I’ll admit that I judged the book by its cover with C.J. Ellison’s Vampire Vacation. I knew from a friend’s recommendation that it contained some hot sex but I was expect something, not necessarily fluffy, but perhaps light hearted. Honestly, a place where vampires can go on vacation that is run by a vampire. The comedy is just waiting to happen.

But that’s not what the reader gets. Instead, it’s a murder mystery of the paranormal kind with a lot of sex thrown in for good measure. There are some light elements such as when Vivian, the main protagonist and proprietor of the V V Inn, bursts into an all male BDSM session or the numerous wardrobe malfunctions that she suffers through wearing the wrong item at the wrong time

Indeed, Vampire Vacation does include all of the elements that would normally make me give a book five stars and declare it as one of my favourites but I can’t.

One of the reasons is Vivian herself. For the most part, she is a good character, likable and mostly treats her employers well but I couldn’t connect with her. This is probably because there was too much “I’m the biggest, baddest vampire here but I don’t like to show it except for when I do.”

Apart from her mate; Rafe and her werewolf blood donor; Jon the other characters were fairly flat and at times I caught myself trying to remember who certain people were, whether they were vampire or human and to which vacationing party they belonged.

The sex scenes also left something to be desired, if the expression can be forgiven. They were quite a few given that the book is set over a period of a few days and Vivian certainly didn’t lack in any way. However, the scenes were short and almost perfunctory. They were well written but they just could have done with some expansion.

But there are elements that stood out. Vivian clearly has a lot of back story that’s alluded to throughout the course of the book. There’s a good deal on the author’s take on vampire mythology such as feeding and what powers they may have and how servants and donors fit in.

Overall, a good book that I liked but felt could have been better in some respects.

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It’s probably fair to assume that anyone with a passing interest in vampire mythology will have come across stories in which a vampire had a servant. Someone who protected them during the day, looked after the vampire’s interests and / or a general dogsbody. Indeed, in some books, they’ve even been termed ‘Renfields’ after the mad man who fell under Dracula’s influence in Bram Stoker’s novel.

On top of that, vampires are one of the staples of paranormal romances (PNRs).

And yet The Vampire Queen’s Servant is still like no other book I’ve read. For a start, as can be ascertained by the title, the vampire in question is a woman and being the queen, Lady Lyssa is also the oldest and most powerful still alive.

Her previous servant; Thomas apparently died some months prior to start of the book, but not before he found and began to train a replacement; Jacob. I initially typed ‘suitable replacement’ but Jacob, at the start, even as observed by Lyssa is probably the most unsuitable person to be a servant. This is because in the normal, mortal world, he would be an alpha male and as such has understandable difficulty in giving his mistress the total submission that she demands.

And therein lies why this is a different book to most I’ve read; the BDSM element is the heaviest that I’ve encountered. Saying that though, for the most part it’s not extreme. I say the most part but there are some scenes involving what I think is called ‘sounding’, whipping and rape. But whilst the scenes between Lyssa and Jacob start out as something purely sexual with Lyssa quickly establishing her dominance, they quickly begin to morph into something more when the pair also begin to bond to each other on an emotional level.

It’s a credit to the writing that whilst I understood Jacob’s feelings on the subject of the level of submission required, I could also understand where Lyssa was coming from in that vampire politics is vicious and any weakness can be deadly. Given that Lyssa appears to have the same affliction that claimed her servant, appearing to be in complete control of herself and Jacob is a priority.

Aside from the most erotic dinner party, vampire politics are only sometimes mentioned and there is sense of a wider world out there because it is mentioned that whilst vampires are rare, not only is Lyssa the queen, she was also a major factor in the creation of a vampire council. The most powerful vampires such as Lyssa also have their own territories or regions and woe betide any vampire that enters without an invitation.

That said though, with little world building and a small cast, this leaves the focus of the book on Lyssa, Jacob and although Thomas died, he is still a major influential character.

Finally, whilst The Vampire Queen’s Servant doesn’t end on a cliff hanger, things aren’t wholly resolved such as Lyssa’s illness which is a threat to her’s and Jacob’s burgeoning relationship. As such, this is book one of Lyssa’s and Jacob’s story and is continued in The Mark of the Vampire Queen.

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Eugenics. The science of improving stock and plays an important role in animals. But apply it to humans and wars have been fought over it. But this is the dystopian future that Sylvia Ryan creates in Being Amber. In the near future a particularly virulent disease has wiped out a large portion of the population. By the time it’s over the surviving government, in an effort to preserve certain ‘strains’ in humanity, such as blonde hair, and at the same time ensure that genetic defects are eliminated have instituted repopulation laws.

