Dark Waters by Gabriella Hewitt

TITLE: Dark Waters
AUTHOR: Gabriella Hewitt
PUBLISHER: Samhain Publishing
LENGTH: Novel (roughly 70k)
GENRE: Contemporary romantic suspense
COST: $5.50

Frankie Montalvo has inherited a rundown plantation on the island of Vieques, but running from no life in New York City finds her having to deal with the locals’ terror – the chupacabra. Everybody thinks her home is cursed, but she’d determined to make a go of it, enlisting the help of the only man who seems willing to help, Rico Lopez. Rico is a special agent on extended leave, on the island looking for a young female cousin who’s gone missing. He doesn’t expect getting embroiled in Frankie’s nightmares when it’s clear something is going on, nor does he expect to fall for her. But he does. On both counts.

When I was in the early chapters of this story, I got thrown back in time. To when I was ten years old and I would steal/borrow my grandmother’s gothic romances. You remember the ones I’m talking about. The one where the poor relative is about to marry into the family unwanted and someone is trying to kill her, or the girl inherits a haunted house that happens to be on a cliff, or…well, you get the idea. I remember being enthralled and terrified, which might explain my later-in-life proclivities for thrillers. This story felt like an updated version of one of those. But the comparison stops there. Because I never felt the same sense of involvement that I felt for any of those gothics.

While it has the earmarks of Samhain’s typically clean presentation, the author’s style is brief and choppy. Sentences are short, and while they might be descriptive, they lack any emotional resonance to draw me into the story early enough to make me care about either the characters or the suspense. The author’s insistence to try and complicate her plot by introducing a new character almost every chapter only had me guessing as to what long-lost relative would pop-up next. Not even halfway through the book, I was so bored that it took everything I had to even finish the story. And really not surprised with how it turned out.

It might have helped if I’d gotten to get emotionally involved in either of the leads’ lives. Rico’s characterization is better than Frankie’s for me, but that could be due to the fact that I thought Frankie bordered on dumb. The author tries to justify some of her less intelligent choices – literally, sometimes with sentences like this: Sometimes smart had to take a backseat. – but that didn’t make me like Frankie any more. It just made me roll my eyes. A lot of the scenes between the two leads didn't have a smooth flow, either. Scenes felt like they were all over the place emotionally, and I could never settle into a single emotion long enough to latch onto the story.

I think in the end, it’s the author’s voice that made the story fail for me. It’s simply not my taste. That’s not to say it won’t work for someone else, though. The idea of revisiting gothics in a modern setting is appealing. I just wish this story could have done that for me.

Readability	6/10 – Choppy style and poor pacing made it difficult to stick with
Hero	6/10 – Some attempts at depth, but the lack of personal detail made it hard to feel anything for him
Heroine	4/10 – One of those heroines who borders on too stupid to live for me to like
Entertainment value	3/10 – It’s been a long time since I was so bored by something that was supposed to be suspenseful
World building	6/10 – There’s a definite feel for the island life, but I never got a real sense of the fear that’s meant to be such an integral part of Casa Verde
TOTAL:	25/50

The Average Girl's Guide to Getting Laid by Annie Dean

TITLE: The Average Girl’s Guide to Getting Laid
AUTHOR: Annie Dean
PUBLISHER: Loose Id
LENGTH: Novel (roughly 81k)
GENRE: Contemporary erotic romance
COST: $6.99

Travel writer Ellie Campbell made a bet with her best friend that she could write something interesting. The result was a sales pitch to her agent for a book called, “The Average Girl’s Guide to Getting Laid.” Now, however, Ellie has to actually write the book, and the problem is, she has no idea where to start. In a deli in New York City, she gets hit on by the gorgeous Marius Asher – Ash to everyone who knows him – and she decides to take the experience and run with it. What she doesn’t expect is to get sucked into his life, or to realize that maybe a month-long fling wasn’t what she wants from him after all.

If I didn’t think it before, I do now. Annie Dean is officially on my auto-buy list. Of course, it looks like she’s moving into print, so I’m going to have to rely on Amazon to buy her stuff, but kudos to her. With an original voice and interesting characters that ring of truth, she’s got a real career in front of her.

In spite of my huge enjoyment for the author's voice, however, I was a little apprehensive going in to this book. Frankly, I get tired of seeing blurbs that look like excuses to have lots of sex, and there are a lot of them out there. There’s a time and place for those kind of stories, and I do get in the mood for them, but most of the time, I want a plot that doesn’t have anything to do at all with needing to have so much sex in a specific time period, or proving a point by having sex with the one you shouldn’t, or sexbots gone wild. The initial angle of this plot was more of the same – and a good part of the early to middle conflict – but an interesting development occurred.

I fell in love with Ash.

