Synthetic Dreams by Kim Knox

TITLE: Synthetic Dreams
AUTHOR: Kim Knox
PUBLISHER: Carina
LENGTH: Novella (roughly 34k)
GENRE: Cyberpunk romance
COST: $3.59

In the world of creating illegal glamour, Vyn is one of the best. She has to be. Scarred as a child, she was forced to wear glamours in order to fit in with her upper crust surroundings. All of that changed when she was caught selling her illegal wares and shipped off to a district known for its hackers and threats. But now, she’s created the most valuable piece of tech there is. Everybody will want a piece of her if they ever find out, including the high-level security guy who almost catches her when she’s testing it…

If there’s one thing this author loves to do, it’s create dense new worlds for a reader to explore. The problem is, her stories aren’t always long enough to really take full advantage of them.

This one is no exception. The reader is thrown headlong into a world where the virtual is as real as reality. Vyn is testing her newest tech, something called a simulacrum, to see whether it can pass inspection. She runs into a security guy who introduces himself as Paul, but when it becomes obvious he’s starting to see through her mask, she decides to leave. She needs a diversion, and thinking quickly, kisses the guy. She never expects him to kiss her back, but she manages to get out with her mask intact. Back in the real world, she ventures out at dusk for some coffee, but after surviving the dangerous trip back to her apartment, she finds Paul in her apartment, announcing he knows full well who and what she is. Seconds later, he tells her the only way she’s going to survive the night is by trusting him. She has no choice but to do so when security storms her apartment and destroys everything non-organic.

Thus begins a night of harrowing action, as Paul sucks Vyn into a world more complex than she’d ever imagined. I can’t explain it. By the time I was comfortable enough with the societal constructs and technology the author had created, the story was two-thirds done, and I’m pretty sure that if I tried to explain it now, I’d just make a mess of it. It’s cyberpunk, though, which should give the reader a starting point. From the start, Paul is practically perfect in a lethal kind of way, which turns out to be his major failing as an interesting character. By the time he starts showing chinks in his armor, most of the story is gone. He’s enigmatic to a flaw, and because of that, I never really bought into his feelings in the last couple chapters.

Vyn is a little bit better, but her characterization suffers in a different way. She’s thrust into the action so early, and the pace is so unrelenting, there’s no real chance to discover what she might be like on a normal basis. I certainly didn’t get a lot of what Paul claimed to know. I had to take his word for it rather than see or experience it for myself. This, too, worked to distance me from the romance.

But there’s enough fascinating action going on that I was okay with not being that invested in the romance. I needed to see it play out, especially once I was really clued into how it all worked. The story hurtles along at a breathtaking speed, leaving little room for anything but strapping in. As a reader, I just had to find a way to survive (much like Vyn with Paul’s driving). And even with my reservations about the romantic angle, I’m likely to be there the next time this author has a new title. She’s one of the few I’ve read who consistently come up with complex, interesting worlds. That’s worth it.

Readability	8/10 – Dense world building really holds this back because there’s just so much going on that it forces the reader to slow down and sometimes even backtrack to catch it all
Hero	6/10 – Too enigmatic to be truly sympathetic
Heroine	7/10 – So much action goes on, there’s little opportunity to learn of these qualities Paul is intrigued by
Entertainment value	7/10 – Getting a firm handle of the world beneath my belt slowed down getting into the tight action of this
World building	8/10 – It needed better descriptions earlier in the story to make it easier to get sucked into, but still love the nihilism of it all
TOTAL:	36/50

Shapes in the Blood by Kim Knox

TITLE: Shapes in the Blood
AUTHOR: Kim Knox
PUBLISHER: Loose Id
LENGTH: Novella (roughly 27k)
GENRE: Paranormal erotic romance
COST: $4.99

Aila can’t believe how her luck has changed. The hottest guy at her new job has asked her out, and it looks like she’s actually going to get what she wants for a change. But when he shows up late, then drags her to a war memorial and starts talking about needing her, alarm bells begin to peal louder than her hormones. She tries to leave, but he won’t let her go easily. She has no choice but to accept the help of the strange man who suddenly shows up, telling her she’s just this demon’s latest intended victim…

I’d hoped choosing an author I’d enjoyed before would make this a good reading week for me, but unfortunately, this is probably the weakest story I’ve read by her yet.

