The Cards of Life and Death by Colleen Gleason

(I purchased this book.)
Back of the Book Blurb:
From international bestselling author Colleen Gleason comes a small-town summer romance spiced up with moonlit boat rides, handsome neighbors, and a haunted deck of Tarot cards....

Diana Iverson is a sharp, up and coming malpractice attorney with a logical, scientific mind and a handsome fiance--until the rug is pulled out from under her feet and her life is upended.

When her crazy Aunt Belinda dies, leaving her a big old house in Maine along with a box of Tarot cards, Diana takes the opportunity for a summer get-away away from the rat-race of Boston and the painful memories there.

She doesn't expect to meet up with Ethan Tannock, the handsome neighbor next door who seems to be some sort of eccentric ghost-buster--along with his big, black Labrador Retriever.

But when the old house becomes the scene of vandalism and a number of break-ins, and it begins to appear as if Aunt Belinda's death was not as it seemed, Diana finds that life isn't always black and white and filled with logic.

And then there are Aunt Belinda's Tarot cards...which seem to be trying to tell her something from beyond the grave....

Review:
This is one of those books that keeps you reading late into the night while snuggled in bed.  It's intense and mysterious, with a story chock-full of romance, the paranormal and an unseen menace.
Diana is is a woman trapped by her own good fortune (be careful what you wish for!) when we meet her - she is a driven workaholic who seems to have traded her soul for the chance to defend a sleazy doctor and colleague of her fiance, in order to make a name for herself.  After working 70+hour weeks to defend this jerk, she wins the case and feels like she can escape, when she learns that he has another one and both he and her jerk of a fiance expect her to kill herself defending the doctor again.  But Diana sees a chance for a brief escape when news of her Aunt Belinda's death and her inheritance arrives.  She heads up to Maine and quickly learns that her aunt's hunky neighbor Ethan had a close relationship with Belinda.
Diana is suspicious, prickly and priggish - really, she's a hard gal to like.  But as she starts to go through her aunt's beautiful old home, Diana begins to loosen her tightly wrapped self.  Turns out she had spent a very happy summer with Belinda as a teen, before her snobbish mother cut all ties with her sister.  Diana has had no contact with Belinda since that summer, and feels guilty over not making an effort to reconnect, and starts to remember some of the strange events of that summer.  Because Belinda had some talents - she knew things and the people in town trusted her.  And Belinda has left Diana a Tarot deck, which seems to act as a doorway to Diana's latent psychic talent.
As Diana starts to find clues and realizes that Belinda's death may not have been an accident, she is suspicious of everyone, and pretty soon scary things start to happen.  Burned out by her legal practice, unsure of who to trust, not knowing what really happened to Belinda and why, and both terrified and intrigued by her burgeoning psychic talent, Diana decides to stay in Maine. 
The writing is clean, the characters are complex and realistic, and the action propels the story along with lots of action and scary stuff.  The mystery was a good one, the paranormal elements were a really nice compliment to the solid mystery, and it was the perfect book to curl up with at night.


For more information check out the author's website at http://www.colleengleason.com/

Blood Rush (Book Two of the Demimonde) by Ash Krafton

Back of the Book Blurb:

Sophie doesn't believe in happily ever after. These days, she'd settle for alive after sunrise.

Advice columnist and newly-appointed oracle to the demivampire, Sophie Galen has more issues than a Cosmo collection: a new mentor with a mean streak, a werewolf stalker she can't shake, and a relationship with her ex's family that redefines the term complicated. And then there's her ex himself, who is more interested in playing leader of the vampire pack than in his own salvation.

Becoming a better oracle is tough enough, but when Sophie encounters a deadly enemy - one she never dreamed of facing - it will take everything she's ever learned in order to survive.