In Atlanta, one of the few remaining cities in the US, there are three designations that a person can be assigned. Those who are deemed acceptable in that they are intelligent and have no genetic disqualifiers are Emeralds. The crème de la crème are sapphires. But should anyone be found to have faulty genome or other undesirable trait that the ‘Gov’ do not want to be reproduced, they become Amber and are segregated into their own zone and sterilised.

This is what happens to Jaci, a young lady who is removed from her family, home and life in the Emerald section and becomes an Amber due to a genetic fault that she had no idea that she had. Being sterilsed, she’s known as a ‘fallow’ and because of this, is honoured amongst those in the Amber zone, an honour that has come about as a coping and support mechanism. Unfortunately for Jaci, there is someone killing fallows. One of Amber’s own.

Other support mechanisms that have sprouted up as part of being an Amber. Nobody lives alone and single people are assigned a live in companion with whom they share a bed. Physical contact has also become very important to these people and as a result, Ambers are well versed in each other’s bodies and make incredible lovers.

This brings me on to the sex. Being Amber is a highly erotic book. Sex isn’t the focus of the book; that belongs to the great characters and plot but when it happens, the sex is very hot involving toys, light BDSM, F/F and group play. It’s also natural when it happens and is very much part of the story. There is sometimes nothing worse than an out of place sex scene regardless of how steamy it is. It’s telling how good the characterisation is when the death of one character and the betrayal of another affects me as a reader.

It’s apparent that I enjoyed this so why only the four stars? That comes down to Jaci’s live in companion; Xander. He’s a policeman for the Ambers and is keeping a close watch on Jaci whilst investigating the fallow murders along with several others. For approximately three quarters of the book he’s also a dick, in my opinion. At a time when Jaci needs support and honesty from the people closest to her in her new life, he comes up short. A reason is given as to why but it seems more like an excuse to me.

One final point and that is there is epilogue to Being Amber on the author’s site at http://www.ryanbooks.net/ which I found to be bittersweet. This may or may not spoil the enjoyment of the ending of Being Amber. Given that I don’t normally read dystopian stories because I like my future to be all shiny and rosy, I’m glad that this was recommended and will be awaiting the next book in the New Atlanta series; Being Sapphire due in 2014.

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Lover at Last is Blay and Qhuinn’s book which means that this is mostly a heavy M/M romance book. If this is not your thing then I’d suggest to actually focus on the romance itself.

In addition to being the first M/M book of the series (obviously not counting the scenes in previous books with Blay, Qhuinn and Saxton because they weren’t the focus) this is also the first that I can remember where there is so much going on that not every plot thread is wrapped up.

Don’t worry, because this is a PNR and not an UF, the romance does have a quite literal HEA but there are plots involving side characters that remain very much open, one in particular being almost a cliff hanger.

Given that Lover at Last does focus on Qhuinn, because of what’s gone on before, a large portion is also devoted to my favourite Chosen; Layla. Actually, due to the state she finds herself in (trying to avoid spoilers here!), a large part of hers and Qhuinn’s story is quite tense as in “how will they get around this?” Actually, when the solution to the predicament presents itself, it’s quite obvious, almost a “Duh!” moment. So obvious in fact that the person involved didn’t even think of it!

There is also the continuing story of the Band of Bastards and Xcor’s continuing plot to usurp Wrath’s throne. The delicious dilemma that gives me as a reader the hope of his redemption is that any action taken against Wrath is likely to put his beloved Chosen in danger. What sets Xcor apart from the majority of men in his position is that he won’t do anything that endangers his female. Even giving her his contact information and saying that it’s okay to pass the information on if it keeps her safe. And adding to the dilemma? She feels the same about him despite him being a traitor.

Assail continues to be a wild card but with the introduction of a new human character; Sola, his life just got even more complex in addition to trying to maintain his neutrality in the brewing war between the Brotherhood and the Band. Like Xcor, he’s both good and bad at the same time. Whilst he does nothing to help the king he also doesn’t assist Xcor but then he has also taken out Caldwell’s drug dealers only to take their place. And then Sola enters his life, another morally grey character who looks to balance Assail very well.

In addition to all of that, fans of iAm and Trez will be happy because a good portion is devoted to them and their history as Trez’s former life begins to catch up to him. It’s discovered that they are not quite normal vampires but are not sympaths like Rehv and Xhex either. But whilst Trez tries to escape his fate which involves sex with pretty much every woman he encounters his flight stumbles when he meets the Chosen Selena.