It starts in a rush. Aila has been working for six weeks at her new job, and just that morning, garnered the attention of a gorgeous co-worker. He asked her out for that night, then ended up showing four hours late for their date. The lust she has for the man overrides her better sense, and she agrees to go out at that late hour, but when he directs her to a war memorial for some annual ritual he does, then proceeds to tell her he needs her help in doing what he’s come to do, she finally comes to her senses. She tries to leave, but he doesn’t want her to go, changing right before her eyes into something not quite human. A stranger then appears out of nowhere offering to help, and on instinct, she tosses him her car keys and lets him drive her away.

It only gets confusing from that point on. I could try explaining it all, but honestly, it took me so long to figure it out for myself—and even then, it took the bulk of the information that doesn’t get revealed until the very end—that it would be pointless for me to try. Because that’s this story’s greatest weakness. The ideas behind the world-building are ripe with potential, incredibly intriguing and different from the norm, but the way they’re conveyed is next to impossible to keep straight. Details get twisted around by dreams that might not actually be dreams, while facts about who Aila is and what the demons wants with her are vague and unnecessarily circuitous. The novella is only 27k, but it reads much longer, mostly because of the lack of clarity given to the world-building and what exactly is going on with everything.

Part of that likely stems from the thick tension that permeates the story from page one. The author excels at UST and making things steamy, but in this case, it ends up obscuring the actual story that’s being told. Too much focus is placed upon Aila’s raging hormones, all the way down to awkward dreams that play out her hidden thoughts about Matt, the stranger who helped her escape. It’s too hard to tell where manipulations end and genuine reactions begin, and while some of that is intentional, there’s just too much. It gets in the way of understanding who Matt and Aila really are, and if there is any kind of real future there outside of the too-convenient one we’re told they’ll have.

As much as I’ve enjoyed this author in the past, I can’t recommend this story at all except to romance readers who are mostly interested in hot tension rather than clear storytelling.

Readability	6/10 – Clarity gets sacrificed for oblique prose
Hero	4/10 – Hints that I should find him attractive, but the story is too muddled to give me any kind of idea of what he’s truly like
Heroine	4/10 – Um, ditto
Entertainment value	3/10 – Though the sexual tension runs rampant, it’s not nearly enough to counter the muddy storytelling
World building	5/10 – Great ideas, poor execution
TOTAL:	22/50

Breaking Chance by Kim Knox

TITLE: Breaking Chance
AUTHOR: Kim Knox
PUBLISHER: Samhain
LENGTH: Novella (roughly 33k)
GENRE: Futuristic erotic romance
COST: $3.50

Thief Chance has been caught one too many times. No longer will she be sent to an ice prison for rehabilitation. Now, she’s been condemned to death, along with mass murderer John Ramius, known across the galaxy as The Butcher. They need each other to escape, but their goals beyond don’t necessarily mesh. It’ll take both of them to succeed, and both of them to break free of the bonds of their past…

I really like how this author writes action scenes. She’s got a natural sense of pace, and knows how to choreograph fights. But there’s a downside to having so much going on. It forces the romance to get shoehorned in, in any way possible.

The story starts with Chance facing judgment for her latest arrest. She’s been in and out of the system for years, a natural thief since her implant – something everybody under Jovian law has – is not under governmental control. In fact, she can use it to manipulate other tech, a skill that has proven valuable in her crimes. She’s sentenced after a mass murderer who has been given death, a man known as the Butcher, and finds out that they’re all being made an example of. She’s condemned to death, too. When they’re sequestered to await execution, she frees her hands, at which point John (the Butcher) realizes she has the tech savvy to get them free. They agree to team up to escape, since he has the physical augmentation to get past the guards. Once free, though, he has only one goal – to kill the outer governor.

