One Good Book Deserves Another

Genre: Paranormal Romantic Suspense
Series: Brown and De Luca, Book 1
Rating: 4 Stars
Length: 384 Pages
Formats: Paperback, Kindle
Disclosure: An ARC of this book was provided to me by Harlequin MIRA via NetGalley. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.






Homicide detective Mason Brown broke the very law he's worked his entire adult life to uphold. In his defense, he had a very good reason. There was no way he could let his mother, his sister-in-law, or his two nephews find out that the man they knew as a beloved son, husband, and father, the man Mason himself knew as a big brother, was, in fact, a cold-blooded serial killer.

When his brother suicides in Mason's apartment, leaving a self-pitying note of confession and a horrific mess to deal with, Mason does the best he can. He hides the evidence, and given the chance to make some sort of amends, donates his brother's organs. He hopes that saving some lives will balance out, just a little, what his brother took from so many.

After twenty years of blindness, the corneal transplant that restores Rachel de Luca's sight is like a miracle. Like something the famous self-help guru spouts in one of her own books, not that she's ever believed her own drivel, as wildly successful as it may be. As it turns out, Rachel's miracle is not without a few...glitches.

The nightmares of blood and gore and visions of murder start on her first night home from the hospital. Seeing and feeling the actions of a vicious killer is as confusing as it is terrifying, and as another victim falls, it makes Rachel wonder just what sort of person her donor had been. And how much the cop responsible for her transplant really knows.

Mason is absolutely certain that the serial killer dubbed The Wraith is dead. But when another victim is taken, and the woman who got his brother's corneas shows up, knowing things she shouldn't know about the crime, he doesn't know what to think. He just knows Rachel De Luca holds the key to figuring it out. If she doesn't end up being targeted by a dead killer first.


I'm so anal about series reading order that it's virtually unheard of for me to go back to read an earlier book in a series after I've read a latter one, but I literally couldn't help myself with this series debut by Shayne. I so enjoyed the characters in this series' second book, Wake to Darkness, I wanted to read Mason and Rachel's introduction, even though the second book tipped me off to several points in the first. And I was pleasantly surprised at how much of this book was still a mystery even after reading that one.

With a point of view that shifts between Rachel's first person perspective and a third person omniscient when focusing on Mason and glimpses of the killer, this series works for me in both style and substance. The concept isn't a new one. Heroine gets a corneal transplant and starts seeing death and mayhem because of the donor. Books and movies have tread that ground before. It was Rachel who set this book apart.

She was awesome. Sarcastic, often bitchy, and not exactly the most patient person on the planet, she's not your typical helpless, blind-then-newly sighted heroine. And she's no one's damsel in distress. Plus, she's a self-proclaimed fraud who writes writes wildly popular self-help books full of touchy-feely crap and disdains the very people who buy into them. I loved her.

As tough and independent as she was, she was a total softie with Myrtle (love Myrt!). She took no prisoners when faced with some pretty horrific images and definite woo-woo stuff, but took such gentle care of the old, blind dog. She was stubbornly self-sufficient and intelligent, but she also had a heart that lent warmth to her character. It didn't hurt she had such a biting and sarcastic sense of humor, either. That's one of my favorite things in a character.

I liked Mason, too. Maybe not quite as much as I did Rachel, but beyond being a gorgeous bit of man candy, I felt bad for the guy. He did the best he could for his family when it came to the fact his brother had been killing people for years. And the chemistry between him and Rachel pleased my romance-loving heart even though it never really becoming a focus in the narrative.

The plot of the book appealed to me, too. I'm a big fan of serial killer psychological suspense, an even bigger fan of paranormal romance, so the blending of the two in the story worked really well for me.

I do wish there had been a bit more explanation or backstory to better explain Eric's psychosis both before and after he died. I like having reasons for things, so there were elements that could have had a bit more definition in that regard. Too, the book went a little off the rails for me during the climax. Due to the nature of the tale, it skirts plausibility from the start, which I'm perfectly fine with, but there was a scene in the climax that went so far beyond plausible that it pretty effectively crushed my willing suspension of disbelief at a crucial moment.

Sound travels on a lake, man, that's all I'm saying. 

All-in-all, though, there was a nice blend of character-driven psychological thriller and paranormal mystery with a thread of romance and it kept me entertained throughout.

I already know what comes next in the series, and highly recommend it if you liked this one. I think I prefer the external conflict in this one a little better than in that one, but for me, the storyline isn't the most appealing element of either read. The characters are. I love Rachel so much, and like Mason too, that I'll be following along with their antics for as long as I can. Heck, I must love them, I went back and read a series out of order for them. That's a huge deal for me.

Genre: Paranormal Romance
Series: The Portal, Book 1
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Length: 400 Pages
Formats: Mass Market Paperback, Kindle
Disclosure: An ARC of this book was provided to me by Mira publisher Harlequin via NetGalley. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.




As far as nightmares go, repeatedly dreaming of being violently sacrificed is right up there in levels of badness. Being ripped out of sleep with wounds that match the damage suffered in the nightmare, well, that's a whole other level of scary-weird. And former Wiccan Indira Simon had a greater understanding of weird that most.

This was too much, though, even for her.