I did say that there was a lot of threads, all decent and all suck you in! This does lead to a lot of switching of points of view but it keeps the pacing fresh. Usually it would be obvious whose relationship would be focus of the next book and we appear to have the choice of Xcor, Assail and Trez but J.R. Ward has already announced that the next book is called “The King”. Another first in that ‘Lover’ as been dropped from the title.

Can’t wait!

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It’s Shelly Laurenston therefore this is an awesome and funny read. Need I say more? Oh, if you insist.

Not counting the trademark humour and snarky dialogue that all of the books in this series contain, the primary reason I most enjoyed this book was because pretty much all of the characters from both the Pride series and the preceding Magnus Pack trilogy are in this book to a greater or lesser degree. Even those that don’t get to make an actual appearance are at least mentioned.

And it’s not done in a forced manner either. Toni (“That’s Toni with an ‘i’ and not a ‘y’”) Jean Louis Parker is the daughter of Jackie Parker who is best friend of Irene Conridge whose story was told in Miss Congeniality. But we first met Irene way back in Miki’s story in Go Fetch! part of the original Magnus Pack trilogy. Not only that, but Toni’s parents have rented a house from Jessica Ward who, as fans all know, is mated to Bobby Ray Smith of the Smith clan.

Ricky Lee Reed is, well, he’s a Reed and we know that family quite well already. It’s like playing six degrees of separation spotting all the connections. The other pleasant surprise is that both Toni and Ricky make a fairly sensible couple of main characters with their heads screwed on relatively straight. Given that the previous couples tend to be…er…barking (sometimes literally), it leaves the wackiness to the huge ensemble of wacky side characters.

There is a small but very significant side plot about a threat to Toni’s siblings from one of their own that is actually quite disturbing. On the other hand, it does make Toni’s best friend Olivia ‘Liv’ quite the intriguing character. And your challenge is to guess what Liv’s shifter form is before it’s revealed. You’ll probably think you know and you may even come very close like I did, but I think you’ll be surprised. Honestly, I’d never even heard of the animal before.

I guess I did end saying a bit more, didn’t I? Needless to say, fans of the Pride series will not be disappointed by Wolf With Benefits.

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Kresley Cole’s Immortals After Dark series is one of my favourite series with almost every one of its books sitting on my favourites shelf. So I naturally assumed that The Poison Princess would be equally as adored. Right?

Not so much.

Let’s get what I didn’t like about this story out of the way first and that can be summed up as; Jackson Deveaux. What an arrogant, condescending asshole with not a single redeeming feature about him. A supposed bad Cajun boy from the wrong side of the levee he actually just turned out to be an alcoholic eighteen year old whose only future involved a lengthy jail term had the world not come to an end in a ‘flash’.

Now Kresley Cole can write bad boys. Almost everyone of her males in her Immortals After Dark series is one to a greater or lesser extent but without fail they all have a quality that makes me like them despite not actually wanting to. Whilst Jackson might be a good kisser, that’s not enough for me.

Okay, so that’s the negativity out of the way. I liked Evangaline ‘Evie’ Greene. I enjoyed the chapters devoted to her life at school before the apocalypse and especially liked her best friend, Mel, who reminded a lot of Regin, one of the Valkyrie from the IAD series. She was immensely likeable and had a great attitude. I really, really hope that we get to see her but it’s unlikely.

I also found the premise of the story fascinating. I will admit that I know nothing about Tarot but even I have heard of the death card and so to have these cards as real flesh and blood people replete with the powers of their cards is interesting. However, before the end of the world Evie thought she was going made experiencing visions and hearing voices and her grandmother was encouraging her before she was arrested for abducting young Evie. Imagine Evie’s shock then when she finds out that she is The Empress from the Tarot deck and her grandmother was right all along! Cue Evie’s flight across the post-apocalyptic southern US to find her grandmother and to learn more about herself and her powers.

Along the way, she meets up with other ‘cards’; Selena ‘The Moon’, Matthew ‘The Fool’ and Finn ‘The Magician’ each of whom already seems to learned what that are capable of. But not all of the cards are friendly. Evie’s foes include Death, the Alchemist and the Red Witch who seems to be worryingly familiar.

Cole’s painting of the world after the Flash, as its end is known, really is a bleak place. If the environment doesn’t kill you with its lack of water and food, the survivors who range from militia to cannibals to humans who have become zombies or ‘bagmen’ will certainly try to. Whilst other reviews have commented on why Evie’s life prior to the Flash is shown, I think it serves a purpose in highlighting what she’s lost and given that Evie is not yet eighteen, she copes remarkably well in spite of being lumbered with an ass named Jackson.