The pace is relentless, much of what I’ve come to expect with this author. Both Chance and John are driven and highly motivated to save their own skin, and their initial attraction is both believable and understated. Even though it’s an entirely foreign world – Earth seems like some utopia to Chance, a far off place of freedom from the corruption and influence of the outer governor – I was able to follow along well enough to stick with the action. People are implanted with chips that allows the outer governor to completely control them, and only a few manage to escape that. Chance is one of them, and like most, has turned to a life of crime. She has the ability to use her implant to control tech around her, while John is physically augmented (with his own psychic powers) from Earth where it’s not outlawed. They make a formidable action team, complementing each other perfectly. While the story is allowed to focus on the action, it’s a very good one.

It flounders when it comes to the romance. Chance has nymphomaniac tendencies. She sees a pretty guy, she wants him regardless. John is no exception. It always felt like a shallow excuse to push them together, honestly, especially when John counters with his own compulsion – to satisfy whatever his partner needs. And as far as he can tell, Chance doesn’t need it hard and fast. She needs to be savored and controlled, so that’s what he provides. Though the sex was hot, I stopped believing it when Chance revealed she’d never had oral sex before. Her excuse, of course, is that it’s too intimate, but honestly, I just can’t believe that someone who’s had as much sex as she’s had, and has been distracted over and over again by a pretty face and a hard body, hasn’t had it at least once. Their relationship falters even more after that, as I’m expected to believe that within a matter of hours these hardened criminals fall head over heels for each other. I didn’t. There’s just too much other stuff going on for it to have room to develop.

I was really surprised when I realized how long this was. I’d initially thought it was much shorter, because it both read so swiftly and because I was so convinced it wasn’t long enough for the romance. I still don’t think it was, but this could have easily been twice as long without sacrificing the pace at all. Then, there might have been space for these two intriguing characters to have space to grow, and for their feelings to blossom. Sadly, that just wasn’t the case for me in the story I actually got.

Readability	8/10 – Reads incredibly fast, with a ton of action
Hero	6/10 – Though I love the idea of the psychopath and his compulsive needs, I wasn’t convinced by his growth or the ending
Heroine	6/10 – Her sex compulsion is a shallow attempt to refocus her pain, but otherwise I liked her smarts and surprising empathy
Entertainment value	5/10 – I was really into the action a lot, but the attempt to shoehorn the romance in let the entire thing down
World building	8/10 – It could have used more clarification on how things worked, but there’s enough intriguing detail to fascinate me
TOTAL:	33/50

Weaving Words by Kim Knox

TITLE: Weaving Words
AUTHOR: Kim Knox
PUBLISHER: Samhain
LENGTH: Novella (roughly 20k)
GENRE: Fantasy romance
COST: $3.50

Kaede is a witch, bound to the House of Sang. If he ever displeases Lord Tarou, his life will be forfeit, just by the uttering of Seven Words. He has no choice, really, when Tarou commands he resurrect the Lady Annaliese, but when he realizes the soul he puts back into her body isn’t actually hers, he knows his time is numbered. For her part, one moment Vara was getting eaten by wolves, the next she was waking up on an altar in a dark cavern. Her survival – as well as that of the witch who fascinates her – depends on convincing Tarou she is actually his wife…

I passed by this the first time it came out, but after reading Knox’s Lost Gods, I went to her backlist and picked out a few more to read. The first story I read after didn’t quite live up to the potential, but this, an older, shorter novella, ends up rating somewhere in between. I’ve learned one thing about this author, however. Explanations are not her forte.

Kaede is not your typical hero. In status terms, he’s like an omega, the bottom of the heap, enslaved without any recourse of escape lest he wish to die. At the story’s start, he comes across as quite frightened and skittish, though the circumstances certainly dictate and explain his behavior. He is aware from the start of the mistake he has made, and while he’s terrified of what might happen, he finds the strength to do everything he can to save his hide.

Vara was a warrior from the north before getting sucked into this Lady’s body, and is completely unaccustomed to being so docile or subservient. Her attraction to Kaede is immediate, though it’s unclear for the longest time whether that’s due to the magic or something else. She’s very spunky, with a much more modern, liberated attitude than Kaede or anyone else connected to the House, and it makes a good contrast with the more staid, mystical environment. My one problem with Vara is that she is never really given opportunity to exhibit the strengths she had in her previous incarnation. Much of the story’s advancement comes from Kaede or elsewhere. I desperately wanted to see more of her in action.