There. I admitted it. By halfway through the book, I would have gladly stepped up to the plate to fill in for Ellie when she was being a total boob about the whole situation. My heart broke when his did, I got frustrated with him, I felt it all. I know that he’s the type of character that would annoy some women I know. Frankly, he exudes player vibes more than once in the story, not to mention that he’s a tad on the rude and abrupt side when he thinks he’s losing control. But getting to see him in a wide variety of settings, from work to his family to his friends to Ellie, created a rounder picture that had me okay with some of his less than desirable characteristics. They made me understand those behaviors. Even better, he showed growth as the story progressed. And did I mention he was hot as hell?

Ellie, on the other hand, wasn’t quite as appealing to me. Her whole Earth Mother routine got a little too heavyhanded for me after a while. It’s really no wonder Ash falls for her. She waits on him hand and foot. She cooks, she cleans, she puts his needs first, she’s sexually open. Why shouldn’t he want this woman in his life? Oh, that’s right. She’s supposed to be the average woman. Um…no. Didn’t buy it. She did everything just a little too well for me to believe that.

I probably didn’t like her as much, either, because I thought some of her behavior – with her “work” as her so-called defense – was childish. Deserting Ash in the middle of a baseball game to chat up a guy for a few innings in the name of research? She deserved everything she got after that.

Still, when the ending rolled around, I had the biggest smile on my face that I’ve had in a very long time as a result of an e-book. It was romantic, completely in character, and made me melt. A tremendously satisfying read.

Readability	9/10 – Sharp dialogue, great description, highly readable
Hero	10/10 – Some people might have issues with some of his occasional boorish tendencies, but I haven’t loved a hero this much in a long time
Heroine	6/10 – The earth mother routine gets a little old, as does her constant complaining about being average when I don’t really believe it
Entertainment value	9/10 – Completely caught me up, and the ending had me giddy for a good hour after I finished
World building	9/10 – Dean’s prose and attention to detail makes even the mundane stand out.
TOTAL:	43/50

Animal Attraction by Alexa & Patrick Silver

TITLE: Animal Attraction
AUTHOR: Alexa & Patrick Silver
PUBLISHER: Ellora’s Cave
LENGTH: Short story (roughly 13k)
GENRE: Paranormal ménage erotic romance
COST: $2.99

A terrible snowstorm has stranded hundreds of people at O’Hare Airport on Valentine’s Day, including a trio of shapeshifters. Wes and Tabitha Downes were on their way to a romantic cruise, designed to bring them back together as a couple, while shifter president, Brand Hove, is forced to cancel business plans. With human pheromones at their highest, they have to seek shelter or risk their shifter selves being revealed. Throwing the three of them together, however, leads to an eruption of sexual release and the discovery of soulmates.

I believe in soulmates. I do. I’ve been sucked into romances more than once where such terminology was used and I 100% believed it. I don’t think it’s a common thing, but that doesn’t stop me from believing it’s possible. So when I see stories start tossing these terms around, I keep my fingers crossed. When it’s done well, it’s gut-wrenching. Unfortunately, when it’s not, it ends up leaving me just a little bit sad about a missed opportunity.

This story falls into the latter category for me. The sex is reasonably hot, with interactions between all three – the men together, each of the men with Tabitha, all three together – but any commitment to the emotional attachment that elevates graphic scenes to another level isn’t there. Tabitha and Wes are barely holding their marriage together at the top of the story. There is no talking, no discussion of feelings before things improve. There’s just this one night of wild sex with Brand. Their marital issues get dropped completely in favor of Tabitha’s confusion over her first time shifting, and that’s where the story starts to derail.

There is a lot of shifter mythology in this story. There’s an international council, there’s special accommodations made for shifters, there’s expectations and guides and soulmate stuff that gets introduced fairly willy-nilly. Tabitha was raised unaware of her abilities, but there is no explanation why – all of a sudden – she is suddenly shifting. Maybe it was having contact with Brand, someone who embraces his shifter self. Except her husband is a shifter, as well. So what makes this night so special? I honestly don’t know. All I know is that with the introduction of all these changes, these three start talking about deeper feelings and bonds and finding the other parts of their souls. How did this couple on the brink of splitting up get this kind of turnaround? Because Brand is something special? There are hints that he is – at one point, he considers, He, more than any other shifter, was affected by human pheromones. – but what makes him so different is never made clear. That means I have nothing tangible to base any of this on. I just have all their thoughts, and then Brand’s out of the blue phone call to his spirit father – who, honest to God, I thought was like a Native American spiritual guide until he called the man on the phone – which “confirms” what Brand suspected. That he’d found his soulmates.

I’m left in the end not believing the romance I’ve just read. All of Wes and Tabitha’s problems are supposedly solved by this one night of passion. Even in a shifter world bigger than the story has room for, soulmates ought to be more than a shorthand to circumvent logical character progression.

