Review: Dark Desires After Dusk

Review: Dark Desires After Dusk by Kresley Cole

Cade of the rage demons will stop at nothing to atone for the one wrong that will haunt him forever. But once he secures the key to his redemption, the halfling Holly Ashwin, Cade finds that the woman he thought he could use for his own ends and then forget haunts him as much as his past.

Raised as a human, Holly Ashwin never knew that some frightening legends are real until she encounters a brutal demon who inexplicably guards her like a treasure. Thrust into a sensual new world of myth and power, with him as her protector, she
begins to crave the demon’s wicked touch.

Yet just when he earns Holly’s trust, will Cade be forced to betray the only woman who can sate his wildest needs—and claim his heart?

Cadeon the Kingmaker - King Rydstrom's brother and heir to the throne of the rage demons - has made some mistakes in his 900 year existence. The foremost and by far the worst mistake was made when he was a young man, the day he cost his brother the throne. Instead of defending Tornin, the king's stronghold, Cadeon was instead racing to see to the welfare of his foster family thus allowing his brother's kingdom to be overthrown by Mort the Deathless, an evil sorcerer. And by his very namesake, Mort is deathless. No traditional Lore means of killing - beheading or fire - will ensure his death.

Cadeon, guilt ridden over his betrayal to his kingdom, vows to his brother that he will get Rydstrom's crown back. 900 years later and Cadeon is still trying to make do on his promise. As mercenary, Cadeon has crowned many a king, hence his title - the Kingmaker, but he always seems to fail with his original vow to his brother. But fate has bestowed upon the brothers of the Woede, a chance. All that Cadeon and Rydstrom must do is find the Vessel, a female of the Lore that will birth a child of either ultimate evil or good. Groot the Metallurgist, Mort's brother, requests the Vessel and in return he will forge a sword that will kill Mort the Deathless.

Unfortunately for Cade, fate can never be kind without exacting a price. The Vessel just so happens to be Cade's mate, Holly Ashwin - a human forbidden to his kind, whom he has been keeping watch over for the past year. Demons may recognize their mate but they won't know for sure until they attempt, in other words, have sex with them. During this process a demon will turn into his demonic form - which is huge; their skin color changes and their horns straighten. They also bite the female between the neck and shoulder, injecting with their fangs a stunning agent the immobilizes her. Humans by nature cannot withstand the attempt without possible death, therefore Cade must resign himself to the fact that he and Holly can never be together. Cadeon uses this resignation to force himself into accepting the job of collecting Holly and delivering her to Groot thereby retrieving the desired sword.

Holly Ashwin has issues. Suffering from acute OCD and mild agoraphobia, Holly can only feel comfortable in either her loft or the college campus where she is simultaneously completing her doctorate and teaching. In order to focus, everything around her must be organized in three or multiples of. In addition, Holly will only eat prepacked food where no human transference has taken place. Lastly, Holly has sexual issues. She's a twenty-six year old virgin but not for lack of trying. Unfortunately Holly has scared off the two males that she attempted to have sex with. Both times she became wild, uncontrollable even, to the point where the possibility of injuring the man was very real. So Holly has abstained. She does currently have a boyfriend, Tim, of two years. It is definitely a cerebral relationship as opposed to a physical one but the two do plan to get married. This plan however is officially halted when she is abducted by demons, struck by lightening, and thereby resurrecting her Valkyrie genes from dormancy.

Cadeon is just as surprised to see Holly with her signature Valkyrie silver eyes and sharp claws. But he still sticks with his original deal to take her to Groot. Holly, suspicious by nature is wary of trusting the hot demon but all she wants is to go back to her organized old life and when Cade dangles the opportunity to remain a mortal, she jumps at the chance. Cade tells her that Groot can stop the transformation (a complete lie) and since he is already on his way to meet with the sorcerer he'll take her along with him.

What follows is a steady unfolding of passion between Cadeon and Holly. Although the two couldn't be more different, their attraction is undeniable.

If you stripped the novel bare of everything except for the basic love story, you'd see that it is quite simple and formulaic. Opposites attract, arguing/teasing allows the characters to lean about each other, there is some misunderstanding because they are still wary of each other, this is then resolved and they each proclaim their love. See, pretty simple, yet Cole's uncanny ability to make old formulas fresh blinds the read to the fact that they've probably read this story a million times before. Plus Cole's world building is phenomenal and the humour is laugh out loud funny. I love her style, it's tried and true with a lot of extra thrills. In essence her plot lines are so clean and flowing that I can finish one of her novels very rapidly.