Review:  Wow!  This book sucked me in right from the beginning.  This is a confident writer with a clear vision of the world created in Bleeding Hearts, the first book in the Demimonde series.  Blood Rush picks up right where the first book ended, with Sophie recovering from her near-death after her lover is driven mad with blood-lust.  As she slowly recovers, she realizes that Marek has no intention of coming near her again, and that he is no longer the man she knew and loved.  But picking up the pieces of her life is harder than it should be, because she is still the Sophia, an empathic Oracle of wisdom and emotional comfort to the DemiVampires.  Grieving, physically recovering, and trying to pay the rent, Sophie is also being stalked by a Were and spends her afternoons running out of her office building to evade her hunters.  She moves constantly and is nearing her limit when Marek's brother Rodrian suddenly pops back into her life with a too-good-to-be-true offer:  Marek's country mansion is now Sophie's.  The catch?  Rodrian's daughter Shiloh will live there too, and Sophie will help keep an eye on the bubbly teenager.  Sophie is suspicious, but also desperate for some stability and contact.
Pretty soon she and Rodrian are acknowledging their attraction to each other and flirting while pretending nothing is happening.  After all, Sophie still loves Marek and Rodrian worships his older brother.  The progression of their relationship is awkward, sexy, and uncomfortable - in other words very believable given the circumstances.
During Sophie's recovery she has become best friends with Dahlia, one of the DV and soon she adopts another stray named Toby.  Little by little Sophie is making a family for herself even as she mourns the loss of Jared, Marek and her dreams for the future.  Things look even brighter when Sophie is contacted by an experienced European Sophia who offers to train Sophie as an Oracle.  Sophie jumps at the chance, and even though Eirene and her sidekick Dorcas are arrogant, condescending and rude, Sophie's power grows quickly under the tutelage.  She is soon able to protect herself against the DV's compulsions - and about time, too!  I mean she's their Oracle, but they yank her around like a puppet.  Sophie's not an ass-kicking heroine but at least now she can defend herself.
One of the frustrating parts for me is that Sophie is still willfully ignorant about much of the DV world she now lives in.  When Pontian or Rodrian hints at their age or history, she immediately changes the subject, claiming she is too freaked out. Wouldn't you want to know as much as possible, being the weak, helpless food source surrounded by predators?  Sophie has the survival instincts of a sofa for the most part, but she survives anyway due to her stubborness, her tenacity, and her faith - and lots of luck.  But that is also part of her charm as the heroine - in many ways she is a very traditional old-school, romance heroine.  She is gentle and kind, her empathic and compassionate skills slowly soothing the savage alpha-male beasts surrounding her while she befriends and charms the other women - classic!
Blood Rush also gives us some intriguing little windows into the DV world Krafton has created.  There is a brief mention of the DV Special Ops at a rock concert attended by DV and Weres, which I think could be a whole new book right there.  We learn a bit more about the prejudices and bitter hatred of the two races, and we have some great new characters.  
 Fast paced, well-written, with a very satisfying blend of realistic romantic entanglements, intrigue, betrayals and some great surprises, I loved this book.




 Blood Rush will be released on May 14, 2013 by Pink Narcissus Press.


Wolf's Bane (Book Three of the Demimonde) will be released 2014.

Disclaimer - The author sent me this book in exchange for my honest review.

For more information check out the author's website at:  http://ash-krafton.blogspot.com/

 

   

Bleeding Hearts (Book One of the Demimonde) by Ash Krafton

Back of the Book Blurb:  Sophie Galen is an advice columnist who is saving the world - one damned person at a time.

Shy and sensitive Sophie has all but given up on love until she meets Marek, a mysterious stranger who seduces her with his striking good looks and his take-charge attitude. Yet the darkness she senses within him may be more than she is prepared to handle when Marek draws her into a world of vampires, werewolves, and treachery. Forced to leave behind the comfortable routines and certainties of her past, Sophie makes unbearable sacrifices and uncovers hidden truths about herself and the world around her.

Review:  

Sophie is an advice columnist for a city paper, and she lives a life behind the scenes, both figuratively and literally, existing in a habitual haze of solitude, visiting museums and spending her evenings in her apartment with her cat.  A former nurse, she has switched careers after her nursing job became focused on profit rather than care.  She is also extremely intuitive, and this has aided her in making her life choices and enabled her to avoid almost all emotional risks.

One of the things I loved about this book was how the beginning unfolded (much like the movie The Wizard of Oz), switching from black-and-white to sudden color to symbolize the heroine's drab, dull existence changing to an exciting, vibrant life.  Although the first 50 pages or so were intriguing enough to keep me reading, the slow pace had me worried. This black and white beginning of the book felt slightly vague - I didn't have a sense of Sophie's appearance, or her history, or her life in general.  It felt like a thinly sketched "aimless woman living a lonely life in a big city who lives with a cat" scenario. And she is an orphan and her best friend is a priest - talk about isolated!  But things begin to change when two colorful things happen to her - a person who wrote to her kills himself (but is still sending her letters), and she meets Marek, a mysterious and handsome man who brings vibrancy, passion and excitement into her life.  Pretty soon, on one very memorable date, she learns what some of Marek's secrets are, and from here on out Sophie is awake, alive and living an unexpected life.

Krafton has created her own vampire lore, with another species called the DemiVampire (DV) who are in constant battles (political and otherwise) with the full vampires, who are evolved DV (and "evolved" means killing humans while sucking them dry and absorbing their life essence).  The DV are living among us, oozing power through their emotions, and Sophie is sensitive and receptive to this power. 

Sophie is not clairvoyant, but is an empath, sensing the emotional energy of the DV in particular, and sending healing energy out to those in need. As such she is revered as a kind of soothing Oracle of wisdom, but also as a human pet, because she is still manipulated by the DV using their power of compulsion. They profess to need her and respect her, yet they treat her in a patronizing manner.  I guess if we want to look for deeper meaning it's an indication of their parasitic nature - they feed off blood and they feed off energy, too.  Sophie is just a food source with two flavors instead of one.

Much of the story is dependent on Sophie's ability to use her compassion to bring peace to others, including the DV (demi-vampires).  First she reaches out to Marek, then his brother Rodrian, and there's lots of descriptions of the vamp's power surging with their emotions, and Sophie feeling that power, filtering their emotions and sending it back to them.  While I really liked the concept of energy vampirism, and Sophie's role as a modern descendant of Isis, it is a tough thing to bring to the written page.  Consequently, much of what Sophie says sounds trite, and I kept thinking as I was reading that if she is teaching beings who are hundreds of years old how to handle grief and loss, then those beings are not very bright. 