So there is a lot to like about the start of The Arcana Series and would have had a higher rating that merely ‘liked it’ had it not been for the male lead. Endless Knight, the next book is due in a mere six months at time of writing. I look forward to it.

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Books are essentially meals for the mind. You have epic tales that are akin to the occasional full on blowout that leaves you stuffed and there is your standard fare that you are comfortable with and have on a day to day basis. Continuing this books are food analogy then, Triad falls clearly into the fast food category in that it’s quick and easy but also something of a guilty pleasure and you just know that before too long you’ll have another, but perhaps not just yet.

And when I say quick and easy, I mean it. To give you an example, I can some up the meeting between Amelia (Lee) and Aiden like so:

“Hi, I’m Lee.”
“Hey Lee, I’m your new neighbour and you’re gorgeous. Shall we make love?”
“Well, alright then.”

I might be paraphrasing slightly but not by much. Lee is a dream walker which is a very powerful type of witch. So powerful that only one is born in every generation and Lee comes from a long line of powerful New Orleans witches. Aiden, her new neighbour is actually a 200 something year old vampire and the pair having been dreaming about each other for awhile now. Alex, who Lee has also been dreaming about is a wizard on the light path and also Aiden’s best friend and they form the titular Triad.

It is this triad that is given the task of defeating an evil mage who used to be a god before he was stripped of his god-hood. And how do they do this? With lots of sex to combine their powers, of course. And I mean a lot so that it is almost, but not quite crosses the line from erotica into porn. Not that I would have minded, if it had but it didn’t.

The thing is, with everything happening so fast with the three meeting up, practically jumping on top of each other quickly getting over any jealousy, I never felt any connection with any of the characters. So much so that when a secondary character died, I wasn’t affected. The grief was shown but it hardly put a dent in the triad’s path of experiencing some hot sex.

Triad was an enjoyable romp into a world of magical sex and witchcraft. As for the rest of the Witches Knot series, I’ll certainly get to them the next time my mind needs a guilty pleasure!

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Have you ever been in the position of being somewhere and you’re being forced to listen to a conversation that you really don’t want to? Most have and most can either cover their ears or just plug in a pair of earphones and drown the sound out. But what if you couldn’t? And what if the conversation had already taken place and the people having that conversation were no longer in the room but you could still hear what was said in that room? In your head. Regardless of how long ago that conversation might have taken place.

This is Ashlyn. She has is forced to listen to conversations no matter when they happened in her immediate vicinity. I can’t even begin to imagine how torturous being in a city would be for her. Which is why she is in Budapest searching for angels or demons who may be able to help her either silence the voices or give her the ability to control them.

One of these is Maddox, an immortal man created by the Greek gods to guard a very special box. However, the responsibility was given to Pandora and he and his fellow guards weren’t too happy about that. Yes, that Pandora and that box. The rest, as they say, is the stuff of legend. And so Maddox was cursed by his gods to hold the spirit of one of the demons that escaped the box; specifically violence. Because of what happened to Pandora at Maddox’s hands, he is also condemned to hell every night, returning to Earth at dawn of the next day.

Fast forward to the present day, you can probably now imagine that Maddox and his fellow immortals don’t consider dating or searching for mates anywhere in their immediate future. But this changes when Ashlyn and Maddox meet each other and she finds the silence that she desires so much when around Maddox.

And that’s largely it for a lot of the book. Ashlyn trying to stay close to Maddox and Maddox not having any of it because the spirit of Violence sometimes gets control and things tend to get destroyed when that happens. And there is the whole journey to hell every single night. However, he does come to learn that Ashlyn is a calming influence on the spirit and it’s not long before both Maddox and Violence are in agreement about Ashlyn. This is a wonderful love story and whilst Maddox mostly acts like a neanderthal a lot of the time, he does treat Ashlyn appropriately but aside from the love story nothing really happens.

It’s not until the last 15% or so that the story really starts to ramp up with mortal Hunters out for the blood of Maddox and his cohorts making an appearance, Ashlyn’s employer turning out to be someone other than what she thought he was and Anya; a mysterious invisible entity who may have the answer to Ashlyn’s and Maddox’s obstacles.

I did enjoy the book as a whole but I think it would have been better had less time been spent on Maddox losing it to Violence and beating up everything in sight and more time spent on the events in the later part of the book. I certainly want to hear more from Danika and Anya so I shall definitely be continuing with the next in the Lords of the Underworld series.