The one kink that I had with the story, and it's a major one in my opinion, was that I felt that Cadeon could have been fleshed out more as a character. Cadeon was very sensitive about his intelligence for he was not educated as well as his brother, the king. This is also a worry for him when it comes to Holly because she is so obviously smart. Cole does mention a time or two through Cade's POV that he is nervous about not being smart enough but I thought this could have been explored even more. Cadeon is self-educated and I think he was proud of that but he never really exhibited any of his knowledge. I guess I was waiting for him to truly impress Holly with some bit of information that he learned. In turn, Holly never questions him about his education which was weird because she was so into school and knowledge. Cade asks her all kinds of questions regarding her education but she never returns the favor thereby never allowing Cadeon to shine.

Also, Cadeon didn't seem much different to me from begining to end. While we see tons of character growth for Holly, there wasn't much growth on Cade's end. I just wanted more Cadeon, more of who he was and what he wanted.

Although not my favorite adddition to the Immortals After Dark series, it was still a worthwhile and fun read. One thing I am looking forward to is Rydstrom's book, 'To Kiss a Demon King' which comes out in January 2009. There is a major life altering event that happens to Rydstrom in 'Dark Desires After Dusk' and he seems a totally different demon by the end. Exciting!

B+

Review: Wild Card

Review: Wild Card by Lora Leigh

It was supposed to be simple. All Navy SEAL Nathan Malone had to do was rescue three young girls from a Colombia drug cartel, then allow himself to be captured just long enough to draw out a government spy. That was before his mission went disastrously wrong...and before his wife, Bella, was told that Nathan was never coming home.

Bella's mourned her husband's death for three long years. But she has no idea he's still alive. Forced to assume a new identity, the man Nathan was is now dead. If he can get back to his wife, can he keep the secret of who he really is...even as desire threatens to tear Bella from Nathan's arms once more?

Thought dead by his wife and fellow agents, Nathan Malone was actually enduring eighteen months of cruel torture at the hands of the infamous Colombian drug cartel leader, Diego Fuentes. During this time he was pumped full with a volatile aphrodisiac designed to stimulate the victims libido to such exponential heights that they are nearly mindless with lust. Because Nathan was a known SEAL operative, Fuentes believed that if he could force Nathan to break his marriage vows with his beloved wife, than he could crack open the agents mind for more information. Although consumed with need for a woman, Nathan refuses to touch any of the women brought to him thus holding on to the unbending refusal to be with anyone other than woman he loves, his wife Sabella.

Once rescued Nathan undergoes surgery to repair the horrendous damage done to his body. Since nearly every bone was broken without having medical treatment to repair the damage, Nathan's bones have healed incorrectly. The surgery leaves him looking nothing like the man he was before. In addition, due to the unstable nature of the aphrodisiac and the high doses that were injected, Nathan will have to live with the drug circulating his system for the remainder of his life. Now whenever adrenaline pumps through Nathan's body, the drug will trigger and he will become consumed with uncontrollable lust.

When asked if Nathan wanted to see his wife his answer is never. Sabella would be expecting to see the flirtatious, easy loving man that she married. But Nathan is no longer that man. He is cold, unfeeling, unmerciful - a monster. He would terrify her. Nathan would rather remain a beautiful memory for his wife. Nathan Malone is and will remain dead. Having joined Elite Ops, a privately funded mercenary crew of dead men, Nathan Malone is now code name wild card, A.K.A. Noah Blake.

Now, six years since his wife was informed of his death, Noah is back to protect her from a rogue militia group that has targeted her auto garage. Noah will not be telling her that he's her husband and once the op his completed, he has every intention of disappearing from her life once again. But what he wasn't expecting was a hollow shell of a woman where his wife used to be.

Six years later Sabella Malone is still in love with her husband. Her "Irish". Not only does she still wear her wedding band and her husband's old work shirts, but she also has a veritable shrine of pictures of him in her living room. Having finally gained the strength to enter society three years ago, Sabella now dedicates every waking moment working tiresomely to keep Nathan's pride and joy in business - Malone's Garage.