For those readers who love paranormal romance but don't enjoy graphic sex scenes, this is the book for you.  The few references to physical romance are very chaste with absolutely no descriptive action whatsoever.  While the romance of Sophie and Marek is the focus of this story, it is set against a backdrop of a political web of power-mongering between DV and vampires fighting for territory and manipulating humans.
The really exciting action comes towards the end, when Sophie is kidnapped and Marek is taken.
I really enjoyed the fast pace,  the truly scary Master Vampire character, and the steadily increasing tension of Marek being forcibly evolved.  I could not stop reading!  I feel like Sophie really redeemed herself in this part of the book, and I ended up caring about her, enough so that I am really looking forward to BLOOD RUSH (Demimonde #2), which I will review here in a few days.  

Blood Rush will be released on May 14, 2013 by Pink Narcissus Press.

Disclaimer - The author sent me this book in exchange for my honest review.

For more information check out the author's website at:  http://ash-krafton.blogspot.com/

 

   

Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children Sequel Delayed

Looks like we'll have to wait another year for the sequel to one of the most original, wonderful books I've read in years.

Quirk Books posted the following announcement recently:

Untitled Miss Peregrine Sequel

The Second Novel of Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children

Ransom Riggs

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children was the surprise best seller of 2011—an unprecedented mix of YA fantasy and vintage photography that enthralled readers and critics alike. Publishers Weekly called it “an enjoyable, eccentric read, distinguished by well-developed characters, a believable Welsh setting, and some very creepy monsters.”
This second novel begins in 1940, right after the first book ended. Having escaped Miss Peregrine’s island by the skin of their teeth, Jacob and his new friends flee to London, the peculiar capital of the world. There, they encounter a dangerous madman named Caul, who also happens to be Miss Peregrine’s brother. Caul has discovered a way to rob Peculiars of their abilities and steal them for himself—and it will take all of Jacob’s efforts to save his friends from certain extinction.
Complete with dozens of newly discovered (and thoroughly creepy) vintage photographs, this new adventure will delight adults, teens, and anyone who relishes an adventure in the shadows.
RANSOM RIGGS is the #1 New York Times best-selling author of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. He is a graduate of the University of Southern California film school and is a writer for mentalfloss.com. He lives in Los Angeles.

• Available as an ebook
  E-Book ISBN: 

  978-1-59474-620-8
• ISBN: 

  9781594746123
• Book Dimensions: 

  5 3⁄16 x 8 3⁄16
• Page Count: 

  352
• Release Date: 

  February 5, 2014
• Book Price: 

  $17.99

   I highly recommend checking out Quirk Books website - it is a lot of fun! Their motto is "Seekers of All Things Awesome" and their website is just that - full of book release info, recipes, and all sorts of funky literary-related goodness.

WILD ABOUT YOU by Kerrelyn Sparks (Love at Stake Series #13)

Back of the Book Blurb:

Handsome Howard . . .
Hunky Howard . . .
Hot Howard . . .

It's not every day that Elsa Bjornberg feels delicate, not when she hosts a home renovation show where she can effortlessly demolish a kitchen. But from the moment she meets Howard Barr, this bear of a man makes her feel like a woman. And the way he looks at her, as if she were a pot of honey he'd like to lick . . .

Howard is not like most men. For one thing, he's a shapeshifter. And he always thought his celebrity crush would never amount to anything more than drooling at Elsa on TV. When his meddling vampire employer gets involved, the star is suddenly within his grasp—and within a hair of her life. For an ancient curse forbids their newfound love, and Howard is suddenly torn between his desire for her and his desire to keep her alive.

Review:

Wow, I REALLY like this cover.   I may need a moment.......OK, I'm back.
What can I say?  I love Kerrelyn Sparks' Love At Stake series.  It's fun, fluffy and entertaining, with laugh-out-loud moments mixed with adventure and hot hunky alpha males.  When I start a new one I know exactly what I am getting, and I really treasure that.  The happy-ever-after ending is a sure thing, and she keeps it fresh by adding in new characters and plotlines.
Howard is a were-bear and daytime security guard for the vampires.  His past has remained a mystery in the last several books, as Sparks has teasingly dangled little clues about his background.  In Wild About You we finally learn about Howard's painful past, his family separation, and his determination to get revenge for a horrible event from his youth, that caused his exile.
Shanna Draganesti accidentally learns about Howard's fascination with Elsa, and decides to play match-maker, never imaging that Howard and Elsa share a destiny centuries in the making.  But the outcome of this is not certain.   As Elsa's aunts teach her about her family legacy, she begins to doubt Howard's true intentions as she begins to come into her ancient, inherited powers.  With shotgun-toting aunts, murderous bad-guys, some really hot sex scenes and the beautiful setting of the Adirondacks (shout-out for my home!!), this story was classic Sparks, and I gobbled it down in one sitting.  Delightful!

For more information visit the author's website at http://www.kerrelynsparks.com/.