This story is an example of a story I liked more than the sum of its parts. Each taken on their own, they certainly scored above average, but when I consider it as a whole, I find myself more excited than with any specific aspect. That’s because it seemed to present such a less traveled road. Its magical aspects happen through the necromantic powers of an omega male, and the author doesn’t shy away from certain details, like saying that he can cast seeing spells using powdered eyeballs. It lends a slight gruesome quality to the narrative, but at the same time, completely fitting and engrossing. I spent so much of the story, on the edge of my seat, waiting for more. I did get some, enough to make this a satisfying read, but it’s become obvious to me over the past three stories I’ve read by this author that she does not excel in providing explanations or clarifying chains of events for the reader to best understand what’s going on. This one suffers from that flaw, just as the others did, and it’s this sense of incompletion that holds it back from being something truly astounding. The last couple chapters seem unnecessarily convoluted, and ultimately fail to adequately explain everything that has occurred. There are more questions left unanswered than there are resolved, and frankly, begs for a longer story to come afterward.

The issue then becomes, is it worth it to continue reading this author, knowing I’m not likely to get the explanations I invariably always crave when the story is done? I think so, yes. The set-up and potential of this novella was provocative and intriguing, and I don’t regret reading it for a moment. The worlds the author creates always suck me in. As long as I know what to expect on the other side, I have no qualms following her into more.

Readability	7/10 – Fast-paced and fascinating, I just wanted more explanation
Hero	7/10 – Tremendous potential that doesn’t get fully realized
Heroine	7/10 – I really liked her, but felt for as strong as she was purported to be, she didn’t get to do much
Entertainment value	8/10 – Intriguing and different, though it could have been absolutely astounding with better explanation/world-building
World building	7/10 – Points for doing something unusual and provocative, but there isn’t enough depth for whys and hows to make this truly spectacular
TOTAL:	36/50

Favorite Heroines of 2009

One of the things I can count on? My shortlist of favorite heroines of the year always being my shortest. That doesn't diminish the characters that make it. If anything, that proves their worth all the more, because they stand that much higher above the rest.

4th Runner Up
Eleni Whitby in Texting Aphrodite by Amy Lake

Eleni is an excellent example of the type of heroine that gives me faith in the genre. She was fresh, vibrant, and delightfully intelligent. She proves a contemporary heroine doesn't have to be anything but real to be a joy to read. A character doesn't always need super powers or huge problems to make a reader care.

3rd Runner Up
Katya Ortaega in Lost Gods by Kim Knox

Of course, having super powers can still be a good thing. Katya had those and attitude to spare, and helped propel the taut action of this novel to its satisfying conclusion. Without her, it never would have worked.

2nd Runner Up
April Didrickson in Deja Vu Lover by Phoebe Matthews

April is the ditzy heart of this fascinating past-life romance. It's a delicately balanced characterization, one that could have become annoying and intolerable, but instead, April becomes the kind of character you can't take your eyes off, even when she's racing toward what seems like an awful crash.

1st Runner Up
Maddy de Victoria in Bound by Blood by Evie Byrne

Maddy. Maddy, Maddy, Maddy. To say I loved Maddy is an understatement. She's funny and strong, independent and yet somehow vulnerable. She's sexy, real, and absolutely amazing. I don't think I can say enough good things about her, or how much she really makes this book for me.

And my favorite heroine of 2009 is...
Morag in Selkie Island by Jorrie Spencer

Where Maddy made me laugh, Morag made me cry. Her loneliness was a physical thing, bleeding from every word. She made me believe in water shifters, and more, she made me care, where water shifters tend to leave me cold. The juxtaposition between her innocence of the world and her weariness of it gave this novella depths others could only hope for.