Readability	6/10 – Choppy dissemination of detail and uneven prose made it difficult to read without wanting to jump around
Menage	6/10 – The sex is hot, and the fight for dominance believable, but it does little to compensate for shallow characterization
Characterization	4/10 – Shifter mythology is used as a shorthand for a character arc.
Entertainment value	4/10 – It’s difficult to enjoy the sex scenes – as hot as they might be – when the pacing is so uneven and I don’t have a good grip on the characters.
World building	5/10 – It felt like the bulk of the mythology got thrown out there after the characters have supposedly already connected. And even then, there were too many questions left hanging to be clear.
TOTAL:	25/50

Circle of Friends: All Wet by Gabrina Garza

TITLE: Circle of Friends: All Wet
AUTHOR: Gabrina Garza
PUBLISHER: Amber Quill Press (Amber Heat)
LENGTH: Short story (roughly 10k)
GENRE: Contemporary erotic romance
COST: $3.00

Carleena Benningfield has spent the past seven months watching the career she built as a party planner go down the tubes. Now, she’s watching her mother’s house for a couple weeks, trying to regroup. When Ben Pinato, her best friend from high school, shows up at her mother’s instruction to house sit, Carleena is shocked to see that the geeky boy she adored twenty years earlier has grown into a hunk of a man. Is it too late for them to find a new, adult relationship? Or has too much time passed to find that old connection?

Reunion stories are always a nice diversion. I probably appreciate them more, the older I get. The basic premise of this short story falls into that realm, and while this is another example of Garza’s easy prose, I find myself not quite enjoying it as much as I have her other work. It’s competent enough, but at the end of the day, it’s a morsel of cotton candy. There, and then gone.

Some issues within the first few pages made it a little difficult for me to engage with the characters quickly enough. First of all, the story opens with Ben spying on Carleena through the window, watching her in the pool from her bedroom. The first few pages are devoted to backstory, where the reader hears about his lifelong feelings for Carleena, and Ben jerking off while he fantasizes about her. I don’t have a problem with a little bit of voyeurism. My problem stems from two things - the fact that Ben feels very teenagery at the start instead of a 36 y/o man because of these reminiscences, and that his supposed best friend throughout middle and high school didn’t even know he was present at their last high school reunion. This doesn’t gel for me when I get Carleena’s perspective later on, because I’m left wondering, If they’re such best friends with secret feelings for each other, why didn’t she at least seek him out at the reunion?

The sex scenes are written well enough, but I’m never as engaged as I would like to be because of my lingering questions. Once I get a chance to know the grown-up Ben, I do like him quite a lot, more so than Carleena. I’m even rooting a little bit for the happy ending. But in the end, the story needed to be longer for me to overcome my initial doubts. As an erotic nibble, it’s pretty much just that for me.

Readability	7/10 – Some minor editing issues, but the same easy reading I’ve come to expect from this author
Hero	7/10 – Likable though it took me a little while to see him as an adult and not the teenager fantasy he relives when the story opens
Heroine	6/10 – The length prevents me from really getting to know her too well
Entertainment value	6/10 – A nice distraction for a short story read
World building	6/10 – I’m never able to get a real handle on the world of this, where it takes place or how they all manage to grow up in the same neighborhood if Ben’s childhood was as poor as they say it was
TOTAL:	32/50

Rough Canvas by Joey W. Hill

TITLE: Rough Canvas
AUTHOR: Joey W. Hill
PUBLISHER: Ellora’s Cave
LENGTH: Novel (roughly 121k)
GENRE: Gay BDSM erotic romance
COST: $7.99

Thomas abandoned his New York art career to return to his quiet North Carolina upbringing when his father died and his brother got in a life-changing accident. Now, 18 months later, the man he left behind is back, asking for Thomas to take one week to find his muse again. Marcus is the Dom Thomas never realized he needed until he met him, and it takes his return for Thomas to realize just how much he misses it. One week. A lot can happen then. Especially when Thomas has never been able to deny his Master anything.

There is no doubt about it. Joey Hill knows how to paint pictures with her words. Her prose is dense, packed with detail after evocative detail. She strips down her characters to their barest emotions and then layers it all back on again, much like Thomas’ paintings. When she writes a D/s scene, you feel it. I can even forgive frequent headhopping when it's written as evocatively as this.

The drawback in this particular story is that you feel it in scenes that feel wrong within the context of the story. I have issues with Marcus. Serious issues. While Thomas is a sweet, smalltown boy, Marcus is a self-professed bastard with a mean streak a mile wide. And not even in the Master sense. He reacts in ways that alienated him in my eyes long, long before any sort of explanation came for his behavior. By the time that explanation came, over 90k into the story, I didn’t care how bad Marcus’ background was. I didn’t like him. I didn’t understand how he could profess to be Thomas’ Master and let Thomas' health issues slide for months, and I didn’t know why at least a hint of that truth couldn’t have been offered. He says he loves Thomas, but does he do anything more about helping him than strapping him in an iron maiden? No, not really. I wanted to shake the jerk and demand to know what medical journal told him the cure for panic attacks and a bleeding ulcer was fisting in a BDSM club.