Life after Nathan certainly wasn't easy. Seeing how Malone's Garage was a very lucrative business when her husband was alive, a lot of the town's males deemed Sabella the "poor and helpless widow". And with that title came the assurance that she needed a big strong man to take over the family business so she could continue being "helpless". For this, Sabella had to turn a lot of men out on their asses. In addition, her father-in-law tried to make a case to seize all of Nathan's assets putting her in a defensive position. Luckily with the help of her brother-in-law Rory, Sabella has managed to keep herself afloat but her strength is perilous at best.

And although Sabella isn't necessarily happy, her life has developed into a safe and predictable rhythm. For the past year she has been steadily seeing Duncan Sykes, a friend of Nathan's, more for companionship than anything since the relationship so far has been completely platonic. And steadily through time, Sabella has begun to think of Nathan only most of the time as opposed to every waking second of every hour, of every day. But that rhythm is destroyed with one glimpse of Mr. Noah Blake, the new mechanic hired by Rory.

For the first time in six years, Sabella feels an uncurling of warmth deep within where coldness reigned. The man before her is rugged, arrogant and intensely male. Immediately after introductions Noah seizes control of the garage and Sabella's emotionless facade falls spectacularly apart. While Sabella is immediately drawn to Noah's intense sexuality she is also consumed with guilt having felt she betrays the memory of her husband with every thought and action that is not geared specifically toward or for him.

Noah meanwhile is shocked at the changes in his wife. Her hair is dark, her nails are chipped, her face and hands are covered in grease and oil, and she is lying beneath a truck working on it's engine. The wife he knew didn't know how to even change her oil much less work on an engine. His wife had been obsessive about her nails and had blond hair. But this is the least of the shockers. Sabella now has a spine of absolute steel and she can say no with strength and has no problem throwing in a strong right hook just to prove her point. His wife is a tomboy.

These new aspects of Sabella leave Noah feeling betrayed at first. Yet he realizes that they were both keeping parts of themselves away from each other. Noah had always had darkness within him yet he chose to shield that from his wife, fearful that she in her innocence would fear him. And Sabella conversely thought that the frilly innocent image that she presented was what her husband had wanted to see and come home to. Each in turn thought that they would have more time together to discover who the other was but that unfortunately fate had not allowed.

Yet Noah feels such pain for the woman before him. He had mistakenly thought that Sabella would move on after his death even to the extent of moving away and starting a new life. He was ill prepared for the empty husk of the woman remaining. With that he decides that before the mission is completed and all threats erased, he is going to teach his sweet wife how to love again. Although in doing so, Noah soon learns that his previous determination of leaving his wife after the op is going to be harder than he thought. In addition, little aspects of Noah's personality are still "Nathan" in essence and Sabella is haveing a hard time explaining these pecularities away. The more they spend time together the more Sabella questions Noah's identity. And when realization strikes there is no way Sabella is losing the husband she loves twice.

I absolutely loved this story. I found myself so excited to get home and return to this novel and that feeling really drives home for me the greatness of a book. My heart broke in the begining for both Sabella and Nathan - Sabella for her heartbreaking loss, and Noah's debilitating pride. Yes, the ultimate flaw to Noah was his pride. He couldn't face the possible rejection that he had convinced himself that his wife would feel. And the darkness that was always within was so prominent now that he felt she would truly see a monster where her husband now stood. His shock at Sabella's ultimate strength was gratifying to say the least. And as these to characters fell in love again I was in complete awe of both of them and their strength.

This novel paints a beautiful picture of love and the everlasting strength that it possesses. This is by far my favorite Lora Leigh novel.

A-

Sad News

I don't know about other readers out there but for me when I'm really enjoying a novel I tend lurke obsessively on the author's website for any information that I didn't know before. This author stalking at it's worst. Currently I'm in love with Noah Blake from Lora Leigh's 'Wild Card'. So far he is the absolute BEST Leigh hero to date, IMO. Also the heroine, Sabella Malone (Don't you just love that first name?) came off as exceedly vulnerable after her husband's death but man is she discovering her very sturdy and rightous backbone! I'm absolutely loving her as well. Unfortunely school and work have been prohibiting me from devouring this novel but I'm trying to savor it anyway so it works. But this not the sad news.

During another recent perusal of Lora Leigh's website (I swear I've stopped by at least every moment possible today at work) I read her updated blog to discover that she is currently going through a divorce and that the last few months have been very difficult for her. I can't imagine how hard it must be to write about love when your own love story is not going well, non-inspiring to say the least. Yet Lora promises that writing has in fact been her salvation during this time.