   

Jane Austen Mash-Ups: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies / Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters

                     



A few years ago, when all things Jane Austen seemed to reach the height of craziness, the novel Pride and Prejudice and Zombies came out, and I HAD to have it. Two of my favorite things in one pretty little package!   As far as I know, sheltered girl that I am,  it was the first book of its kind, mixing most of the original text with carefully added sections to create a whole new spin on a long-treasured novel.  I absolutely loved it, and the thing I loved most was the really well-crafted blending of the original story with the insertion of a zombie thread running through the ENTIRE plot.  I would guess about 80% of Austen's text is perfectly intact, and Grahame-Smith managed, by adding a sentence here and tweaking a paragraph there, to create a whole new meaning to the nuances of Austen's delightful and insightful prose.  It was still the book I loved, and the zombies felt like a natural addition to the story, not the clumsy insertion they easily could have been.  Elizabeth and Darcy's smart and witty dance of manners, emotions, and societal requirements was actually enhanced as they dealt with bothersome zombies with the same sparkling and practical finesse.

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters was also very good, but I found it to have more of the Sea Monster story and less of Austen's Sense and Sensibility.  I would guesstimate that 60-65% of the original text was there and that made it less enjoyable to read, at least for me.  Instead of getting lost in Austen's slightly altered world, I felt like I was reading a whole new story with a familiar plot.  Traveling to the bottom of the sea to mingle with society in SubStation Beta, the steadfast, love-sick Colonel, and encounters with the fickle Willoughby, were all intact.  But the sub-plot involving Margaret and her discovery of a mysterious group of chanting, teeth-filing sea-monster worshipping humanoids felt awkward and strange, and was never fully resolved.



Back of the Book Blurb Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters (published in 2009) :
From the publisher of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies comes a new tale of romance, heartbreak, and tentacled mayhem.

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters expands the original text of the beloved Jane Austen novel with all-new scenes of giant lobsters, rampaging octopi, two-headed sea serpents, and other biological monstrosities. As our story opens, the Dashwood sisters are evicted from their childhood home and sent to live on a mysterious island full of savage creatures and dark secrets. While sensible Elinor falls in love with Edward Ferrars, her romantic sister Marianne is courted by both the handsome Willoughby and the hideous man-monster Colonel Brandon. Can the Dashwood sisters triumph over meddlesome matriarchs and unscrupulous rogues to find true love? Or will they fall prey to the tentacles that are forever snapping at their heels? This masterful portrait of Regency England blends Jane Austen’s biting social commentary with ultraviolent depictions of sea monsters biting. It’s survival of the fittest—and only the swiftest swimmers will find true love!

Back of the Book Blurb Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (published in 2009):

 “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains.”
So begins Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, an expanded edition of the beloved Jane Austen novel featuring all-new scenes of bone-crunching zombie mayhem. As our story opens, a mysterious plague has fallen upon the quiet English village of Meryton—and the dead are returning to life! Feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennet is determined to wipe out the zombie menace, but she’s soon distracted by the arrival of the haughty and arrogant Mr. Darcy. What ensues is a delightful comedy of manners with plenty of civilized sparring between the two young lovers—and even more violent sparring on the blood-soaked battlefield. Can Elizabeth vanquish the spawn of Satan? And overcome the social prejudices of the class-conscious landed gentry? Complete with romance, heartbreak, swordfights, cannibalism, and thousands of rotting corpses, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies transforms a masterpiece of world literature into something you’d actually want to read.





Here are some more:

       

The Harvesting (Book 1 of the Harvesting Trilogy) by Melanie Karsak

Blurb from the Author's Website:
It's all fun and games until someone ends up undead.

Though Layla reluctantly returns home to rural Hamletville after a desperate call from her psychic grandmother, she could never have anticipated the horror of what Grandma Petrovich has foreseen. The residents of Hamletville will need Layla's help if they are to survive the zombie apocalypse that's upon them. But that is not the only problem. With mankind silenced, it soon becomes apparent that we were never alone. As the beings living on the fringe seek to reclaim power, Layla must find a way to protect the ones she loves or all humanity may be lost.

Review:

Sweet Mary, mother of god, this book was all kinds of awesome.  I first learned of it from Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer (http://www.caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/) who also loved it.

Layla is living in Washington D.C. and working as a medieval weapons museum curator and instructor (of the practical, medieval weapons-wielding kind), when she receives a very mysterious and brief call from her mystic and psychic Russian grandmother telling her to come home right away. 

Turns out the zombie apocalypse is about to happen, and Grandma Petrovich is a big believer in being prepared. The incredibly psychic Grandma P. has bought huge stockpiles of food, fuel, weapons and ammo, and has her property fenced in.  Next thing Layla knows, Grandma P. has given her a magic mushroom tea to open up Layla's considerable (but latent) psychic abilities.  She wakes up the next morning with a whopping hangover to discover the apocalypse is at hand, Grandma P. is nowhere to be found, and zombies are at the gate.  Pretty soon a Native American warrior spirit tells her to save the town survivors, which Layla does in a slam-bang action scene using a fierce combination of medieval and modern weaponry.

With her calm presence, her extensive academic background in studying medieval battle tactics (because life gets down to the non-electric basics mighty fast during the zombie apocalypse, folks), and her skill with weapons, Layla soon becomes the leader of the survivors.  All while dealing with her new second sight and the fact that her high-school sweetheart (who betrayed her) is still alive and human.  She excels at strategy and staying alive.

