Cresso even does some dreamscaping into Gen's dreams, and that's when he learns that she views him as being an even worse person than her cheating ex-boyfriend.

     As Cresso and his friends try to identify Gen's stalker, the two become closer and closer, and Gen begins to realize that there's more to Cresso than she first thought. Eventually, in the requisite showdown scene, Gen is put into a gravely dangerous situation from which Cresso must rescue her. Then, as you can no doubt predict, they go on to their HEA.

     This little story fills in the gaps in Cresso's backstory. He has been a supporting character all though the series, beginning in book 1, so it's nice to learn more about him. Cresso is, by far, the more complex of the two lead characters. Gen comes across as narrow-minded and vindictive as she makes all kinds of false assumptions about Cresso and rarely gives him a chance to explain himself. Also, in a major improbability, Gen has not reported her stalker's letters to her boss—or to anyone, really. Then, she allows Cresso to jump in and take over the investigation, even though she can't stand him. Even then, neither of them even consider reporting the incidents to anyone in authority. Their actions seem unbelievable to me. 

     And just one last tiny nit-pick: When Cresso takes Gen out to eat at a popular Italian restaurant, they order roasted chicken and potatoes. Yes, they  actually order potatoes at an ITALIAN restaurant! Why in the world would you ever willingly choose an Italian restaurant if you were hungry for roasted chicken and potatoes? Click HERE and scroll down a bit to read an excerpt from "Heart of the Incubus."

UPDATE! Dianne Duvall's IMMORTAL GUARDIANS SERIES

UPDATE!

I have just updated a previous post for Dianne Duvall with a review of the third book in her IMMORTAL GUARDIANS SERIES: Phantom Shadows.

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

Maggie Shayne: THE PORTAL TRILOGY

Author:  Maggie Shayne  
Series:  THE PORTAL TRILOGY  
Plot Type:  SMR  
Ratings:  V3; S3; H1
Publisher and Titles:  Harlequin Mira
        "Legacy of the Witch" (free e-novella prequel, 9/2012)
        Mark of the Witch (9/2012)
        Daughter of the Spellcaster (11/2012)
        Blood of the Sorceress (1/2013) (FINAL)

     This post was revised and updated on 3/8/13 to include a review of the third novel in the series, Blood of the Sorceress. That review appears first, followed by reviews of the prequel e-novella and novels 1 and 2:

          NOVEL 3:  Blood of the Sorceress          

     The third novel brings the series story arc to its climactic ending as Demetrius and Lilia finally reunite after 3,500 years and achieve their HEA—but not without a great deal of danger and difficulty. Here's the multi-layered problem: Demetrius must—of his own free will—ask Lilia for the third piece of his soul before Beltane (May 1). If he does this, he will become human once again, losing his immortality and his magical talents, but gaining her love and devotion for as long as they live. If he does not ask for his soul-piece before Beltane, both he and Lilia (and her sisters) will die on Beltane. If Lilia dies either before Beltane or before Demetrius takes his soul-piece back, he will "expire into a death from which there is no return. He will simply cease to exist." (p. 57)

     As the story opens (on February 2), Demetrius awakens as a human man in the icy cave near Milbury, New York, that has been featured in the previous two novels. He manages to steal clothing, money, and a bus ticket to New York and winds up penniless on the streets of Manhattan hanging out with Gus, another homeless man. When Demetrius appears in his corporeal body in the cave, Lilia (Demetrius' long-lost lover who exists only in spirit form) is watching from between the worlds, just as she has kept watch over him for all these centuries. When he gets to New York, she makes him remember how to make the physical connection between his magical dagger and chalice thus bringing her back to corporeal life, but her appearance frightens him so much that he runs into the path of a car and is severely injured. As it turns out, the man who ran over Demetrius is very wealthy and very drunk and doesn't want anyone to know about his transgression, so he gifts Demetrius and Gus with a fabulous estate in Arizona and plenty of money to maintain it. (This last bit of plot is the most outlandish absurdity of the series.) By the time Lilia finds Demetrius in Arizona, there are just a few days left before Beltane, so the pressure is on.

     To complicate matters (and to provide an action plot to offset the romance plot), the villainous Father Dom comes out of his coma the moment Lilia re-enters the world as a mortal. He sets out for Arizona to convince Demetrius to turn down Lilia's offer of the soul-piece, telling Demetrius that Lilia is responsible for his horrific punishment during the past centuries and that she is a wicked witch who just wants to take his powers for herself. As part of the rules of this whole mythology, Lilia can't explain the live-die-Beltane situation to Demitrius. She can only tell him that she loves him and that he will have a better, more enjoyable life as a human. Demitrius, however, likes his magical powers and his immortality and doesn't want to give them up, and besides, Father Dom has brainwashed Demitrius into believing that Lilia is lying to him.