I encourage anyone who has read Lora Leigh to stop by her blog and tell her how much you enjoy her novels in hopes that it might bring a little joy to what has been a devasting situation.

((((HUGS)))) to Lora. We love you!

Review: Nauti Dreams

Review: Nauti Dreams by Lora Leigh

Natches Mackay separated himself from his family years ago, except for the two cousins who gave him the only family he’d known. Now he’s being dragged back into his father’s life in ways that could destroy him and the one woman who tempts him beyond reason: Government Agent Chaya Dane, who has fought to put her own past behind her. A mission in Somerset, Kentucky, brings her back into the dreams of Natches—and into the shadows cast by his father, suspected in the theft of government missiles. And it could cost Chaya more than she ever imagined.

Agent Chaya Greta Dane is known within the Department of Homeland Security as Greta and no one would dare to call her by her first name. The name Chaya was left in the past with the painful memories of her previous and once happy life along with the broken pieces of her soul. Now she exists only to see that the people who destroyed her world meet with the strong arm of justice before she goes to bury herself into the deepest and darkest hole of despair. Yet one man dares to interfere with her plans.

Natches Mackay has already let Chaya walk out of his life not only once but twice and he is not willing to let her go for a third time. As the only person brave enough to resist her command to call her Greta, Natches embarks on a mission to bind Chaya to him mind, body and soul. Yet Chaya is determined to never love again and Natches is her greatest weakness.

As a man tied to her past in the most tragic way, Chaya can only associate him with guilt for while she once lay in his arms her baby girl had been dying. Now, several years later, her need for Natches has become violently consuming. In a desperate attempt to rid Natches of her system once and for all, she doesn't fight back or resist his impassioned kisses and melting caresses.

Natches, with his instinctual need to protect, is angry that Chaya has put herself in danger once again, this time with the task of seeking out the terrorist cell that coated the small town of Somerset with blood the year before. After stolen missiles were recovered, Natches was forced to kill his first cousin Johnny Grace (events in 'Nauti Boy'). Yet a million dollars is still missing from the deal and DHS believes that Grace was getting orders from a higher source. Chaya, armed with questions written by her superior officer and enemy of the Mackay boys - Timothy Cranston, begins interrogating certain people within the Somerset community hoping to flush out remaining members of the cell. Yet when she begins questioning beloved family members, Natches will no longer stand aside and observe.

Natches is not without a tragic past. The hated spawn of his father, Dayle Mackay, Natches was beaten repeatedly for not being Dayle's loyal little solider. When Natches was in his late teens he was nearly beaten to death by Dayle when he tried to protect his sister from their father's abuse. Vowing to never speak to Dayle again Natches joined the marines where he discovered his penchant for killing and became a legend to snipers everywhere. Natches's ability to switch into sniper mode allowed him to kill efficiently and without any emotion before or after a strike. Yet this same dark talent isolates him from his cousins and best friends, Rowdy and Dawg Mackay. Both of them are worried because within the last six years Natches had withdrawn himself so much that the sniper was nearly all that remained. And they also believe that Chaya had something to with the deadly cold look and demeanor that was destroying the Natches they once knew.

There is no doubt that what Rowdy and Dawg believe is true. Natches lost his soul to Chaya on that fateful night in Iraq when he gave her a night of pleasure so intense that the agony of her lost daughter would not be felt until the morning. Unfortunately the traumatizing loss that Chaya endured would rip her soul to shreds and leave terrified of another relationship. Compound that with the fact that she feels that her lust filled abandon in Natches's arms was punishment for her not protecting and ensuring the safety of her child. That guilt leaves her soul cold and her heart broken. Chaya ran that morning from Natches, virtually disappearing from his life and he was left alone and in love for the first time. Five years later, Chaya runs again after the missile recovery op in Somerset was completed. Now one year later she will not be able to run again.

Chaya is different from the usual Leigh heroine in that she is not meek-minded and instead fights against Natches's dominance. And although Natches attempts to cow her into submission he eventually learns to respect her strength and stands beside her as a partner in the investigation as well as their relationship.

I also enjoyed Natches desire for children and his intent on impregnating Chaya was so intensely sexual that my heart and body practically melted from his need.