After a few months the survivors are found by a mysterious group that comes in a boat across the lake.  They promise them a safe haven at an island luxury hotel.  But something is off about the newcomers, and another frightening adventure with a new enemy is just beginning.  Layla can't convince her friends to stay where they are, and is forced to go with them to try and protect them.  By this time Layla has embraced her abilities, and the story is richly woven with creatures and tales from folklore.

I won't go into further detail because it would spoil the ending of the story, which is really a fantastic beginning to Book 2. 

Reading this literally left me breathless, as I kept going, wanting to know what happens next.  Layla is a fabulous heroine.  Reluctant, grieving, ethical, smart, and capable, she is a superior leader, a fiercely loyal friend and just all-around wonderful.  She does the job because people are depending on her and because it's the right thing to do.  And she is  damn good at it.

This story had so many fantastic elements all wrapped up in one superbly written and plotted book.  Folklore, fairies, magic, zombies, medieval weapons and battle strategy, all held together by the very human drama playing out with a small group of survivors, who may be on their way to losing status as the dominant species.  
I have a particular interest in folklore, and reading this absolutely delighted me - I haven't read this many references to classical folklore since I cracked open one of my Katharine Briggs books!

Book 2 is The Shadow Aspect, and the publication date is May 1, 2013.


For more information check out the author's website at http://melaniekarsak.blogspot.com/. 



 

Jana Deleon's Mystere Parish Series (Harlequin Intrigue)

           




Back of the Book Blurbs: 
The Reckoning (Harlequin Intrigue Series #1380):

In a tiny bayou town with far too many wicked secrets, the sudden disappearance of a six-year-old girl is a mystery Sheriff Holt Chamberlain is determined to solve. But teaming up with Alexandria Bastin is a complication he didn't expect. Nor is he prepared to collide with the dark side of Cajun culture—and his own troubled past.

The frantic search leads them to a place said to hold magic, an eerie island where Alex is also working her charm on him. At one time, he'd been forced to leave her brokenhearted. And now , dangerously close to the truth, he'll do anything to protect her from the evil that surrounds them—an evil that might hold the key to sending a little girl home.…

 
The Vanishing (Harlequin Intrigue Series #1386):
Certain death awaits any outsider who enters Cache, a mythical city said to disappear when intruders threaten. But P.I. Max Duhon won't let the Cajun superstition stop him from going there. He'll do anything to help sexy Colette Guidry and close this missing person's case, even admit how attracted he is to his client. But as their investigation deepens, Max finds himself protecting Colette from the inexplicable terrors of the bayou. This includes the specter taunting them with voodoo…and a shotgun. It seems they may have come too close to Cache and its eerie secrets—and dangerously close to each other.

 

The Awakening (Harlequin Intrigue Series #1393: 

Something is out there… watching…, and waiting.It could be a mythical creature wreaking havoc on a Mystere hotel…or a malicious vandal. It's detective Tanner LeDoux's first case and—much to his chagrin—the hotel belongs to Josie Bettencourt, once the most popular girl in town and his unrequited love. A woman who now doesn't even recognize him.  Josie's poor memory is Tanner's luck, however. He has a chance to be the strong, sexy hero who protects her and her hotel from mounting danger. Tanner's no believer in the old ways, but one stormy night, he sees something horrific he can't explain. And he knows, without a doubt, whatever lurks in Honey Island Swamp means to keep Josie from him forever!

 

 

These 3 books are a new series by Jana Deleon, released by Harlequin Intrigue over the last several weeks. They feature the citizens of the creepy Mystere Parish in the steamy bayous of Louisiana.  Jana Deleon is one of my favorite authors, and her new series has all the hallmarks of her style - a solid mystery, a little danger, and a believable romance, all set in Mystere Parish, a place of dark secrets, magical legends, and strange happenings. Each of the books is the story of one of three brothers, all fathered by the same wealthy man who was murdered twenty years ago.  They were close as boys, and as grown men they have maintained a relationship.  In the first book the eldest, Holt, reconnects with his high school love Alex, and after rescuing her kidnapped niece and reconnecting, they decide to start a private investigation agency for people with nowhere else to go.  The 2nd and 3rd books are the stories of  Max and Tanner, as both of those brothers come to work for Holt, are sent on a case, meet a woman they fall in love with, and solve the mystery. Running through all 3 books is a uniting thread of the twenty year old murder of their father, and the new clues being uncovered in each of their cases.  There is a lot more going on in Mystere Parish than is evident on the surface and I hope Deleon continues the series because I loved all of them!

This review is brief because all 3 are solid, highly enjoyable mystery-romances and excellent additions to the Harlequin Intrigue line.  Jana Deleon is great at blending mystery, romance, and a touch of the paranormal.  Her stories have well-developed characters with complicated histories.  Her settings are like an additional character, because they are so vivid and real.  When I read her books I feel like I can see, smell and hear the sounds of the swamps and the small towns. And her heroines are smart, brave and capable - a nice match to the rugged, handsome and stand-up guys of her books.  

Jana Deleon also writes humorous romances, most of which I've reviewed here, and all of which I've loved.  You need to check her out!