     As Beltane rapidly approaches, the plot plays out as Lilia desperately tries to convince Demetrius to take the final piece of his soul, and Father Dom (who turns out to be much more than a simple priest) tries even harder to turn Demetrius against Lilia. Eventually, the action moves back to New York where the other two sisters get involved in the final showdown. 

     You'll probably be able to predict the manner in which the conflict is resolved about half-way through the book—at least I could, just by thinking about the original story of the witches' death and the people involved. This has been a fairly standard paranormal romance series, but with a more interesting and complex series story arc than most. Lilia and Demetrius are certainly the most tortured and anguished of the three couples, and given their history, that's entirely understandable. Please don't read this book before you've read the other two novels and the novella. Otherwise, you'll lose the build-up of the back story.

          WORLD-BUILDING          

     The premise of the series is that three Daughters of Ishtar (all witches) in Ancient Babylonia were executed (thrown from a cliff) for practicing their Craft.  Their names were Indira, Magdalena, and Lilia. Along with them, Lilia's lover, Demetrius, was tortured and killed because he killed the king in an unsuccessful attempt to save Lilia's life. The villainous priest who orchestrated the executions planned to tear out Demetrius' soul so that he would be condemned forever to Hell, but the witches cast a spell to take Demetrius' soul before the priest could get his hands on it, and then they divided it into three parts. Each witch hid her piece of the soul until some future time when she can safely return it to Demetrius, who must remain in Hell until he gets back all three parts. 

     Each book tells the angst-filled love story of one of the witches as she goes through all sorts of agonizing experiences in order to return her piece to Demetrius. After all these centuries in Hell, Demetrius has become a dark and dangerous spiritual force, so even though he's gradually getting his soul back, he is a danger to the witches and their loved ones. The series theme is succinctly summarized in the classic Beatles' song, "All You Need Is Love."  Here, Lilia explains that theme further: "Love. It's all about love. Love destroyed, love denied, love betrayed, love that outlives death and defies all the rules of the Universe to fulfill itself." (Blood of the Sorceress, p. 44)

     Click HERE to go to Shayne's PORTAL SERIES web site, which includes information about various aspects of the series, including the "Online Book of Shadows," a guide to spell casting.

          E-NOVELLA PREQUEL:  Legacy of the Witch          

     This short novella sets up the back story for the series. In the opening scene, Amarrah is a young girl living in Iraq in 1981. All her life, she has had memories of another life, one in which she was a slave girl in a harem in ancient Babylonia (1500 B. C.) where she witnessed the execution of three witches who had been kind to her. As Amarrah's grandmother is dying she entrusts Amarrah with a "miniature treasure chest, an ancient one. It was a couple of feet long, maybe half that deep, with a top that curved and was banded in black iron. It was locked with a hasp and antique padlock." The box contains information related to the three witches, and Amarrah's grandmother assures her that only she will know exactly what to do with it. Unfortunately, a customs inspector takes the box away from Amarrah as she is leaving Iraq for America.

    The story then jumps to New York in 1992. Amarrah is now 24 and is finishing up her final semester of college when she sees her box on a TV antiques show. The woman who has possession of the box says that her fiance brought it back from Iraq. Amarrah tracks the owner in his home in Ohio, where she finds him to be a tall, dark, and handsome replica of the soldier who was the lover of the original Amarrah back in Babylonia. The plot plays out as they retrieve the box and fall in love.

     Even though this story has a romance and a plot, it is strictly a bridge to the PORTAL series. Its only value is that it gives the reader the back story for the mythology of the series. To date, this novella is free for the Kindle and the Nook. Click HERE to download the Kindle version. Click HERE to download the Nook version. The Apple Store sells it for $1.99. Click HERE for that download.

          NOVEL 1:  Mark of the Witch          

     The first novel tells the story of the witch Indira, who has changed from a dark-skinned brunette in Ancient Babylonia to a short blond in 21st-century Brooklyn. Modern-day Indira, whose nickname now is Indie, is having strange nightmares about being thrown off a cliff by a man she loves. As her dreams continue, we recognize that she is one of the witches in Amarrah's story. When one of the nightmares leaves Indie with rope-burn scars on her wrists, she goes to her friend Rayne for help. Rayne is the leader of the witches' coven that Indie used to belong to, until she lost her faith. Rayne enlists the aid of her brother, Tomas, who is a priest in an obscure Gnostic sect. In the meantime, Indie swings back and forth from being feisty to being terrified as the nightmares and their physical manifestations become more and more intense. As the story progresses, she begins to remember more and more about her past life as Indira, the executed witch, and she recognizes Tomas as the one who pushed her to her death.

     The plot follows Indie, Tomas, and Rayne, along with the villainous Father Dominick (Dom), as they make their way through a convoluted plot that involves a mysterious amulet, a portal to Hell, and a demon. The point of view alternates between Indie's first-person voice and Tomas' third-person narrative.