His hand flattened on her stomach as she stared at back at him in a shock so deep, so overwhelming, she wondered how she was standing upright. "Because I'm betting I have the fastest, slickest little soldiers in the state of Kentucky. Just a breath of a chance, sweetheart, and you're pregnant." His expression, his eyes, grew taut with possessiveness. Possessiveness and lust. "And I could very much get into making damned certain that they have every chance."

Although the concept is a bit caveman-ish but instead of my feminist side rearing it's ugly head, I fell in love with Natches instead. Leigh is brilliant in that respect.

One thing that I didn't feel and it somewhat ruined the story for me was that even though I believe that Chaya is now able to accept her love for Natches, I didn't feel that the "guilt filled sex" on the night of her daughters death was truly reconciled. Mainly because Chaya reminds herself of that guilt throughout the story but the plot device is never wrapped up. This drew me away from the overall story because I was waiting to see how the guilt would be resolved or explained away.

In addition, I felt that the hype over Natches's hatred for his father was a bit too much given their eventual meeting was short and concise. I expected more action during those final scenes.

Leigh toned down the erotica in this novel, IMO. This in no way debilitated my enjoyment of the novel but compared to other Leigh novels this was considerably toned down.

Overall an entertaining read but with all the great reviews on Amazon, I guess I just had higher expectations.

C+

Review: Hostage to Pleasure

Review: Hostage to Pleasure by Nalini Singh

Separated from her son and forced to create a neural implant that will mean the effective enslavement of her psychically gifted race, Ashaya Aleine is the perfect Psy--cool, calm, emotionless...at least on the surface. Inside, she's fighting a desperate battle to save her son and escape the vicious cold of the PsyNet. Yet when escape comes, it leads not to safety, but to the lethal danger of a sniper's embrace.
DarkRiver sniper Dorian Christensen lost his
sister to a Psy killer. Though he lacks the changeling ability to shift into animal form, his leopard lives within. And that leopard's rage at the brutal loss is a clawing darkness that hungers for vengeance. Falling for a Psy has never been on Dorian's agenda. But charged with protecting Ashaya and her son, he discovers that passion has a way of changing the rules...

'Hostage to Pleasure' continues where 'Mine to Possess' left off. As the perfect Psy with perfect Silence(Conditioning that rid the Psy of all emotion)designated M-Psy(medical), Ashaya Aleine, has the rare gift of seeing into the human body at the DNA level. This makes her a prime asset to the Psy Council and the implementation of Protocol I. We learned about Protocol I in series book three 'Caressed by Ice' and it's goal essentially is to make all Psy into a hive mind, destroying all individual uniqueness and personality. And like a bee hive, there must be a leader and the fight over this ultimate power is a deadly one. A fight in which Ashaya is unwillingly a part of. In order to ensure Ashaya's cooperation, the Council is holding her son, Keenan, hostage but Ashaya has put into motion a plan that will save her son and hopefully herself. In exchange for helping DarkRiver save two human children from her underground lab, DarkRiver will kidnap her son from the Psy Council.

From the moment of his birth, Dorian Christensen's life was marked for tragedy. As a changeling leopard, the animal side of Dorian's soul is integral to the human side. Sadly, Dorian was born a latent leopard. In other words, he is unable to shift and take his leopard form. This inability is not only severely damaging to his soul but also causes him excruciating physical pain as well. Dorian's leopard is completely unaware of the fact that man cannot shift into beast. When the leopard demands release it doesn't hesitate to claw and push beneath Dorian's human exterior. The pain of scraping claws underneath the skin of his fingers is brutal and fills him with intense agony.

Interestingly enough, the latency makes Dorian closer to his leopard than anyone else is to their own. Because his beast is constantly scraping and clawing beneath his skin, Dorian's reactions are generally more leopard than human. This also makes him on the extreme side of alpha. Ironically, Dorian is also the public Representative for DarkRiver. His surfer-boy good looks, outrageous charm, and innocent appearance make him the perfect leopard for the job.

Dorian's latency has not held him back however. In fact, he is one of the most dangerous leopards in DarkRiver. He moves as silently and stealthily as any other leopard but his claws are in the shape of a sniper rifle.
The latency became a driving force in Dorian at an early age, pushing him to be the best at everything and anything and eventually he attained the role of a sentinel, the highest pack rank below alpha in DarkRiver.

