The Concubine's Tale by Jennifer Colgan

TITLE: The Concubine’s Tale
AUTHOR: Jennifer Colgan
PUBLISHER: Samhain
LENGTH: Novella (roughly 23k)
GENRE: Paranormal romance
COST: $3.50

Curator Cait Lang is under orders to show their latest acquisition to collector Grant Pierson, a prospect she doesn’t really look forward to since she finds the man’s smug, know-it-all personality annoying. Grant is glad to finally have the chance to spend some alone time with ice-queen Cait, hungry to find out if she ever comes unruffled, but the story behind the papyrus on the auction block proves to be more enticing than either of them anticipate…

While this story had an interesting set-up, the actual follow-through didn’t quite live up to its initial promise. Essentially, it’s divided into two separate stories, the contemporary one between Cait and Grant, and the Egyptian one between Nayari and Khanu. Cait and Grant are professional acquaintances, with neither really knowing much about the other. Cait finds his superior attitude annoying, while he has never really looked past her ice-queen persona. He decides to see if he can get past it by inviting her out for a private dinner while she’s telling him about the papyrus, and though dating clients is forbidden, she agrees, largely because she’s curious, too. She begins relating the translation, making it clear it’s been embellished, and the story alternates between the rising tension between them and the growing attraction between the concubine and the warrior set to protect her.

The story Cait tells is a romantic one, about a concubine being used as a pawn in her master’s bid to become Pharoah, the world painted there rich and fascinating. Nayari is lovely to watch, from her initial pride to her horror at what’s intended for her to her growing feelings for Khanu. This story provides the strongest momentum for this short novella and offers glimmers of just what it could have been. Unfortunately, none of the other characters possess the same intrigue or depths. Nayari’s story is essentially a tool to get Cait and Grant over their initial misgivings and make them hot and bothered enough to ignore the order not to get involved. Not enough time is spent on developing them as real people for the attraction between them to feel organic, and the back and forth starts to feel very by-the-numbers.

The publisher calls this a paranormal story, but that’s stretching the definition. The problem is, this doesn’t fit neatly into any one category. The historical tale is clearly the most developed and compelling, but it’s tucked inside a contemporary package. The paranormal label likely springs from the mystical ending that Grant eventually discovers to the Egyptian lovers, but it lacks the credibility the rest of the tale offers. Though the publisher doesn't indicate it as such, this is likely meant to be a companion piece to another of the author's works called "The Soul Jar." There's an excerpt for that at the end of this, but in all fairness, I didn't realize this might be linked to something else (and thus give the ending more veracity) until after I started writing this review and went to the author's bio to get her web address. I never read the excerpts Samhain pads the end of their books with (a truly annoying practice, as those words get added into the total word count and can make unsuspecting buyers think they're purchasing a longer work). Frankly, I shouldn't have to happen to stumble across that excerpt/blurb to discover the ending I didn't buy for a second is rooted in another work.

Readers wanting paranormal attributes will be disappointed. If anything, I’d suggest this to lovers of Egyptian stories. That’s what it really has going for it.

Readability	7/10 – The Egyptian portions read much more vivid and interesting than the contemporary portions
Heroes	6/10 – One didn’t have enough depth, the other was too idealized
Heroines	6/10 – Nayari is fascinating, but Cait suffers the same problem Grant does
Entertainment value	6/10 – So much potential in this, but it just never gels together
World building	7/10 – The Egyptian world sizzles, which makes the weak contrast to the contemporary even more disappointing
TOTAL:	32/50

Strange New World by Jennifer Colgan

TITLE: Strange New World
AUTHOR: Jennifer Colgan
PUBLISHER: Samhain
LENGTH: Novella (roughly 18k)
GENRE: Paranormal erotic romance
COST: $3.50

A man who walked through an electric fence unscathed. A woman trying to discern the potential threat of a new weapon. Two people caught in a deadly race for freedom. Dr. Martina Sanchez is assigned to investigate the effects the beam of Acheron has had on Chase Calder, but when she discovers a plot to kill him to hide the evidence he’d present, she decides she has no choice but to help him escape. Now, they’re both in danger…

NOTE: This is a review originally written for Uniquely Pleasurable.