Disturbed and more than a little scared, Indira turns to Wiccan high priestess Rayne Blackwood, a woman who had been her best friend before Indy gave up the faith. Indira tells her everything, including the fact that she doesn't believe the nightmares she's been having are actually dreams. Indira is pretty sure they're memories. Her memories. From a life she lived thousands of years ago.

Instead of questioning her sanity, Rayne believes her, and more, she agrees to help. Then she calls the one person she thinks will be able to help Indy in a way she can't.

Father Tomas is not like any priest Indira has ever met. He's young and gorgeous, first of all, and the bolt of attraction she feels when he introduces himself to her is just wrong on so many levels. But when he starts telling her about his calling and about her destiny, Indy is sure he has lost his mind.

But the nightmares she's suffering are doing more than leaving rope burns, they're turning deadly. Suddenly the stories Tomas has told her don't seem quite so unbelievable, and the visceral connection between the two of them can't be denied. But they also leave her with a few big questions, not the least of which is whether or not the good Padre is what he seems, or if he's an enemy in priest's clothing.

After all, being sacrificed in her dreams is one thing. Indira certainly has no interest in suffering it while she's awake.


I don't always know exactly when a book is going to grab me. Some never do. Some don't have to, if I'm well into an established series by a favored author (there's always one book that doesn't work for me for whatever reason). But most books do have to grab me at some point if I'm going to invest my time in reading them through to the end.

The grab-point in this first book in Shayne's new trilogy was this:

Dammit straight to hell, I was being sacrificed again.

There was just something about that line, practically oozing frustrated annoyance and incredulous disbelief at such an obviously critical moment, that tickled me. As it also happens to be the very first sentence of the book, I knew right away I was in this book for the long haul. And lucky for me, most of that haul was a right good time.

It was definitely a unique story, with several elements that I've never read before. True, many of those were a mixed bag of good and less-good, but for the most part it was a positive. I certainly enjoyed Shayne's authorial voice and her main character, Indira, and I loved the murky enigma of the good versus evil theme that trickled throughout the book.

Indy was a well-drawn, likable character. She was enough of a skeptic initially to be freaked out over what was happening to her, which added a nice layer of tension to the storyline, but she was also smart enough and open-minded enough to adjust her point of view as she became more and more aware of what was going on and the role she played in it.

I like that she didn't just take what people told her as rote, she also relied on her own feelings and experiences, and stood up for herself when her opinions differed from others. Even in the face of prejudice and hatred. I respected that.

In fact, I respected her far more than I would have thought given her backstory. This is a woman, after all, who disavowed her religion and stopped believing in magic because the spell she cast to find her soul mate didn't work. That point struck me hard, seeming childish and petulant from the moment that information was disclosed. I would have preferred a better (at the very least less cheesy) reason for Wicca to have fallen out of favor with her.

For all that I liked Indy, though, I wasn't quite as fond of Tomas. Though I am in no way religious, I have to admit, I tripped over the Padre being written as the romantic hero. There's just something about those little white tabs in those black collars that draws a line for me, making them big unmixy things with this sort of romance.

Shayne tried hard, though, I'll give her that. I could tell she put in the effort to make that work for readers. From the moment of his introduction in the book we know Tomas is no longer a man of faith, though the storyline does take his belief structure on a bit of a wild ride. There were also several things about his character in general and his priesthood in particular that seemed designed to allow for the relationship between him and Indy, though some of those struck me as altogether too convenient.

I'm not saying that I felt their relationship wasn't okay. I wasn't conflicted by Tomas and Indy as characters together - they seemed to suit each other fairly well. I just felt a little blocked by the collar and couldn't fully commit to their relationship because of it. It didn't help that when Tomas faces his mentor, a more vile and hateful character I've rarely read, Tomas acted like a spineless fraction of a man, one too conflicted by the shackles of misplaced duty to make a stand against the unrelenting prejudice of an obviously unbalanced psyche.

Which brings me to one of my larger issues with the story. For all that I really enjoyed the arc of the plot, and think the tale was solid in concept, I struggled through a large section in the middle of the book, and it started shortly after Indy and Tomas make it to the cabin. There was a pretty significant shift in the focus of the story at that point, one that included the evolution of the not-so-good Father Dom as a potential antagonist.

I loathed that man. Hated everything about him, trusted him not a bit, and would have loved watching his head explode in slow motion every time he spoke. Everything he did, everything he said, all the vitriolic bullshit he spouted, all of that just turned my stomach - and seemed far too transparent. Too much so for me to rationalize Tomas' continued obeisance to the man in the face of some pretty heinous behavior.

I was left wishing, especially after an odd and abrupt twist near the book's climax, that Dom's zealous lunacy had been dealt with in a more subtle fashion. As it was, it put too much of a strain on my willing suspension of disbelief, not only in regards to Tomas, but also with Indy and Rayne, who had no real motive to agree to spend even five minutes with that man, let alone work with him to find the amulet. But everyone just let the vicious old lunatic get away with saying and doing whatever horrific thing he wanted to and kept pressing on in their quest despite it, and that just didn't fly with me.

Still, I felt there were more high points than low in this book. I would have enjoyed a different ending with a bit more resolution and far more justice, but so many of the elements of the plot and story were fresh and unique, and Indy was so much fun, that overall I'm glad the first sentence grabbed me like it did. There is definitely much story left to tell in this imaginative blend of past and present, myth and magic, and I'd like to know what comes next.