Another tragedy has also befallen Dorian. His baby sister was tortured and murdered by sociopath Psy. Dorian has sworn vengeance against the Psy race and will stop at nothing to destroy the Council - the Psy governing body, and the Psy way of life, Silence. Riding on the emotional waves of rage, hate, and guilt, Dorian has become colder than ever by slipping into his sniper mentality more and more. At one time pack helped in deadening his pain, but with the death of his sister, Dorian is one step away from picking up his sniper rifle and turning rogue.

Dorian's rage serves to be a real conflict for him and Ashaya's early relationship with guilt overcoming him for falling in love with a Psy whose way of life killed his beloved sister. Ashaya's continuation of upholding Silence, even though she is free of the Council, enrages Dorian even more. But in reality Ashaya broke Silence a long time ago and has essentially become an excellent actress yet her reasons for upholding Silence proves to nearly be Dorian's undoing.

What brings Dorian back from his killing rage is Ashaya's distinctive maternal behavior towards her son Keenan. Truth is Keenan and Ashaya have shared an exclusive parent/child bond which was cut when Keenan was thrust into the Web of Stars and out of the Psy Net. Ashaya wants nothing more than to save her baby but she feels that the only way to this is by remaining Silent and staying away from him so that the Council will feel that he is no longer important. Dorian is frustrated with her avoidance when she clearly loves her child despite what she has proclaimed to him verbally.

He smiled and it wasn't pleasant. "Scared?"
..."I feel nothing." It was the same lie she'd told herself her entire adult life, only allowing the truth to surface in the deepest depths of night...The unrelenting charade had taken a toll, but she refused to crack. Not yet. Not while Keenan remained at risk.

Although I started to feel that the Psy/Changeling pairing was becoming redundant, Ashaya's broken Silence before meeting Dorian made things interesting and unique. Whereas in previous series books, changelings were trying to break the Silence within their mates, Ashaya is trying to pretend Silence when emotions are something that she can feel.

"Pieces of my heart Dorian. You're in so many pieces of my heart."

The Psy/Changling war has also progressed with the Changelings winning. There was definitely more development with the human end of things in which that could play a major role in wars outcome. The rebellion is definitely getting interesting and I look forward to seeing where is will lead.

And the epilogue was beautiful. What Nalini Singh did for Dorian was well deserved and I believe in the end he was truly happy. No longer did he feel guilt and though he still believes that the Council should be brought down to dust, it is no longer the driving force within him, Ashaya is.

A

Review: Savage Thunder

Review: Savage Thunder by Johanna Lindsey

Newly Widowed after a shockingly brief marriage to an elderly British lord, Jocelyn Fleming still aches for with the pain of unexplored desire. And now her restless heart is leading her far from the protective bosom of polite society to the perilous beauty of the American West...and to Colt Thunder.

Breathlessly exciting but dangerously unpredictable, Colt is a loner whose Cheyenne blood burns hotter than the blistering Arizona sun. Jocelyn's wealth and title mean nothing to this stranger whose passion rules his actions and his heart. But neither the wild desert stallion nor the untouched English rose can deny their irresistible attraction...or to prevent the firestorm of emotion that erupts when their vastly different worlds collide.

I picked this book up for one reason - the supposedly amazing hot love scene in which the hero has sex with the heroine while simultaneously riding a moving horse. I mean, this I gotta read! Since the scene seemed to stick in a lot of readers heads, I naturally assumed that the rest of the book had to be hot as well. Unfortunately the book sucked for me. Not only did the horse love scene disappoint but I though there was a total lack of chemistry between the H/h.

Lady Jocelyn Fleming, Dowager Duchess of Eaton, has a personal problem - she's a virgin. And a disgruntled one at that. Her husband, the late Duke of Eaton, married Jocelyn while in the sad process of dying. All he wanted was a friend - someone to think about him after his death. Although the duke is unable to perform his husband duties, Jocelyn is none the wiser for she is a gently bred English girl who never heard about the intimate ongoings between a man and a woman. One thing the duke never expected was to fall in love with his very, very young wife. Jocelyn is surprised by this love as well, but love him she did.

During this time, the Duke prepares Jocelyn for her adventure ahead. Due to the fact that his family are money hungry a-holes, whom of which he fears will do something horrible to his young wife to acquire his possessions, he makes Jocelyn promise to basically take his money and run. The Eaton land and title would fall to his family but the bulk of his liquid estate would go to Jocelyn. On the night of the duke's death, he makes Jocelyn promise to leave England and never return. It's his belief that if she is far enough away then his relatives will leave her alone. Unfortunately for this romance novel - well every romance novel - fate would never allow life to be this easy.