Finding action-packed, tightly plotted stories in short formats is difficult, especially in the romance genre. The shorter format is misunderstood by a lot of authors anyway, who don’t understand the different demands lower word counts make on a story’s construct and pacing. It’s hard to do well. So when I find stories that actually manage to excel at plotting and pace, it’s a joy, even if other elements don’t always work as well.

Chase Calder is out shooting pictures of Nevada when he experiences a freak storm and then blacks out. He wakes up strapped down in a hospital bed, in what is clearly an institutional facility, with the beautiful Dr. Martina Sanchez looking him over. Unbeknownst to him, he’s been exposed to a new weapon that has never been tested on higher life forms, and now, it’s manifesting in very odd ways. For instance, he can phase in and out of places, which explains why he was able to get through the electric fence surrounding the compound without breaking it or getting hurt. It takes no time at all for the general in charge of everything to see Chase’s continued survival as a threat to his new weapon’s viability, and when Martina overhears his intentions, she knows there is only one thing she can do – get Chase to safety. The ensuing action is briskly paced, tautly described, and increasingly breathless to read. By the time the pair reach a modicum of safety, the bulk of the story is gone and time has disappeared. I was left salivating at the prospects of what was to come, and then…it kind of fizzled out.

See, one of the elements within the story that didn’t work as well for me was the romance. From the moment she meets him, Martina harbors sexual thoughts about this gorgeous man, even at times when it seems hugely inappropriate to do so. It’s the one distraction to the action that propels the story, and it got to the point where I almost wished they wouldn’t hook up. It makes a little more sense for Chase to have some of the same thoughts because he never really understands the full extent of what is going on, but Martina has no excuse. For someone so dedicated to what she was doing, the sexual thoughts and reactions felt forced and lessened my acceptance of her as a character. With that in mind, however, I did find the last couple paragraphs of the story an absolutely perfect way to end it. It nearly made up for some of my misgivings about the early preoccupation with sex. Nearly.

Readability	9/10 – Tautly paced and vibrantly described
Hero	7/10 – Strong, resilient, and smart. I liked him a lot.
Heroine	5/10 – I found her a little less believable than the hero, as her constant thinking about sex in the midst of all the danger seemed out of place.
Entertainment value	7/10 – I loved the action part of it, though the preoccupation of sex at inopportune times made the romance wear thin.
World building	7/10 – Explanations for the weapon and its effects aren’t as in depth as I would like, but the action makes up for it.
TOTAL:	35/50

A Rogue's Reward by Jennifer Colgan

TITLE: A Rogue’s Reward
AUTHOR: Jennifer Colgan
PUBLISHER: Amber Quill
LENGTH: Novella (roughly 34k)
GENRE: Historical erotic romance
COST: $6.00

When Sheppard York wakes up in the brig of the infamous lady pirate, Fallon Robard, he wishes only to escape, regardless of whether or not his father pays the demanded ransom or not. His caretaker, Rhea, doesn’t seem like any sort of pirate he’s ever heard of, and when he discovers she was taken from an abbey, he’s convinced she’s his ticket out of there. Except…she’s like no other woman he’s known, either…

I wanted to love this story. There’s an old-fashioned charm to the way it all starts out that reminded me of romances I read when I was a teenager, though the roles are reversed with all female pirates and the captive as male. I liked how it all started, rolling simply along with the is-he-a-cad hero and the virginal wannabe pirate. The prose is sweet, the conflict familiar, and the initial charm engaging. It actually rolls along like that for a good part of the story, though Rhea never really takes on much of a personality past her innocence.