The plotline flipflops between Thomas giving in to Marcus, the two of them having great sex, maybe even a serious emotional moment, then bam! Fight. Then it starts again. Over. And over. And over. All the way to the end. Even disliking Marcus as I did, the author had me for probably the first half of the story, but eventually, the sheer repetition of it all just grew too weighty. Toss in my issues regarding Thomas’ health that go nearly ignored for the bulk of the story, and it was a serious chore to slog through the second half of the story. As soon as I saw the jump in time to 3 months after the week they spent together, I knew it was going to be a losing battle. An evocatively written battle, but a losing one, just the same.

Readability	7/10 – Dense, descriptive prose gets bogged down by unnecessary length and repetition
Hero #1	3/10 – Mean and untrusting, it’s very difficult to see why Thomas loves him so much
Hero #2	7/10 – Thomas was lovely, though dense and a little too flipfloppy for my tastes
Entertainment value	5/10 – While I can enjoy the beauty in the prose and some of the hot scenes in the first half of the story, the unbelievability of the second half combined with too much back and forth makes it a difficult read.
World building	9/10 – It’s painted with words, just as adept as Thomas’ work
TOTAL:	31/50

Dragon Tamer by Kathleen Scott

TITLE: Dragon Tamer
AUTHOR: Kathleen Scott
PUBLISHER: Samhain Publishing
LENGTH: Novella (roughly 30k)
GENRE: Fantasy romance
COST: $3.50

IFM agent Serrah Gayle has been called out to the island of Cambry to investigate a blight that is massacring the female dragon population. With the guidance of hatchery director Darion Archer, she calls upon a talent she’d long since buried, an ability to speak telepathically with dragons, in order to ferret out the truth. And she just might discover true love at the same time.

I love strong, visual openings. They hook me into a story faster and more securely than pretty prose. I find it easier to forgive a lot, too, when I get hooked that soon. Dragon Tamer is one of those stories. It opens with Darion, our hero, at the “deathbed” of one of the dragons on his island. It’s visual, and it’s poignant, and that single scene tells me more about Darion than any other scene that follows. It’s very brief, as are most of the chapters in this book, but that’s necessary. Any more would turn it maudlin. As it stands, I’m pulled into liking this man almost from the very first word.

I’m also sucked into liking Serrah. Her initial meeting with Darion is ripe with promise, lots of snarkiness and an edge that suggests a lot of fun banter yet to come. She’s confrontational, and he refuses to take it, and I was really looking forward to seeing how it played out. Color me disappointed then, when the true nature of Serrah’s abilities was revealed. All of a sudden, the mistrust and edginess that characterized their first few hours together was gone. Serrah became more earth goddess in tone than the kickass agent she originally came across as. It could be that the initial meeting was just a front, but I for one was sorry to find that out. I much preferred her original personality than the one we got for the rest of the story.

Darion, on the other hand, was all over the fact that she could talk to the dragons. His initial dislike for Serrah dissolved completely as soon as the truth was divulged, which made me really question the integrity of the romance. I never believed that Darion was falling for Serrah. I felt that he was falling for the ideal she represented to him, especially considering some of his earlier issues with her. It felt too much a case of pedestal worship for me to truly believe in the happy ending.

However, this is an interesting world the author has created. There’s definitely a lot of potential to further explore it, and if she did, I’d seriously consider reading more. I’m curious about what the deal is with Darion’s brother, Tavil, and the dragons themselves were rather lovely. All in all, this was a solid effort, and even if the romance didn't necessarily satisfy me, it just might satisfy someone else.

Readability	8/10 – An engaging beginning and just enough detail to make it sparkle
Hero	6/10 – A lot of potential but a bit too naïve for me to fully enjoy or believe
Heroine	6/10 – The spunkiness in the beginning doesn’t pan out for the rest of the story
Entertainment value	7/10 – I saw the ending coming, and I had issues believing the romance, but smooth prose and some sincere moments made it worthwhile
World building	8/10 – Some really nice details makes the world pop.
TOTAL:	35/50

Hearts in Hiding by Leanne Karella

TITLE: Hearts in Hiding
AUTHOR: Leanne Karella
PUBLISHER: Cobblestone Press
LENGTH: Novel (roughly 81k)
GENRE: Romantic suspense
COST: $6.99

Molly Schlofeld is a woman with no past. Dr. Dave Westfield is a man with too much of one. When Molly’s security in the Witness Protection program is threatened, her fragile relationship with Dave is put to the test. She wants to share the truth with him, but keeping him safe is more important. Unfortunately, he doesn’t think any woman would want to be with him, considering his damaged history. Together, they’re going to have to overcome their fears if they want to have any hope of surviving the new threat of Molly’s past.

I shouldn’t have liked this book as much as I did. It has issues that are usually dealbreakers for me – headhopping, a heroine who’s a bit all over the place – and yet, in spite of those, I found myself unable to put this story down. Why that is, I’m still not entirely sure.