 

 

 

Samurai Game (Ghostwalkers #10) by Christine Feehan

Back of the Book Blurb:

In a world so dark and seductive, expect nothing less than a triple-cross in the explosive all-new Ghostwalker novel by #1 New York Times bestselling author Christine Feehan…

In an underground club, a high-ranking public official spends his secret nights indulging in fantasies as exciting as they are depraved. For a seductive employee of the Dungeon, it’s her job to fulfill them. But she’s playing a far more dangerous game—one of blackmail, politics, and murder that reaches into the shadow world of the Ghostwalkers, and the creation of a spectacular, one-of-a-kind new weapon of defense.

But when a dictator makes his own catastrophic moves, the Ghostwalkers have no choice but to bring in two major players—a man and woman both driven by passion and revenge. Both expendable. Both with nothing left to lose.

I thought the above blurb was so inadequate, I am including the following from Publisher's Weekly:

 Feehan’s 10th GhostWalker novel (after Ruthless Game) is a suspenseful psychic romance burdened by an opening section that lacks plausibility. Azami Yoshiie and Ghostwalker Sam Johnson meet and fall in love during a lengthy attack on the GhostWalker compound. Their lust-filled introduction while in mortal danger doesn’t wash, even though both were psychically enhanced by an evil genius. Dr. Whitney used his brilliance to help create a secret military force. On the side he experimented with little girls, many of whom, like Azami, he tortured and then threw away. Now Azami is a successful software expert and Mission Impossible–level assassin, and she vows to thwart Whitney’s nefarious manipulations, which currently involve sacrificing Sam to an assault on a corrupt Congolese general. Sam doubts Azami’s loyalties, but she soon proves her worth to the team. Strongly intertwined thriller and romantic elements tip the balance in favor of the romance, which quickly turns poignant, but that initial credibility issue looms large.

Review:  Fans of Christine Feehan will not be disappointed with this 10th entry in her great Ghostwalkers series.  The story starts out fast and violent, full of conspiracy and death. After being tortured and used by Whitney as a live dissection lab rat, simply because she had no apparent psychic talents, Thorn was tossed into the streets of Japan, where she was rescued by a man who became her father and mentor.  Raised with love and trained in the way of the samurai along with her two "brothers", Thorn has grown into a beautiful and powerful woman who is also an incredibly skilled assassin.  Despite her loving upbringing, Thorn has never been able to let go of her rage against Peter Whitney - and who can blame her?  As an adult running a state-of-the-art satelllite/software company with her brothers, Thorn, now known as Azami, finds herself in the unique position of having business communications with Whitney.  She decides to destroy him, naturally.  Just weeks after turning Whitney's offer down, her company is contacted by Lily Whitney, who is alos interested in purchasing a satellite.  After Azami and her brothers arrive at the Montana (? I can't remember) compound, they and their Ghostwalker escorts are violently attacked.  Helicopters, ground troops, automatic weapons, oh my!  Amazi and Sam soon become battle buddies, fighting their way through the enemies, learning that they are both teleporters and psychic.  Sam knows she is a Ghostwalker right away, but not everyone can sense her energy, and the other are naturally suspicious of her intentions.
Before a week has gone by, Sam and Azami are engaged to be married and she has moved into his house on the compound.  And this is when things get a little....unbelievable.  When Sam asks her brother's permission to marry Azami, one of them produces a beautiful ring made by their dead father  for just such a moment.  And I found myself wondering if they travel with that ring on every business trip?  Sam heads home after Azami's brother tells him that she is waiting for him at his house, and discovers paper lanterns all over his stream and pond (when did she make, light and sail these?  When?) and she is waiting to give him a loving and traditional full body, mind and spirit cleansing.  Which I'm good with - it was quite touching.  But all of a sudden she is calling him "Sammy" - what is up with that?  Is it a traditional Japanese term of endearment to add an "ee" sound at the end of a name?  Because otherwise it sounds pretty silly, and it had the effect of snapping me right out of the story.
But I snapped right back in when Sam's foster father, General Ranier, arrives and is either working for Whitney or has been set up to send Sam into certain torture and death.  Azami is not having any of that, though, and her high-tech satellite and comms capability will give the Ghostwalker team the edge when they walk into the trap.
As with most of Feehan's stories, there is non-stop repetition of phrases and descriptions - she could easily cut out several pages worth and the story would not suffer in the least. But Feehan writes such a fun, suspenseful, sexy and exciting story I CANNOT STOP READING.  Love her, love her, love her.  And I think the reason is her incredible story-telling skills.  She creates these rich, complicated worlds that feel real.  Her characters are fabulous, flawed and likeable, and her bad guys are really, really rotten.


For more information check out the author's website at christinefeehan.net.

Dirty Little Secrets and A Dirty Shame (J.J. Graves Mystery #1 and #2) by Liliana Hart

Back of the Book Blurbs:
Dirty Little Secrets:  J.J. Graves has seen a lot of dead bodies in her line of work...

She's not only in the mortuary business, but she's also the coroner for King George County, Virginia. When a grisly murder is discovered in the small town of Bloody Mary, it's up to J.J. and her best friend, Detective Jack Lawson, to bring the victim justice.

The murders are piling up...