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Having heard the name of Gena Showalter and her Lords of the Underworld series, this has been on my TBR pile for quite awhile now. Of course, never having read anything by this author before, I was hit by the usual thoughts along the lines of “will I like it?” and “will it stand up to the calibre of my regular reads”.

Fortunately, being a short story I read it in one sitting and can happily answer ‘yes’ to both questions.

The story itself is a simple one; both Kadence, the Goddess of Oppression from Heaven and Geryon, Lucifer’s gatekeeper are duty bound to ensure that nothing escapes from Hell out into the mortal world. The two have apparently being doing this for quite awhile but in silence. Certainly from his point of view because he thinks himself so far beneath her and not just in terms of the realms they come from.

Unbeknownst to him, however, Kadence finds Geryon intriguing despite his demonic appearance and has done ever since he saved her life during an escape attempt. So, when the wall is discovered damaged she enlists him to aid her in repairing the wall and killing those responsible for causing the damage and that is when they start circling each other, getting closer and closer…

This was a very enjoyable romance with a somewhat unusual HEA and an intriguing twist at the end. Both characters were well liked and whilst there was one instance of “you go stand by the wall while I kill the bad guys”, Geryon gave sufficient reason for this and he was a gentlemen where Kadence was concerned as is right.

I don’t what, if any, impact this story has on the series as a whole but I will certainly be finding out.

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Following on from my review of Bloodlines: The Golden Lily, it is finally February 2013 and all can see is “YES!”

Alright, I suppose I should say a little more otherwise this would be a pretty short review.

To start with, this book alone ensures that this Bloodlines spin off series has matured into a series of its own right and can stand equal to the excellent Vampire Academy series (oh, and in case you didn’t know; Blood Sisters, the film of Vampire Academy has its three main characters cast and should be coming to a cinema near year on 14th February 2014!).

The Indigo Spell starts a short time after the aching ending of The Golden Lily where Sydney and Adrian are thrown together when they are to attend a wedding of some loved characters (I’ll say this now, it’s not Rose and Dmitri although they both make a welcome visit as does Lissa). Unfortunately for Sydney, other alchemists are also there and so she has to keep up the appearance of what is expected of an alchemist. Which is not helped when Adrian does what he does best and causes delightful mischief in his own way.

And that’s what this book is primarily about; the relationship between Sydney and Adrian or ‘Sydrian’ as the Twitter fan base seems to have taken to calling them. We already know Adrian’s feelings from the last book and to be honest, we also knew Sydney’s in respect of Adrian even if she wasn’t willing to admit them to herself. What we didn’t know was if Sydney was strong enough to overcome her alchemist prejudice and her own mind to let her heart lead her. Does she? That would be telling, but The Indigo Spell is an amazing journey in finding out. I just have to say, though, that one particular stop of that journey involves painting t-shirts at a sorority party is one of the best scenes.

But that’s not all Sydney has to cope with. There is also a really good side plot concerning Sydney’s natural affinity for magic and how she has to also learn to embrace that side of herself and moving further and further away from alchemist teachings in order to battle a evil witch who is stealing the youth and power of young witches. There is a lovely twist in the end of this side plot that I just did not see coming.

As for the question of “who is Marcus Finch?” I felt this was rather anti-climatic. Perhaps he’ll have more to play as the series progresses but I honestly hope not. On the other hand, if he was only there as a warning to Sydney then he more than accomplished his role. The best way that I can describe him is ‘immature’.

Because of the intensity of Sydney and Adrian’s relationship story and Sydney’s constant travelling to find the rogue witch, Jill, Eddie and Angelina aren’t given a whole lot of page time but fortunately things progress quite nicely. Angelina still manages to cause trouble in more ways than one and could another couple be in the making? Let’s hope so.

We also get to briefly meet Sydney’s family again or at least her father, the epitome of what it means to be an alchemist (*cough*asshole*cough*) and Zoe, Sydney’s younger sister with whom, she had not parted on the best of terms in Bloodlines.

However, this is the third book in the series and those who have read any of Richelle Mead’s series will know that there is always a somewhat of a shocking ending in these third books. Whilst not a true cliff hanger per se but just when everything appears to be wrapped up aside from the few openings that need to be left open for the continuance of the series, we are suddenly left with “how will Sydney get out of that?!”

The Fiery Heart (I think we can thank Adrian for the name) isn’t out until November. It’s going to be a long nine month wait for the next in this wonderful series.

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