Maybe it’s the hero, Dave. Dave is solid, handsome, determined to do the right thing, devoted almost to a fault to ensure the health and well-being of his patients. He also has a disability, crippled from a car accident that tore his life apart as well as his legs. Though he walks with a cane, his mobility is a mask, one he refuses to take off for Molly and one that he continually hides behind. His anxiety over his disability grows wearisome as the story progresses, but there’s a stoic melancholy to Dave that appealed to me anyway. When both he and Molly are too nervous to ask the other out, I believed it. When he showed her the extent of his disability for the first time, I believed it. This is how real people act. Details like this convince me that, for the time I’m taking to read, yes, these people are real.

Or maybe it’s the plot. It’s not anything hugely unique – a woman in the witness protection program gets found – but it’s handled competently, drawing me in to care about the principles before unleashing the worst of the danger. The author does well in switching up POV’s, getting us into the minds of both Molly’s personal contact and those that would do Molly harm, in order to help build suspense. It’s not really edge of your seat stuff until the end, however; Ms. Karella has some odd chapter structuring once she starts to get into the threats, putting bad guy scenes at the top of chapters which only manages to diffuse the feeling of encroaching danger in the scenes that follow. As a reader, I’m going to feel more in Molly’s shoes if I’m not aware of the reality of the danger until as late as possible. That sense of the unknown is taken away from me by exposing the bad guys prior to their actions. But still, in spite of that, it worked well enough to engage me until the end.

In the end, it feels like there’s a lot of “in spite of” in regards to my feelings for this book. I have to admit, I devoured it, coming back to read more when I should have been doing other things. My heart went out to Dave, and I worried along with him for Molly. So I suppose, in the end, that’s all that really matters.

Readability	7/10 – In spite of headhopping and minor technical issues, the prose was able to suck me back in every time I got pushed out
Hero	8/10 – Lovely and strong, though the repetition of his anxiety about his disability got a tad tiresome
Heroine	6/10 – Her characterization was a little too all over for me to truly believe, but I definitely empathized with her dilemma
Entertainment value	9/10 – For all its flaws, I was truly invested in both the romance and resolving the problem of her predicament
World building	8/10 – The current reality of Seattle for Molly and Dave was solid, but the details surrounding her mobster connections weren’t as fully realized
TOTAL:	38/50

Tombstone Ranch by Shayne Carmichael

TITLE: Tombstone Ranch
AUTHOR: Shayne Carmichael
PUBLISHER: Phaze
LENGTH: Novella (roughly 17k)
GENRE: Gay paranormal erotic romance
COST: $2.00

In Tombstone, Jake Mathers receives word that his father is dead and returns to Boston in order to see his brother. There, a one-night stand with a vampire leaves him nearly immortal. Four hundred years later, Jake is still alive and mining on a distant planet when he takes on Les Westwood as a new hand. The attraction between them flares, but can it survive the truth when Les learns what Jake really is?

For a long time, I didn’t buy anything from Phaze. If I wanted a Phaze book, I had to go to Fictionwise and look at it there, because Phaze didn’t have excerpts on their site. Well, a little while ago, they added excerpts to their sales pages so I started checking out the site on Sunday nights when they posted their new releases. I sincerely hope this title isn’t indicative of their overall quality.

It’s hard to say which is worse – the poor editing or the quality of the writing. There are mistakes galore – possessives out of place, more than a handful tense shifts, even prostrate for prostate once. Muddling through those is difficult enough, but the prose also has a tendency to be simplistic and repetitive, with little fresh detail and clumsy dialogue. The characters offer a lot in the context of so-called conversations, and frankly, it was hard not to laugh at the absurdity of Jake telling Les in the middle of Les’ job interview, “I’m partial to men myself…” A job interview. Where they’ve only just met. But really, this kind of oversharing is indicative of the whole story. It definitely doesn’t help to make the already shallow writing any more enjoyable.

What isn’t overshared is any detail on what kind of paranormal world this is. The vampire who sires Jake disappears without telling him what exactly is going on, leaving behind only a note with the scantiest of details. Apparently, however, Jake can move about in the sunshine all he wants, and there are no hints as to what might actually kill him. The only change that appears to happen is now he has to drink blood to survive, and oh yeah, added bonus of living forever if he’s careful. Without specific details or depth, the entire paranormal aspect of this story feels tacked on, used as a device to make Jake just a little bit more exotic.

Being a vampire is really the only interesting thing I know about Jake. Oh, and he likes to embroider, which I’ll admit was another moment where I snorted in disbelief. I know even less about Les. Other than the biographical details he gives in extensive detail during his interview, I don’t know what makes him tick. I couldn’t tell you how he’d react to certain situations because I never got to know him as a person. Added in to the other problems I had with the story and I can’t say I’ll be jumping through hoops to try this author again. I have a feeling, too, I’ll be a little more choosy about what might interest me from Phaze as well.