When a popular mystery writer shows up on J.J.'s doorstep with plans of writing his new book about the Bloody Mary Serial Killer, J.J. has to decide if he might be going above and beyond the call of duty to create the spine tinglers he's so well known for.

And passions are rising...

J.J and Jack discover each victim had a shocking secret, and the very foundation of J.J.'s life is in danger of crumbling when it turns out she’s harboring secrets of her own—secrets that make her a perfect target in a deadly game.

A Dirty Shame:  J.J. Graves is back in Bloody Mary, but she's a long way from feeling at home. Between her physical scars from being the target of a murderer and the emotional scars left by her parents, she doesn't know who she can trust. But death doesn't stop for anyone.

The first murder is grisly. The second even more so. And though things are shaky between them, she and her best friend, Jack, have no choice but to join forces and find the killer. Because the life of someone they love dearly hangs in the balance.


Review:   I'm reviewing these books together because a)I'm lazy, and b) I read these books back-to-back and loved them both.  Really top-notch romantic suspense and extremely well-written.
This is a new series by Liliana Hart featuring small town mortician and coroner J.J.Graves, who has recently returned home to Bloody Mary, Virginia after the death of her parents.  J.J. feels pressured to give up her career as an ER doctor in order to take over the family funeral home business.  After the death of her parents she learned (when the FBI came calling) that her parents had been engaged in illegal activities.

 J.J. is a great character. She is smart, strong, and wounded.  She is also a smart-ass with a great sense of dry humor.  I like her.  She has spent the last ten years in college and med school and then the ER, she has no living family, and hasn't had sex in three years.  Her parents had some kind of illegal and secret life, so the FBI is still poking around months after her parents deaths, and she feels like a pariah in her small hometown.  But she has a tight-knit support group of childhood friends, and one of them is her oldest and best friend, Jack, the hot horny sheriff of Bloody Mary.  She and Jack have been best friends since grade school, and he is her anchor.  As sheriff and coroner they also work closely together, and when a woman they've known their entire lives is found murdered, it's the roller-coaster start to a series of homicides and secrets that will affect everyone in their circle.
When a sexy mystery writer shows up asking to shadow her on the job for research, J.J.'s sleeping hormones wake up and she is soon busy making up for her three year dry spell.  Meanwhile Jack show some unexpected jealousy, and J.J. is trying her damnedest to figure out murders and men at the same time.  The ending is violent, conclusive, and a great emotional cliff-hanger, which is why I immediately started the next book.

In the 2nd book, A Dirty Shame, we learn more about J.J.'s parents and there is some satisfying romancing going on.  I'm not going to add more to that comment, because I don't want to spoil it for new readers. J.J. is literally driving back into town after months of isolated recovery at her parent's Poconos cabin, when she makes a horrific discovery.  And just like that she is back in her groove, running a funeral home, performing as the coroner, verbally sparring with Jack and avoiding his flirty innuendos and any other emotional contact as well, and pretending the harsh judgement of half the town does not bother her.
When the apparent hate crime has ties to one of their best friends, Jack and J.J. are emotionally caught up in the investigation, even as their own emotions are now out in the open.  I really love their relationship.  Jack is supremely confident and insightful, and understands J.J. better than anyone.  And she in turn trusts and loved him unconditionally as well.  She has just never in emotions and relationships before because of her family and family history.  Jack and J.J.'s teasing and flirting is witty, sexy and smart - some of the best dialogue I have read in a very long time.  The sex scenes are hot, intense and hubba-hubba worthy without being very graphic.

The setting of this series is a small southern town with a lot of personality.  Bloody Mary is a small town, full of Victorian-style houses that populate the brick-lined streets, which are named for the dead wives of Henry VIII.  The population is a mixture of rich and poor, black and white, local and non-local.  And much like the small town I grew up in, local means at least 2nd generation.  Living there for 25+ years still makes you the new guy.  As interesting as the town is, the author doesn't indulge in too much quirkiness other than street names, and the interesting locals feel normally interesting and nuts, not "quaint and colorful".

If you like the TV show "Bones" you will love this series.  There are a lot of similarities - the gritty, violent mystery, the smart verbal sparring of the two romantic leads, and the sexy personal relationship that spills over into their shared worklife.

For more information visit the author's website at http://www.lilianahart.com/.

Demon Hunting in the Deep South by Lexi George

Back of the Book Blurb:  Evie Douglass doesn’t know what’s worse—the demons secretly infesting her small Alabama hometown…or human belle-from-hell Meredith Starr Peterson, who’s made her life miserable since high school. But when the “Death Starr” is brutally murdered and Evie is the number-one suspect, she’s suddenly besieged by the evil-not-dead-enough and Meredith’s furious specter. The only way she can clear her name is to get out from under demon hunter Ansgar’s grim protection. He’s blond, breathtaking, and the most lethal of all his kin, but after years of teasing, Evie is wary of anyone who swears her plus-size self is beautiful. However, having Ansgar all over her is sparking outrageous powers Evie didn’t know she had. And she’ll face any ultimate evil to keep this sexy slayer in this dimension and in her bed for all eternity…

Review:

I won a copy of this book from an author giveaway on my friend Lisa's awesome book review blog, Modokker Book Picks at http://modokkerbookpicks.blogspot.com/?zx=bb75491281932fdc.  Check it out!