     There are a couple of silly scenes, most notably the one in which Indie shows up wearing bunny pajamas and carrying milk and cookies when she decides to share the contents of some sacred scrolls with Tomas. Really? Bunny PJs and Oreos in the middle of a demonic crisis? In another absurd scene, Indie flashes back to the reason she petulantly turned her back on witchcraft: She tried to use her Craft to learn the identity of her soul mate and it didn't work. Based solely on that experience, she decided that there's no such thing as magic.

     I had a hard time getting through this book. Although the mythology is inventive, the characters are thinly drawn, including the villain, who is a one-note, evil nut-job. Tomas' character is strange, in that he is a well-educated man, but so extremely naive that he never fact-checks anything that Dom tells him about the big demon threat that is the center of the plot—at least not until he meets Indie and his lustful thoughts overcome his priestliness. Tomas is like a cult victim, brainwashed and seemingly incapable of independent thought regarding the demon, although he is having his doubts about the priesthood. We never really get to know any of the characters because we only see them in the context of their present circumstances. We do see the execution scene, but again, it doesn't really give us any real insight into the characters. The heroine in the prequel novella is actually a much better developed character than anyone in this book. The second book is coming out shortly, so I'll give that one a try in the hopes that things will get better.

          NOVEL 2:  Daughter of the Spellcaster          

     This novel starts out like one of those Harlequin romances that could be entitled The Billionaire's Secret Baby, but it soon becomes creepily reminiscent of the classic horror film, Rosemary's Baby. 

     The second book of the series tells the story of the second sister, Magdalena. In her 21st-century incarnation, Magdalena is Lena Dunkirk, who has been brought up in a world of witchcraft, having done her first scrying when she was only a child. During that initial scrying experience, Lena visualized herself as one of three Arabian sisters and saw a handsome prince who was leaving her temporarily but promised to come back and marry her. Decades later, Lena met Ryan McNally, an extremely wealthy and handsome playboy who looked exactly like that prince, and the two had an affair that resulted in her pregnancy. Lena was sure that Ryan would see her as a gold-digger if she told him about the baby, so she left him behind and went with her mother to live in a small town in upstate New York. If you read book 1, you'll recognize that this is the same area in which Indira and Tomas had their adventures.

     The story begins when Lena is eight months pregnant and receives news that Ryan's father, Ernst, has died. Lena loved Ernst very much, so she goes to the funeral, where she confronts Ryan with his impending fatherhood. When Ernst's will is read, Lena is shocked to learn she and her baby receive a generous bequest. Ernst's will also leaves bequests to two others: his son, Ryan, and his guru, Bahru. When Ryan was eleven, his mother died, and Ernst fell apart, spending the rest of his life grieving and searching for solace in various spiritual beliefs. Bahru became his personal guru and accompanied him all over the world during this search. Needless to say, Ryan dislikes and distrusts Bahru, the man who led his father away from him, farming him out to nannies and boarding schools. Ryan is determined never to give his heart to anyone because he never wants to experience the mind-numbing grief that ruined his father's—and his own—life.

    Once again, decorative wooden boxes play an important part of the magical story line. Lena gets her box from Ernst by way of Bahru, and it contains the same bejeweled, silver chalice that she saw during her childhood scrying. Ryan gets his box from his father's attorney, and it contains a gold athame (a ceremonial dagger) that shoots fire. (The first time he handles it, he burns a hole in the curtains.)

     The plot focuses on Ryan and Lena as they first try to coexist for the sake of their forthcoming child, but then find themselves falling deeply in love. In the meantime, it turns out that Bahru isn't what he seems, and neither are some of the seemingly kindly townsfolk. Lena soon finds herself and her baby in grave danger, and she's not sure that she can trust Ryan—or maybe she can. Remember that Demetrius is still out there, and he'll do anything to get back all of the pieces of his soul.

     This is a better story with more fully developed characters than the previous one. The angst is a bit overdone, particularly for Lena, as she jolts back and forth from deep distrust of Ryan to lustful love and back again on almost an hourly basis. Both of the lead characters are well drawn with mostly believable fears and emotions (except for all that angst)—especially Ryan, who is the character who changes the most during the course of the story. In the beginning, he dismisses Lena's Craft as being "cute," but by the end, he is a true believer in magic. The plot plays out in a manner that gradually builds suspense and horror, although the bad guys are fairly easy to spot early in the story. The next book is due out shortly, and that story will involve the delivery of the final piece of Demetrius' soul.

     Just a word about the cover art: The woman fits Lena's description perfectly, but the man looks nothing like Ryan, who is supposed to be a blue-eyed, brown-haired man of Irish-American heritage.

UPDATE! A. C. Arthur: SHADOW SHIFTERS SERIES

UPDATE!

I have just updated a previous post for A. C. Arthur with a review of the second book in her SHADOW SHIFTERS SERIES: Seduction's Shift.

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