Favorite Covers of 2009

I'm starting out my 2009 Favorites lists with covers, but honestly, my shortlist of covers that I loved from books I actually read this year was ridiculously short. I was far more entranced with covers of books I didn't purchase more often than not, but I'm not a reader who buys books based on pretty packaging (well, 99% of the time I'm not). That's not to say I didn't love these 5 covers, because I did. I think they're gorgeous. I did find it curious that there's not a single m/m cover in the bunch, even though 1/3 of the books I read are gay or menage. Three were in my shortlist, but in the end, these were still my favorite of the year...

4th Runner Up

Face of the Maiden by Emma Wildes, Cover Art by Anne Cain

There's a delicate elegance to this cover that perfectly fits the genre, if not necessarily the mood of the story. The wistfulness of her expression, however, is a wonderful match, and I find the sheer level of its prettiness too much to resist.

3rd Runner Up

Lost Gods by Kim Knox, Cover Art by Anne Cain

The appeal of this cover rests in its rich coloring and texture. I love the gorgeous reds in contrast to the blonde, who also fits the image of Katya from the story. It works, very well.

2nd Runner Up

Selkie Island by Jorrie Spencer, Cover Art by Kanaxa

Samhain has recently acquired a new artist, one whose bold, vivid style is already standing out in the crowd. This cover hit me the second I saw it, and falls into that 1% where I go against my own usual rules and take a chance on something I wouldn't normally. I love the moody coloring, the texture, the absolutely gorgeous model who epitomizes Clay to a T. It takes my breath away.

1st Runner Up

Strands of Sunlight by Anya Bast, Cover Art by Syneca

This cover always makes me look twice. It plays with the concept of chiaroscuro with an elegance you don't usually find in EC covers, with the woman and scarf silhouette framing the almost kissing couple perfectly. My one quibble is with the title's placement, but it doesn't disrupt the flow of the rest of it, so I can understand why it's tucked away at the top.

And my pick for the favorite cover I reviewed this year is…
A Leap of Knowing by Dani Harper, Cover Art by Sable Grey

Last year, I went for dramatic simplicity. This year, it's about soft, muted layering. I'm not usually a fan of Cobblestone covers, but this one stands out from the crowd. The combination of the Celtic scrollwork with the near-kiss (a romance staple, yes, but it often works), makes it seem simple until you look at it closely. Nothing overwhelms anything else, keeping it balanced and almost gentle.

Dark Host by Kim Knox

TITLE: Dark Host
AUTHOR: Kim Knox
PUBLISHER: Liquid Silver Books
LENGTH: Novella (roughly 27k)
GENRE: Sci-fi erotic romance
COST: $4.25

Charis Sur has one job – to keep Lord Admiral Sir Raoul Quinn alive until the sun nearby goes nova. It seems easy enough, until she senses other agents from the Company around, and a different passenger onboard drops dead in front of her. Getting answers for what’s going on proves even more difficult when she discovers the other Mosaic around is Jason Narak, the one man she can never trust. Except now, it looks like he’s the only one she can…

Though this short sci-fi starts out action packed with tons of potential, my hopes for a thrilling romance fell a little short. There is a lot that goes on in this very different world, but it relies heavily on the element of surprise and mystery, without actually providing truly cohesive, satisfactory answers to either.

Charis Sur is what’s called a Mosaic – human with animal DNA as well. In her case, she’s a feline Mosaic, and can do small shifts to heighten her natural senses. She works for the Company – only because it’s either that or die – and her current assignment seems like it should be easy. All she has to do is make sure someone doesn’t die. With the story told in 1^st person from her perspective, we get thrust into the action right away, bouncing from incident to incident with little real explanation as to what is going on. In fact, much of it felt like a teaser, which didn’t actually bother me because the story was moving so fast. I kept expecting more would be explained later, but when the explanations did finally start coming, they felt incomplete, so much so that I was forced to go back and re-read certain sections up to four times, trying to get a full hold on the history and what was going on. Needless to say, that diminishes the reading experience.