Warning:  This is one of those books that keep you reading while you should be helping your kids with their homework, working, finding out what the new puppy is destroying, or listening to your husband talking about...something.  Too bad!  Because this is one of the funniest, wackiest and most romantic books I have read in a very long time.  Lexi George has one of the strongest, and clearest voices writing today.  Her writing is chock full of laugh-out-loud expressions and turns of phrase that add such personality and humor to every paragraph.
Evie is a smart, sexy, curvy (uh, what happened to that scrawny cover model?) woman who is also shy and quiet by nature.  She has a fiercely loyal and fabulously outspoken best friend named Addy who is married to a demon hunter, and a mysterious recent past that has left her confused and lost.  Evie has been verbally abused by her bitchy former classmate, Meredith "Death Starr" Peterson, and her minions since they were children, and when Evie finds Meredith hacked to death at work, things don't look good for Evie.  Pretty soon mysterious things start happening (teleportation, fairies, sexy guys coming in to her) , and Evie thinks she might be losing her mind.  Before the book even gets to page 50, Evie has a hunky demon-hunting bodyguard who's crazy in love with her, an oddly perceptive (and hot!) sheriff investigating her for the murder of the Death Starr, a demon-possessed chihuahua and his nutty human mama, both on the run from a doggie serial killer, and the ghost of the rotten Meredith in her life.  Whew!  And then things really get going, so hold on tight.
One of the best things about this book besides the zany humor and fun, is the humanity of the characters.  Rather than cardboard-thin stereotypes, George has created people with foibles and talents, who try their best but frequently make stupid and hysterical mistakes.  There's a lot of love and a lot of heart in this book.  Add in hunky demon-hunters, violence, mayhem, deliciously hot sex, and baked goods, and you've got one delightful story.

Published in August 2012, this is the second book in Lexi George's funny, romantic series, following Demon Hunting in Dixie.  There is also a related short story in the book So I Married A Demon Slayer (reviewed on this blog).



For more information visit the author's website at http://www.lexigeorge.com/.

The Reckoning (Harlequin Intrigue Series #1380) by Jana Deleon

Back of the Book Blurb:

In a tiny bayou town with far too many wicked secrets, the sudden disappearance of a six-year-old girl is a mystery Sheriff Holt Chamberlain is determined to solve. But teaming up with Alexandria Bastin is a complication he didn't expect. Nor is he prepared to collide with the dark side of Cajun culture—and his own troubled past.

The frantic search leads them to a place said to hold magic, an eerie island where Alex is also working her charm on him. At one time, he'd been forced to leave her brokenhearted. And now , dangerously close to the truth, he'll do anything to protect her from the evil that surrounds them—an evil that might hold the key to sending a little girl home.…

Review:

Released October 1, 2012, The Reckoning is the first of a three book series by Deleon being released by Harlequin Intrigue featuring the citizens of the creepy Mystere Parish in the steamy bayous of Louisiana.  Jana Deleon is one of my favorite authors, and her new series has a great start, establishing Mystere Parish as a place of dark secrets, danger, and strange happenings. 
The book starts with a bang, when Alex is called home from New Orleans by her cousin Sarah, whose daughter has been kidnapped.  The police in their small hometown think Sarah's estranged husband has taken his daughter, but Alex believes Sarah that a stranger must have taken her.  As a psychiatrist Alex quickly prescribes something for Sarah, believing she needs help to stay calm and deal with the situation.  I thought that was a little  arrogant on Alex's part, and it took me longer to warm up to her than I would have liked.  The acting sheriff soon arrives, and it turns out he is none other than Holt Chamberlin, the man who broke Alex's heart ten years ago when he left her and joined the military.  Seeing each other again after all those years gives both Alex and Holt a shock, triggering feelings both thought long gone.  But their focus is on finding the little girl, and they soon realize that not only did her father not take her, but the kidnapper is someone local, someone they know.
They find evidence pointing to a spooky island inhabited by an old woman believed to be a witch, who was implicated in the disappearance of three little girls over thirty years ago.  When Alex was a little girl she and Sarah went to the island on a dare, and saw something so horrifying that as an adult Alex is still terrified of the place.  Adding to the creepy atmosphere is the strange, watchful presence of crows, and the sinister appearance of dolls.
Alex is a strong, capable heroine, who is focused on supporting her cousin Sarah and finding her little girl.  She is determined not to let her feelings for Holt show, believing that he has not changed much over the years.  But Holt is no longer the same boy who ran away from both Alex and his father's legacy, and as they work together their feelings are rekindled.  Getting to know one another as adults, while dealing with their still-present feelings, all under the pressure cooker of looking for a missing child created a really compelling story that had me reading way past my bedtime.

Jana Deleon is great at blending mystery, romance, and a touch of the paranormal.  Her stories have well-developed characters who have complicated histories.  Her settings are like an additional character, because they are so vivid and real.  When I read her books I feel like I can see, smell and hear the sounds of the swamps and the small towns.

The Reckoning is primarily a mystery with some romance, and the single sex scene is not graphic.  The Vanishing (#1386) will be released on October 30, 2012, and The Awakening (#1393) will be released on November 27, 2012.