Immersed by Liz Craven

TITLE: Immersed
AUTHOR: Liz Craven
PUBLISHER: Samhain
LENGTH: Novel (roughly 57k)
GENRE: Sci-fi romance
COST: $4.50

In her latest assignment, healer Ilexa Dhakir has been placed amongst the Hakimu, the clan of her brother’s best friend. Thane also happens to be the man she’s been in love with since she was a child. Thrust into the middle of a society she knows nothing about, she’s forced to rely upon Thane for guidance, but her independent spirit and need to heal don’t always make that easy…

As much as I loved the first book in this series and looked forward to reading the second, it’s taken me quite a while to actually finish it. I’ve started, stopped, and restarted this book four separate times over the past year, and each time, just couldn’t get involved enough to keep going. I slogged through this last time, and while it did improve from the beginning that just couldn’t grab me, it never quite reached the same heights the first book did for me.

Both Ilexa and Thane were introduced in the first book, as the sister and best friend of the hero. Here, the spark between them finally gets to catch, but it’s a slow burn. Ilexa is thrust into tribal life without any indoctrination about custom and muddles things almost from the start. Thane is suitably alarmed and tries to help, but he’s in constant conflict about his desire for Lex and his sense of duty to her brother. They struggle to find some kind of balance between her need to help, and their mutual attraction, and what unfolds is a world just as fully realized, and still different, as what was presented in the first book. The details of this clan, with its primitive beliefs in the midst of high technology, are rich and fascinating, almost more so than those in its predecessor, and my continued interest in their society was the driving force that finally got me sucked into the story. I was far more intrigued by the various political machinations than I was Ilexa and Thane’s romance, but through time and the eventual forward momentum of the action, I came to care more for what was happening between them.

I think part of my problem stems from the characterizations. Thane seems all too familiar to me as a reader, an archetype that perhaps I’ve read too much of lately with not enough to truly make him stand out. Ilexa actually had far greater depth, strong and independent, but one aspect never settled well with me. She left her home planet to volunteer in a medical exchange program, and did so much to the worry of her family. Everybody said she’d lost her spirit, that she appeared as if something truly traumatic had happened to her. Thane comments on it more than once throughout the story. When the explanation is finally given, it was very anticlimactic. I didn’t understand how it could justify such an extreme reaction on her part, especially since she supposedly suffers from the same symptomology. Because I could never resolve that disparity to my own satisfaction, I ended up dissociating from her more as the story progressed.

I didn’t necessarily feel a romantic sense of “Ah…” when the book ended, but the satisfaction in seeing how the Hakimu evolved and came together more than compensated for it. I know the next book is supposed to be about another of Ilexa’s brothers, but I almost wish it was more about this particular world. I’d love to know who ends up giving birth to the Malkine, and how Ilexa comes to influence it, but those stories, it seems, will likely have to live in my imagination.

Readability	8/10 – A constant forward momentum helps keep the reader engaged, though I found it less involving than the first book
Hero	7/10 – Alpha and sexy, if not entirely consistent
Heroine	7/10 – Strong and independent, but it felt like her reasons for leaving her home never measured up to how far she had supposedly fallen
Entertainment value	7/10 – A solid read, but not nearly as good as the first book
World building	9/10 – The juxtaposition of Ilexa’s experiences with Thane’s homeworld is the book’s greatest strength
TOTAL:	38/50

Books to look forward to in 2009

My last list of 2008 isn't a list of favorites from what I read/reviewed. I've gone out and checked coming soon pages at all the e-publishers I haunt, to find the stories I'm looking forward to getting in 2009. These aren't all of them, not by a long shot. I chose my five based on what the pubs had on their coming soon page or what the author had on their website. So in no particular order, five e-books I'm highly anticipating in the New Year...

Dangling by Yeva Wiest, published by Lyrical Press
While the first book I read by this author was riddled with some serious editorial problems, I'm hoping that the positive response from the publisher means this latest offering - another dark comedy about the archangel Michael and his transgender lover - will be cleaner. The author has already proven she can be original. Now I'm hoping she got some strong editing to allow her voice to shine.

Immersed by Liz Craven, published by Samhain
This is the next in the series after the author's excellent Prophesied. Few series inspire me to follow after the first book, even though I adore series. But this sucked me in.