The romance gets sidelined for a good part of the story in favor of the action. That’s perfectly acceptable when it feels like it’s inevitable for the two leads to come together, but Jason is an enigma to Charis, which means, because we’re strictly in her POV, he’s an enigma to the reader. He slips through the fingers every time I try to grab a hold and understand his character, and I’m left feeling discontented because I don’t understand what the attraction could possibly be. In fact, more than once, I felt a strange sense of déjà vu. A lot of the elements in this – the mysterious hero, the god-like factors that come through in the final explanations – reminded me of the first book I read by this author, enough to stop me repeatedly and go, “Huh.”

Charis, thankfully, is more fully fleshed. Strong and capable, she’s a solid heroine to steer this novella and keep me reading, even when I wished for more. I liked her so much, in fact, that I can honestly say I did enjoy reading this as an action story. Just not so much as anything else.

Readability	7/10 – Swift and action-filled, but the explanations about what was going on felt incomplete and had me re-reading sections
Hero	6/10 – Rather enigmatic and not in the good way
Heroine	7/10 – More fully fleshed, strong and capable
Entertainment value	7/10 – Entertaining as an action story, but needed more depth and answers for me to appreciate as more
World building	7/10 – Holes in the exposition/explanations left some things to be desired
TOTAL:	34/50

Lost Gods by Kim Knox

TITLE: Lost Gods
AUTHOR: Kim Knox
PUBLISHER: Liquid Silver Books
LENGTH: Novel (roughly 63k)
GENRE: Sci-fi futuristic erotic romance
COST: $5.95

Waking up from a cryogenic tube with no memory isn’t the worst of Katya Ortaega’s problems. Neither is her attraction to James Kinsare, the extraordinary man who rescued her. It’s the fact that coming back to life…just might be the death of her. The one name she remembers – Paxton – seems to be the source of all the danger that now chases James and Katya to their doom…

I’m not even going to try and explain the details of this book. It’s convoluted, complex, and would end up taking up more space than I usually allow for my entire review. Suffice it to say, Lost Gods is the story of a terraformer scientist named Katya Ortaega, who wakes up from a thirty-year stasis in a cryogenic tube without any memory, and almost immediately ends up running for her life, with a man she’s incredibly attracted to at her side who keeps telling her that as soon as she has her memory back, things will definitely become less amicable between them. It’s an intriguing start, right from the get-go, and both leads are entertaining enough – smart, funny, confident – to keep me going even before the action kicks into a high gear.

That doesn’t take long. The action never stops. When they’re not physically running, they’re arguing, or having sex, or Katya is having action-packed dreams which she recognizes as memories. Each chapter ends on another cliffhanger, twisting the story into a new direction. It’s next to impossible to stop reading at the end of one, too, because the need to go on, to follow these characters along this new path, is too great to resist. It left me breathless, and hungry to see how it was all resolved.

James and Katya are both strong individuals, with their own snarky attitudes and enough attraction to keep me panting for more, even when I wasn't entirely sure what was going on. Unfortunately, that happens more than once. With all the twists and constant forward motion of story, some of the explanations about the political machinations involved in everything that’s going on get murky. It would be easy to get lost, and hurts the story in the end, but honestly, I was having so much fun with what was going on, and enjoyed both leads so much, I didn’t really care too much. Could it have been better explained? Oh, yeah. The 1^st person presentation means everything is viewed through a Katya filter, and with her memory like Swiss cheese, and her feelings all over the place, it’s understandably muddled. But the use of cliffhangers kept me wrapped up in the events to the degree that this flaw is minor for me.

This was a sexy, fun-packed read, with a lot of fascinating Machiavellian detailing to both the plot and the worlds in which the characters reside. I’ve got another of this author’s books on my TBR pile. I’m really looking forward to seeing what else she has to offer.

Readability	9/10 – Action-packed and snarky, the author doesn’t give the reader a chance to take a breath
Hero	9/10 – His bad pick-up lines notwithstanding, he can rescue me from a cryogenic tube anytime
Heroine	9/10 – Smart and kickass
Entertainment value	8/10 – Some of the explanations for stuff at the end gets a little jumbled, and they don’t always pick the most appropriate times to have sex, but…I was having too much fun to really care
World building	7/10 – I loved the possibilities of everything that was presented, but they were overly complex and not clearly explained in the end
TOTAL:	42/50