Review: Fire & Frost by Meljean Brook, Carolyn Crane, and Jessica Sims

Source: A review copy was provided by the authors. 

Fire and Frost is the newest collaboration between authors Meljean Brook, Carolyn Crane and Jessica Sims. The novellas are unique and almost impossible to compare, but they do have two things in common: the charming, compelling characters and the way the “hot and cold” theme has been cleverly incorporated into each story.

In Speed Mating by Jessica Sims we meet Estrella, a mixed tiger and lion shifter (or liger) who is about to go into heat and asks her clan’s alpha to help her find a suitable male to have sex with. Hilarity ensues. Well, not hilarity exactly, but as the title suggests, this is a light, tongue-in-cheek story that’s all about having fun while still managing to sneak in an interesting and welcome take on the ubiquitous shifter romance.

Review: Skin Deep by Pamela Clare

In my very humble opinion, I think Pamela Clare is one of the best Romantic Suspense authors out there. I may be blinded by her awesome sex scenes and dreamy heroes, but that’s what I believe. And hey, if dreamy heroes and sex scenes aren’t part of what makes a romance great, then I don’t know what is. 

Skin Deep is the latest installment in her I-Team series about a bunch of investigative reporters and the alpha males who love them. This time we get a novella and none of the leads are reporters, instead we get to see a former secondary character fall in love.

Megan Hunter has had a very difficult life. I won’t go into details but it’s been an odyssey of tragedy after tragedy. She’s finally putting the pieces back together, she has a job and a nice home. The only problem is that her ex is after her and her money.

A review and a half: An Inconvenient Mate and Lawe’s Justice by Lora Leigh

Note: these reviews won’t make any sense if you haven’t read this series. You should go and start from book 1 Tempting the Beast and take notes along the way (if you do that, let me know because I’m having trouble following the chronology).

This review is a little different than the usual. First, I’m reviewing An Inconvenient Mate, a novella part of an anthology, and then, I’m reviewing Lawe’s Justice the last novel from the Breed Series. The main reason for this is that both stories “happen” at the same time, meaning that the timeline between one and another is almost the same. The other reason is that I read them both almost on the same day.

Review: True Colors by Thea Harrison

True Colors is a Novella within Thea Harrison’s Elders Series, it comes after Serpent’s Kiss. I don’t know why, but I was really excited about reading this one. Don’t get me wrong, the series is still good and I’m looking forward for what is yet to come, but for me the series had lost some of its initial charm. That said, I’m happy to tell you that True Colors lived up to my expectations. In my opinion it was almost as good as Dragon Bound and a great come back for the series.

Review: Ghost in the Machine by Barbara J. Hancock

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I bought it after reading Janine’s review over at Dear Author even though I wasn’t familiar with Ms. Hancock’s work. I love gritty stories that take place in alternate or post-apocalyptic worlds and Ghost in the Machine is exactly that. I’m so glad I read it because it turned out to be a wonderful and exciting journey.

The world painted in this book has literally gone to ashes. Years ago an alien invasion commanded by an entity called the SoulEater, took over the world and everything in it. Half machine, half something else, the SoulEater had the ability to feed from humans and turn them into ghostly beings called Shadows that wandered the planet reproducing behaviors from their past and sometimes even resembling that past, and whose only purpose was to locate humans and alert the Sweepers. Now, Shadows are a terrible sight because they come back as reflections of their past, that means that a little girl’s shadow sings the same song over and over again, or a former runner comes backs as a horse with a human head. But Sweepers are worse because they are a hybrid between a human and a machine and you can’t tell where the flesh begins and the machine ends, they all are monstrous things devoid of any humanity. Or so it seems.

Series Review: Silent Blade and Silver Shark (Kinsmen Series) by Ilona Andrews

I first heard of this series a couple of weeks ago when book 2, Silver Shark, was released. Since I’m a huge fan of the On the Edge series I decided to read these novellas because they looked promising and most importantly, short.

These are sci-fi stories set in a distant future were different planets have been colonized and where the most influential people have several enhancements that can be either mechanical or psychic, which gives them the upper hand when it comes to the world the live in thus making them the political and economic force. They are called Kinsmen and they are quite the tight group. Family is everything to them and they marry other Kinsmen in order to make them stronger in a political world where genes and family ties are everything.

Review: When Tony Met Adam by Suzanne Brockmann (Short Story, Book 12.5 Troubleshooters Series)

First of all, if you are not a fan of the series you might want to skip this review because it won’t make any sense. You need to be familiar with the books to know what I’m talking about.

                      

I have read 29 novels by Suzanne Brockmann (believe me, I just counted them); so that pretty much tell you that I’m a huge screaming fan-girl of her books, not only that but the Troubleshooter series is my all-time favourite romantic suspense series. However, the last books in the series lacked (or at least for me) that “magic” from the first books. In the last couple of stories I found myself kind of hating the heroine, the hero, the plot or the constant preaching. And after the big disappointment that followed the long wait for Izzy’s book I really wasn’t expecting anything great about this novella.

Review: The First by Saadia Ahmed

Source: we received this book from the author for review purposes.

In The First we meet Reena, she is a college student who comes from a conservative Pakistani family, and is clear from the beginning that this means she doesn’t enjoys the same liberties that any regular young student would. One day in class she meets Brian, he is the all American blue eyed guy and they instantly hit it off and start dating, but there is always the concern that Reena’s family won’t approve of him.

At this point you may think you know what this book is about, girl meets boy, girl and boy fall for each other, girl’s family opposes the relationship, girl and boy fight because of this, girl and boy reunite, and in the end -and against all odds- their love conquers all.  But that is not the case here. This is a short novella but the story develops through years. I don’t really want to spoil the plot, but Reena and Brian don’t get together right away, in fact Brian is absent half the book. I think this story is more about Reena’s journey than anything else, the love story -or lack thereof- plays a secondary role.