Coinciding with the duke's death is White "Colt" Thunder's worst day ever. A half-breed - half white - half Cheyenne Indian, Colt is being whipped nearly to death for believing himself worthy of a white woman's hand in marriage. While his back is being flayed, his would-be bride watches stoically from the deck of her home beside her very angry father. On this day, Colt vows never to be with a white woman again.

Fast forward three years later. Jocelyn has seen much of the world traveling in a gouache blue carriage complete with six matching greys and a veritable fleet of men to protect her, along with maids and a french chef to serve her. Her companion, Vanessa, a countess of something or another, has implored Jocelyn to take a lover to be rid of her little secret so she may be free to marry another. But Jocelyn cannot take just any lover. She is determined to protect her late husband's reputation and therefore will not be intimate with any man that has known him. One would not think it hard for a Duchess to find a man to have sex with but apparently her coloring is not at all the rage during this era. She is skinny with overly large green eyes and a wild mass of hair the color of fire. Men, Jocelyn has found, simply do not find her attractive.

This dilemma is compounded with the fact that Jocelyn is never able to remain in one city long enough to meet someone to relieve her virgin state. John Longnose has been pursuing her throughout every country, continent, and sea that she has traveled. Always behind her and always with the intent to kill her. The duke was wrong to assume that with Jocelyn far away from England, his relatives would leave her be. The new Duke of Eaton has contracted a man, only known to Jocelyn by the name she and her traveling companions have dubbed him - John Longnose, for no one knows his true identity. His mission was originally to kidnap the Duchess and bring her back to England so that the new duke could control her and her money. But now that Jocelyn has reached her majority, the new plan is to simply kill her and all her possessions would revert back to the dukedom.

While in the process of being ambushed yet again by Longnose, Jocelyn encounters Colt near Tombstone, Arizona. After saving her and the countess from near death, Jocelyn asks Colt to work for her and bring Longnose to heel. Colt refuses of course because a) he's not for hire, and b) his vow to never love a white woman is in serious peril with one look at the pretty red head. But Colt is doomed at first sight for his blue eyes, smooth skinned body, and long black hair marks him as the perfect canidate to rid Jocelyn of her virginity. Too bad Colt is unwilling to cooperate. But Jocelyn eventually bags her man by calling his bluff and Colt becomes her party's guide as they make their way to Wyoming.

For the next three hundred pages a battle of wills ensues. Colt is a surly, closed-mouth a-hole. He avoids Jocelyn, whom he refers to only as Duchess, at every opportunity. The two spend the whole of a hundred pages combined in each others actual presence. The fist love scene, which doesn't occur until several hundred pages, is perfunctory with Jocelyn seducing Colt which he later hates her for when he realizes she's a virgin and was simply using him (his thoughts, not mine or Jocelyn's for that matter). The rest of the book is filled to the brim with Jocelyn being caught by Longnose, rescued by Colt, only to be caught again...and again. These are pretty much the only times the two are together. And sadly, during these times the H/h are arguing instead of having the hot sex I was expecting.

Colt lusts after Jocelyn but this lust is morphed into anger at the audacity of her being attractive to him. His vow to never want a white woman again becomes exceedingly dull. He is belittling and crude to her throughout the entire book. Every time he feels himself growing impassioned for her, he becomes even more mean. I had to hand it to Jocelyn's longevity. I would have told the guy to get lost but she continues to want him and even falls in love with him. And out of the two, I believed Jocelyn loved Colt. She must have or why else would she put up with his shit.

Eventually circumstances force Colt and Jocelyn alone together for an entire week as they trek through the last leg of their journey. My reader's heart is thinking "finally we can get to the hot part - the horse scene". Unfortunately it was a dud lasting a mere page and half. This and the aforementioned were the only love scenes bearing actual page time and not a mere mention. Seriously, only TWO!

In the last three pages after Colt has previously up and left our heroine with his family with no goodbye or nothing, he proclaims his love and asks her hand in marriage. This proclamation and proposal spanned one sentence. And idiot Jocelyn says yes! There was no groveling forgiveness for his past despicable behavior and truthfully I don't think he truly loved her.