Readability	3/10 – Chronic technical issues added to a plodding style makes this a chore to read
Hero #1	4/10 – There are flashes of being interesting, but the shallow writing quickly douses those
Hero #2	2/10 – Just an adoring body, willing to be whatever the plagued hero needs.
Entertainment value	2/10 – Bored and annoyed probably wasn’t the response this author wanted to get from me.
World building	4/10 – The entire paranormal angle feels tacked on, with little to no explanation, and can’t save the few Old West details that are tossed in
TOTAL:	15/50

The Strength of the Wolf by Jorrie Spencer

TITLE: The Strength of the Wolf
AUTHOR: Jorrie Spencer
PUBLISHER: Samhain Publishing
LENGTH: Novel (roughly 60k)
GENRE: Paranormal romance
COST: $5.50

Being a werewolf isn’t Veronica’s biggest problem. Being a werewolf with amnesia is. She is ready to find someone human to latch onto in hopes of surviving another winter when a wolf trap snares her. The kind David Hardaway rescues her, and Veronica decides that this is the man she wishes to be human with, at least for a little while. She seeks him out the following summer, but David doesn’t know what to do with this strange woman who has golden eyes that look all too familiar. He’s got his own problems, like the fact that his nephew’s hacking has gotten him into serious trouble. That doesn’t matter, though. Because David’s not about to turn his back on her, even when good sense tells him he should.

There is something about Jorrie Spencer’s writing that completely sucks me in. I start reading her work, and all too quickly, I find myself unwilling to stop, even when real life demands that I do. It helps that Samhain books always seem to be some of the best edited out there, because I get the chance to actually get lost in the story instead of being jolted to reality by an overload of spelling errors. And I did get lost in this one. Much to the annoyance of my family.

One of the contributing factors was how much I liked David. This is a man much like some of the single men I know in real life – hard-working, isolationist, dependable with good intentions. I believed him from the second he decided to free Veronica from the trap, and I kept on believing him because he acted rationally and intelligently throughout the story. When characterization is this consistent, it’s easy to invest in the story. I understood his frustrations with his family and Veronica so well that by the end, I was a little ticked at Veronica for not coming to him sooner. Silly me.

There’s a definite tragic undertone in all his interactions with Veronica, understandably so. She lives on the edge, and as a reader, I felt like I was right there with her. Sometimes, that pulled from enjoying the story more, but I plowed through that to get to the next David POV scene. Those were welcome reprieves.

The story is the sequel to The Strength of the Pack, but this can be read completely as a standalone. The one drawback to that, however, is that any explanation of the werewolf mythology is lacking. Because of Veronica’s amnesia, there is never any exploration into her animal world, beyond her firsthand experiences in the book. It doesn’t detract from enjoying the story, but a reader going in needing that should be prepared to be disappointed.

I really enjoyed this story, enough that I’m looking forward to seeing what this author does next. The action and characters are solid, and David will linger for me for awhile. I strongly recommend this to anybody looking for a winning blend of romance and drama, with just a dash of heat.

Readability	9/10 – The style sucks me in and professional presentation keeps me there.
Hero	9/10 – Solid and dependable, as realistic as I’ve found and still romance-worthy
Heroine	8/10 – It got a little tiresome dealing with extreme paranoia all the time, but consistent and worthy of my attention
Entertainment value	8/10 – A solid read
World building	7/10 – The nature of Veronica’s amnesia restricts this throughout most of the book, and adding more detail on the wolf mythology gets ignored in the end in favor of the romance
TOTAL:	41/50

Boundless by Annie Dean, Bonnie Dee, & Dionne Galace

TITLE: Boundless
AUTHOR: Annie Dean, Bonnie Dee, & Dionne Galace
PUBLISHER: Liquid Silver Books
LENGTH: Anthology (roughly 67k)
GENRE: Paranormal erotic romance
COST: $5.95

Shapeshifting and sex come together in these three novellas, as three different couples overcome their differences to fall in love.

“Seven Days” by Annie Dean is a week in the life of novitiate Teresa Wolff when incubus Dev arrives to try and steal her soul for the Devil. If he succeeds, he gains his freedom and can return to his natural form as a dragon. If he loses, he’s damned forever. Who wins? Ultimately, the appeal of this story isn’t the final result. Annie Dean writes some of the most gorgeous prose I see in e-books these days; even the blurb for this story on Liquid Silver’s site is gorgeous. She stands out in a sea of mediocre writing as someone with a gift for finding unique ways of describing things. In this story, too, she demonstrates some rather interesting insights regarding love, religion, and redemption that you just don’t find too often in romances. What the story lacks, however, is a sense of balanced pacing. I was completely into the story for the first two days, but I’ll admit, my devotion began to falter on the third day when Dev flies Teresa to Paris. At midnight. And they land in Paris and it’s still night. Now, Teresa says that the nearest big city to the monastery she lives in is Vancouver. That’s an 8-hour time difference to Paris. I know it’s silly, but I got completely jarred out of suspending my disbelief for this love story when I sat through the entire Paris section – which should have been wonderfully romantic – thinking, But even if they traveled in the blink of an eye, it’s still the next morning there! I couldn’t find a single explanation for it, and the fact that I went and re-read that section three times looking for it shows you just how jarred I got. Because I wanted to love this story as much as I loved the prose. In the end, I didn’t. Because Dean never managed to suck me back into disbelieving, especially when she starts throwing backstory in for Teresa at the last minute. And I’m still not sure exactly why we got the final result to the story that we did.