Called By Blood by Evie Byrne, published by Samhain
I loved this author's voice in her novella Dante's Inferno. This one looks to be dark and hot, always a good thing.

Object of His Desire by Ava March, published by Samhain
Yes, it's a historical, but it's also a gay historical, and the first story I read by this author was hot enough to encourage me to read more of her work.

The White Knight by Josh Lanyon, published by Loose Id
This is the prequel/sequel to Lanyon's The Dark Horse. That's all I know. That's enough.

And one book that's not coming out in e-form, but I have to include, because, well, I love this author...

Kelland by Paul G. Bens, Jr., published by Casperian Books
Though I only review e-books on my blog, I still read plenty of print books in between. If Mr. Bens had more e-books coming out, I'd be buying those, too. In the interim, I'm satisfied knowing I've got this to look forward to.

Prophesied by Liz Craven

TITLE: Prophesied
AUTHOR: Liz Craven
PUBLISHER: Samhain
LENGTH: Novel (roughly 70k)
GENRE: Sci-fi romance
COST: $5.50

Lia isn’t running from her past; she’s running from her future. After hiding for a decade on a remote mining planet, her true identity has been discovered, and the man she was married to at birth has come to take her home again. Talon Dhakir doesn’t know quite what to make of the fiery woman he finds after so many years of searching, but he does know she has a duty to perform and he is going to do his damnedest to make sure she fulfills her prophesied role. Assuming their roles as husband and wife might prove to be even harder…

I’m not normally a fan of plots that use prophecies or fate as primary devices. 99% of the time, if I see either word in a blurb or excerpt, I immediately click away. My experience has mostly been that these tend to be author shortcuts for actual plot or character development. So when I saw this particular title, I almost immediately closed the window. The captivating cover art got me to read the blurb, which led me to the excerpt, and I decided to take a chance. I’m incredibly glad I did.

A tense and intriguing beginning segues into even tighter sexual tension as Talon and Lia rediscover each other. Talon only ever saw Lia as a child and an obligation, while Lia had a childhood crush on the older man who was the one bright spot of her year. Talon is a gorgeous blend of alpha posturing, with an underlying driving need to make sure the women in his life are happy, but he’s far from perfect. It’s difficult for him to see Lia’s perspective on why she might not be eager to return to the prophecy, and the pair constantly butt heads on the issue. For her part, Lia makes several choices which make sense after the fact, but up to and during had me wondering if she really was an idiot. As the pair gets closer to their home planet, it gets harder to read their obtuseness to each other’s situation, enough to the point where I worried Talon was going to turn into a jerk about the whole matter. Luckily, both he and Lia redeem themselves, and the result is a wonderfully satisfying romance wrapped in political intrigue.

While the author is masterful at creating the rich worlds her characters populate, I have to admit to being mildly let down in one specific regard. Samhain typically has some of the best edited books out there, and while this manuscript is clean of most editorial mistakes, one place where it lapses is homonym misusage. It’s not an occasional thing, which can be overlooked. It’s every instance of certain words. “Principal” always gets mistaken for “principle,” and “gage” gets mistaken for “gauge,” for instance. The first time made me blink and go, “Huh.” The second, third, and fourth times made me realize it was a distinct trend. It’s a little disappointing, actually, because for whatever reason, I expect more from Samhain books. This failed to meet the high standard their editorial staff usually meets.

To be honest, though, a lot of readers might not even notice the mistakes. These are things that I know bug me, but might not be as important to others. When a story is as gripping and romantic as this one is, too, it’s easier to get swept along with it and overlook technical errors. If it weren’t for those damn homonyms, this would be even higher on my keeper list.

Readability	8/10 – Consistent homonym misuse yanks me out of the flow of a story I couldn’t stop reading otherwise
Hero	8/10 – A wonderful mix of alpha posturing with beta tendencies
Heroine	8/10 – Strong, though several actions veer her toward TSTL until we learn the whys of what she’s doing
Entertainment value	9/10 – I got swept up by both the intrigue and the romance in this, making it near un-put-down-able
World building	9/10 – I would have liked just a little bit more explanation on the Damaia, but otherwise the worlds were fresh and crisp
TOTAL:	42/50