The only thing that saved this book for me was Jocelyn. She was the heroine I would like to be. She's an excellent and fearless horseback rider and she can handle a rifle better than most men. She knew who she was and didn't back down from the challenge that Colt ultimately managed to be. Plus the world was beautiful to her and no matter what a person might look like or what blood ran through their veins, they were all human to her. I was in awe of her travels and how money never changed her or her dreams. She'd gladly give everything up with nary a complaint if Colt would just tell her that he wanted her, maybe even felt he could love her. Yet Colt never asks about her travels nor does he ever inquire about her past. She was nothing but a woman with pretty pert breasts and flame red hair. He never sought to know Jocelyn and for this I could never sympathize with his surliness or anger toward white women. He was just a shallow little man to me. But Jocelyn was interesting.

D

Review: First Blood Anthology "Thicker Than Blood"

Review: First Blood Anthology "Thicker Than Blood" by Meljean Brook

Vampire Annie Gallagher needs help to save a young human girl named Cricket, but she doesn't expect the help to come from the FBI agent she loved-and had to give up-when she was transformed.

Jack Harrington knows he is being stalked. He continues to deceive the one who follows but he is shocked to discover that his stalker is none other the his deceased girlfriend.

Six years ago, Jack had invested months wooing Annie Gallagher. Knowing her family's strong values, he wanted a ring on her finger before they made love for the first time. But all his time and preparation was brutally halted by her sudden death in a car accident. Jack, determined to never let the past repeat itself, met someone new within the first year of Annie's death and promptly proposes within weeks of the relationship. His fiance soon discovers what has happened to him and the relationship dies. Now for the past five years he's been on his own. Resigned from the FBI for digging into closed investigations that hinted to the supernatural, he is now on a personal quest to discover what happened to vanish more than hundred Philly residents without anyone batting an eye.

Annie Gallagher is the only vampire left alive in Philadelphia. The other 130 vampires in her community have disappeared, killed by a nephil - a demon housed in human skin. Indebted to the only people willing to take her in upon her transformation, Annie goes on a search for their human sister, Cricket. For two weeks she's been scouring the city, psychically touching thousands of minds looking for any sight of the girl. So far no such luck and Annie is on the brink of madness. Without a consistent vampire food source, Annie has been forced to alternate her feeding with prepackaged blood and humans. The irony of her situation is that for the past six years she has been making a living executing those vampires who viewed humans as a food source and sometimes as an easy kill.

With the bloodlust building, Annie stakes out a bar in her old hometown of Northeast Philly. Memories of happiness and family flood her soul and sharpen her loneliness. That's when she spys her prey. A man, obviously inebriated, leaves the bar to walk home and Annie begins to stalk him. All the while she notices resemblances to the love of her life, the man she was forced to walk away from - Jack Harrington.

For the past six years Annie's life has been one of solitude. Due to the rejection of her human family Annie never allowed herself to become too close to anyone in her vampire community. After being past around the community as a feeding partner and forced into sexual intimacy by the bloodlust, Annie had finally found sanctuary with a vampire couple who welcomed her to into their bed. Annie settles for seconds as the couple are deeply in love but she would rather have forced sexual intimacy with friends than a stranger. Now all that has been taken away and Annie's despair is great. Because of this emotional weakness, Annie allows Jack back into her life, if anything his FBI contacts may help in locating Cricket.

Now that Jack has found Annie, he refuses to let her go. She was the one for him and he sees her decision to ultimately stay away from him after her transformation as a fierce betrayal. Jack knows that she'll do anything to find Cricket and he uses this weakness to imerse himself back into her life.

I loved the subtle and slow way the author had of revealing the inner workings of these characters. Like a slow opening flower, each pop of a pettle brought forth a new tidbit whether it be about Jack or Annie's past or gradual reconcilliation. I found this device kept me more interested in the story. I wanted to know why Annie's human famly was no loger apart of her life. I wanted to know why Jack was no longer in the FBI. Answers were given slowly and sometimes in combination with a new question awaiting to be solved.

The only aspect of the story that left me wanting was the resolution of Cricket's disappearence. I thought there would be a fight between Annie and the Nephil but instead it was completely anti-climactic.

I'm huge fan Meljean Brook and this latest installment to the Gaurdian Series does not disappoint. Her next full length novel, 'Demon Bound', will be out November 2008.

B+