But the more the story unfolds, the more questions get raised, and the more I realize the blurb really didn’t do this story any favors. The events of the blurb don’t occur until very late in the story. Don’t be fooled. The vast bulk of the conflict occurs before Shep ever tries to escape, and it’s during that time the charm holds. The story takes on an entirely different tenor afterward, and though it’s far more complex – and in some ways, more interesting – than the first half, it also introduces a lot more questions, questions that don’t get answered by story’s end. The website labels this as a series, but the fact that I can’t find another one suggests this is the first one. Perhaps the author is going to answer a lot of these questions in subsequent stories. For the purposes of enjoying this story, though, the lack of those answers taints my enjoyment. I want to know why Rhea is important to the captain. I want to know how on earth there could be an HEA. I didn’t get any of that, and it ended up being very frustrating rather than satisfying.

Readability	8/10 – Simple and sweet
Hero	6/10 – Nice enough, with a realistic introduction, but I never bought the shift in feelings for the heroine
Heroine	5/10 – Sweet but bland, ultimately forgettable
Entertainment value	7/10 – Raises more questions than it answers, though it has a certain old-fashioned sweetness to the overall story
World building	7/10 – The pirate world is nicely realized, but Sheppard’s lacks details
TOTAL:	33/50

La Mirage by Jennifer Colgan

TITLE: La Mirage
AUTHOR: Jennifer Colgan
PUBLISHER: Samhain Publishing
LENGTH: Short Story (roughly 14k)
GENRE: Paranormal Erotic Romance
COST: $2.50

Journalist Savanna Blaine and her photographer Ben Lantano are on their way to an assignment, when Ben’s aging pick-up breaks down in the middle of Nowhere, Nevada. When roadside assistance says they’ll take three hours to arrive, Ben talks Savanna into walking the mile to the next gas station. That’s not what they find. What they find is an oasis of a hotel that is too good to be true, one that seduces them into letting down their guards for a night and indulge the attraction both feels for the other.

I picked up La Mirage because it’s part of the Midsummer Night’s Steam series that Samhain is doing this summer. Other shorts that I’ve bought so far proved entertaining, so I thought I’d give this one a go. This one represents the series well. It’s frothy, and for a short, relatively thorough. The hero and heroine already know each other when the story starts, so it’s a lot easier to invest in their relationship because the author doesn’t have to try and convince me that one can grow.

That’s not to say it was a perfect read for me. The major sex scene is portioned into distinct segments, flipflopping between the hero’s and the heroine’s perspectives. I, for one, don’t like emotional/intense scenes that do this. Just when you start to get into a scene, it breaks, and you find yourself in a new head and you have to start all over again. For an erotic romance, that’s usually the kiss of death for me. Thankfully, the author’s style and clean prose keeps me into her scene enough so that I kept reading without getting too annoyed.

Calling this a paranormal erotic romance is probably generous. I’m not going to spoil anything, but the story’s open ending is another weak point. If Ms. Colgan was attempting a Twilight Zone feel to it, I’m not sure she succeeded. The gotcha just wasn’t strong enough, nor the characters’ reactions.

The strongest part of the book by far was the detail in establishing setting. I could picture the La Mirage, I could feel the heat coming off the Nevada highway. A lot of erotic writers gloss over those details in favor of getting straight to the sex, but Ms. Colgan doesn’t cheat any portion of the story by taking shortcuts with description.

A pleasant enough distraction for some spare time on a Sunday afternoon. I’m not sure I’ll remember the characters a week from now, but I know for sure I’ll remember the hot Nevada sun.

Readability	8/10 – Mostly easy to read, though the occasional run-on sentence disrupts the flow. Easy enough to keep reading, but also easy enough to put down again.
Hero	7/10 – I liked him enough, though the story length shortchanges the reader from getting to know him too well
Heroine	7/10 – Again, I generally liked her, though I’ll admit I got stuck on the blue bra underneath a white top as just insanely stupid.
Entertainment value	7/10 – A pleasant enough diversion
World building	9/10 – By far the best part of the book. Lots of gorgeous detail making it easy to visualize.
TOTAL:	38/50