“The Straw Man” by Bonnie Dee is the story of a lonely, 32-year-old woman who owns and runs a local farm. It’s Halloween, and in a moment of loneliness, she makes a wish on her scarecrow for just one night with the perfect man that she then describes. Lo and behold, that man knocks at her door that night. But that’s all she gets. Even if she wants more. Well, I didn’t want more, I’m afraid. What started out promising, with Dee’s solid, competent prose, derailed quickly as soon as Marie, the heroine, threw caution to the wind and started macking on her come-to-life scarecrow. Marie had spunk until she started kissing him, and then she seemed to lose any semblance of a character at all. By the time she was begging him not to leave in the morning, I just didn’t care. I didn’t even get into the smut, which just seemed to go on and on and on, and in inactuality was barely a third of the story. The situation only got worse while I had to read about Marie being depressed for a good month after this one-night stand. Bored doesn’t even begin to describe my reaction to this entire story.

The final story is “Waking Kitty” by Dionne Galace. Jack Ridley, jaded reporter and Vicodin thief, gets sent out on assignment to report on a ship that mysteriously appears in the middle of a busy bar. There, he meets the eccentric waitress Kitty, complete with pink hair, great breasts, and smart mouth. What he doesn’t know is that Kitty is experiencing blackouts and memory loss, and when a man shows up in her apartment the next day claiming to be a dragon and her mate, she is driven back into Jack’s company, and his arms. And the action doesn’t stop there. “Waking Kitty” hits the ground running and then turns into a tornado of sharp lines, fast action, and over-the-top zaniness. The best part of it is, it doesn’t lose steam. I laughed in the beginning, and I laughed in the end, always a good sign. I absolutely adored Jack. I love how much not-a-hero he is – I mean really, when was the last time you read about your hero raiding medicine cabinets of his one-night stands? And Kitty’s his perfect match. These two are remarkably refreshing, though the haste with which they decide they’re so perfect each other detracted from the romance angle for me. What would have been great would have been to see these two have more than a single 24-hour-period to develop a relationship. They certainly were interesting enough to carry a full-length novel for me.

Though the anthology contains very different stories, at least two of these will stick with me for a while. I might have misgivings about Dean’s sense of pacing, but her prose more than makes up for it. Galace has a humor and freshness that make “Waking Kitty” my hands-down favorite of the three. I would have happily purchased each of these two stories singly and considered it money very well spent. These are the authors to watch out for.

Readability	8/10 – Technically superb with 2 of the most entertaining author voices I’ve read recently
Romance	5/10 – The various romances are probably the weakest part of these stories, with Dee’s the weakest of all
Characterization	7/10 – Quirky and interesting for the most part
Entertainment value	7/10 – Some fascinating ideas combined with humor and original characters means I quite enjoyed this anthology.
World building	6/10 – Some valiant attempts get thwarted with the lack of space to truly explain these worlds
TOTAL:	33/50

The Countess of Suburbia by Gabrina Garza

TITLE: The Countess of Suburbia
AUTHOR: Gabrina Garza
PUBLISHER: Amber Quill Press
LENGTH: Novel (roughly 88k)
GENRE: Contemporary romance
COST: $7.00

Miranda Thoms discovers the truth about her husband’s infidelity and does what any modern woman unable to get him on the phone might like to do – rents a billboard asking for a divorce. Struggling to keep it together post-break-up, Miranda gets help from various corners, such as her opinionated best friends and a world-renowned British photographer she can’t stop thinking about. When Garic Wenham starts showing as much interest in her, Miranda has to decide if she’s willing to take the plunge in exposing her heart again. And if it’s worth it to fall in love with a man who travels around the world at the drop of a hat.

I like Gabrina Garza. I’ve read two short works by her and enjoyed both of them. When I saw she had a full-length novel coming out with Amber Quill, I gave the blurb a scan and decided to give it a go, in spite of my normal aversion to romantic comedy. I’m not saying The Countess of Suburbia has succeeded in converting me, or even that it works great as a romcom, but here I am having finished it, and I don’t feel like it was a waste of time or that I want to throw my computer out the window.

One of my problems with romantic comedy – other than comedy is hugely subjective, and I find myself not really laughing at most of it – is tone. A lot of authors have a problem balancing it. They either go too far into silly, not far enough, or they try to break it up with serious scenes that for one reason or another don’t work. This story falls into the last category, though thankfully, not for its entirety. The first third of the book is a jarring balance of comedy, anger, and tragedy that never gelled with me. Miranda is hugely angry – justifiably so – but in the process of working through those first few stages, she comes across as a very unpleasant person to be around. So unsympathetic for me, actually, that when she meets Garic for the first time, my instinct was to yell at him, “Run away! Run far, far away!” Toss in tragic circumstances with one of Miranda’s friends, and I was left wondering what exactly I’d fallen into.

Thankfully, the author evens it out halfway through the book, making the second half much more enjoyable to read. Miranda is over the worst of her anger, her reactions are believable and flow naturally from one to the next, and best part of all, Garic has a stronger role.

I loved Garic. Even as he teeters on the brink of too-good-to-be-true – I mean, really, he’s British, gorgeous, a photographer who travels the world, does humanitarian work, and has a dead fiancée he doted on…oh, and don’t forget the dog and the fact that he’s great with Miranda’s two kids – I loved him. I thought he was charming without being saccharine, and honestly, I was on his side when Miranda went a little off the deep end at the climax of the book. This was a man with his shit together, and even if I might still have wondered what the hell he ever saw in Miranda, the fact that he was able to see past her moods and anger makes me like him even more.

The strongest part of the book for me, actually, came through in how realistic all the relationships felt. I’ve seen friends like Miranda, Rachel, and Olivia. I’ve seen ex-husbands like Richard. I’ve seen sisters who go a little crazy, and I’ve seen kids go nutso over the smallest stuff. This is where the book excelled, and ultimately, what held it altogether for me when Miranda didn’t. They made it worth my time. Hopefully, they’d make it worth your time, too.

Oh, and Garic. Mustn’t forget him.

Readability	8/10 – Minor editing issues such headhopping and spelling mistakes detract from an otherwise entertaining voice
Heroine	7/10 – In spite of not understanding what Garic saw in her in the beginning, she grew on me
Hero	8/10 – Borders on the too good to be true, but honestly the main reason I kept reading
Entertainment value	7/10 – Disliking the heroine the first third of the book keeps this from being higher
World building	8/10 – Solid enough, with the most realistic details coming in the various relationships
TOTAL:	38/50

The Tin Star by J.L. Langley

TITLE: The Tin Star
AUTHOR: J.L. Langley
PUBLISHER: Loose Id
LENGTH: Novel (roughly 74k)
GENRE: Gay erotic romance
COST: $6.99

Young cowboy Jamie Killian just did the unthinkable – he told his father and family that he was gay. His father’s response is to kick him out and disown him. His brother’s best friend, Ethan Whitehall, offers to take him in, but the last thing Jamie expects is to discover that Ethan is gay, too. Passion blooms between the two men, but before they can find real happiness, they have to deal with the prejudices of both their smalltown Texas neighbors and Jamie’s father. Because some people will try anything – even violence – to drive them away.

Ah, gay cowboys. They seem like a romance staple in the e-world ever since Brokeback Mountain. Sometimes it makes me wonder if there’s any straight cowboys left out there in romance-land.

After enjoying Langley’s My Fair Captain, I looked through the author’s back catalog to see if there might be something else I’d like. I happened upon this one, as the first in theRanch Series. I’d certainly discovered that Langley could handle some sharp writing, and since I wouldn’t have to worry about world-building – one of my complaints about the other book was that the information dumps detracted from my enjoyment of it – I figured I’d be able to concentrate on the story. I was mostly correct.

Langley has come a long way in the year between the two releases. Tin Star shows promise of the same easy and clean prose, but it suffers from what I call exclamation abuse. Damn! Shit! Great! And those are just in the non-dialogue portions. There’s a lot of vehement talking and thinking in this story, and it grows stale by the midpoint. It got to the point where Jamie would walk in to a scene, and I just knew Ethan was going to think, Damn! I get the point. I really don’t need it nailed in for me.

Ethan and Jamie are built solidly enough. I liked Ethan more than Jamie; Jamie always reminded me of an annoying puppy that won’t leave you alone. I understand it fits the character – he’s very young, he’s new to gay sex, he’s in love – but it doesn’t mean I find it all that palatable. I must be getting crotchety in my old age; these young characters that seem to never stop tire me out. :)

The weakness for me came in the story itself. The romance between the two peaks too early. For at least half the book, Jamie and Ethan are settled and in love. That would be fine and dandy if they had enough external stimuli to keep the conflict of the book going, but ultimately, the only one the story presents is the issues with the prejudice. Now, that’s a big issue. I know that. But individual events that might build tension – and keep me involved as a reader – get diluted by too-happy sex scenes that don’t really do anything to contribute to the story. I spent the second half of the book waiting for it to be over, unfortunately.

The Tin Star is certainly above average in regards to many of the books I read. Langley is one of the more competent authors out there, especially when it comes to gay romance. While it doesn’t work completely for me, there’s probably people out there who would love to read a story with the two men so giddily in love. I guess I'm just not in the mood for the giddy.

Readability	7/10 – Slight abuse of exclamation points and a few monotonous sections, but clean and easy to read for the most part
Hero #1	7/10 – I would’ve liked him sticking to his guns in staying in the closet a little longer to make it believable, but still a solid character
Hero #2	6/10 – A little too earnest for my taste, though mostly believable
Entertainment value	6/10 – Though I liked the characters, the last half of the book has a repetitive sameness to it that had me a little bored.
World building	9/10 – The author sticks to honesty in portraying inherent prejudices in a cowboy’s world.
TOTAL:	35/50