One Good Book Deserves Another

Genre: Steampunk Romance
Series: London Steampunk, Book 3
Rating: 4 Stars
Length: 425 Pages
Formats: Paperback, Kindle
Disclosure: An ARC of this book was provided to me by Sourcebooks Casablanca publisher Sourcebook via NetGalley. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.





She is the power behind the mask, the leader of the humanist revolutionary group. To most of them, and to the aristocratic Echelon of blue bloods she is intent on destroying, she is known only as Mercury. Few know her real name or gender. Rosalind prefers it that way.

In fact, she would have kept her gender a closely guarded secret if her late-night smuggling operation hadn't been crashed by the bane of her existence, the Master of the Guild of Nighthawks himself, Sir Jasper Lynch. Unfortunately, Lynch, obviously just as much bloodhound as he is blue blood, gets the drop on her, and it's only that brief moment of surprise when he realizes she's a woman that gives her the opportunity to evade capture.

Lynch still manages to thwart - at least temporarily - Mercury's master plan to wage war on the Echelon, and that, combined with the stress from not knowing if her younger brother is dead or alive after the bombing a few months ago, realigns a few of Rosalind's priorities.

She decides its time to beard the lion in his den. Going undercover as Lynch's secretary is a mad, risky, maybe even foolish move, but she's as determined to find her brother as she is to protect her people. Whether Mercury's passion for the fight against the Echelon will survive the indomitable will and honorable nature of Sir Jasper Lynch, however, is a question that neither the woman, nor the revolutionary, can answer.


I love the world McMaster has created for this series. It's a strong, vivid backdrop that serves each book as a fictional twelfth man. The steampunk elements have had, to date, a presence that trends more towards the subtle end of the spectrum, but that's never been a problem for me. In fact, I've enjoyed the broader emphasis on the unique paranormal elements, though this one did have more of a balance between the two given blue blood Jasper and mech Rosalind as protagonists on opposite sides of their sticky situation.

The two of them were great characters, at their best when they were together. I wasn't thrilled with Lena and Will in the previous book. Lena was too weak and Will too much a martyr for too much page time in that one for me to be satisfied with either of them. There is nothing weak in Rosalind - she's exactly the sort of strong, keenly intelligent, occasionally bull-headed heroine with a heart I prefer for my leading ladies. Lord Jasper, her perfect complement, does have a bit of a self-sacrificing streak, but honestly, he has a damn good reason, one that is driven by his sense of honor, not frustrating (and ill-placed) feelings of unworthiness.

I liked Jasper so much. There was something about him, and about that strict control he maintains over every aspect of his life...a control that Rosalind blows through with delicious speed and ease, much to his consternation, that made him seem so unapproachable yet endearingly vulnerable. It was an appealing blend of humanizing contradictions, foibles and strengths, and a sense of honor in a world that has little respect for the word.

The chemistry he and Rosalind had together was swoon-worthy. Whichever incarnation of Rosalind crossed his path, the physical attraction between them was a conflagration eclipsed only by the brilliance of their sharply-matched wits and traded barbs. They were perfectly suited and I loved them together.

The plot of the story wasn't quite as heavily flavored with Echelon politicking as the previous book, thankfully. There was an interesting - and tragic - murder mystery that Jasper and Rosa were dealing with. It wasn't the focal point of the story, really, there was so much going on that there really wasn't one main plot thread, more several strong storylines woven together to the benefit of the whole. Those story threads were well-defined and highlighted the evolution of both Jasper and Rosa's characters throughout the arc of the story.

Rosalind's evolution was the most impressive element of this one for me. McMaster has a deft hand when creating wounded, troubled, and utterly unique characters, often thrusting them into the most untenable situations. Rosalind was no exception. As Mercury, she's a dangerous, revenge-driven revolutionary. As Rosa, she's a bright, world-wise woman, determined but satisfied with her lot. Her hatred of the Echelon forged her, but her ability to look beyond her prejudices when faced with contradicting evidence defined her and kept her likable.

She was far less noble a character than Jasper for a good portion of the story. That's rare, especially in stories with historical settings. It's usually the male lead who is the dangerous bad boy in romance, but that wasn't exactly the case here and I liked the switch up a lot.

I was a little troubled at the end of the book, though. The climax and resolution to both the external and romantic conflicts weren't as satisfying for me as I had hoped they would be. It got the job done well enough, I suppose, tying up several threads that needed closure, but the manner in which those threads were tied was a bit too reminiscent of the conflict resolutions in the first two books. Nothing so egregious that it felt like I was reading the same ending with different characters, but enough that I felt there was more than vague similarity there.

That bothered me, in large part because everything else about each book has been so fresh, original, and unique, that even the vaguest sense of similarity stood out to me like a flashing sign. Lets just say I'd be quite happy not to come across another Standoff at the Echelon Corral in the next few books in the series.

Frankly, this series is just too good for that sort of issue to crop up and tarnish the read. The world is darkly compelling and sophisticated, the characters as unique as they are dangerous, and their stories a complex tapestry of grim threat, fragile hope, and steely determination. I'm a big fan. I want to be able to continue to be for a long time coming.

Genre: Romantic Suspense
Series: Black Knights Inc., Book #4
Rating: 4 Stars
Length: 352 Pages
Formats: Paperback, Kindle
Disclosure: An ARC of this book was provided to me by Sourcebooks Casablanca publisher Sourcebooks via NetGalley. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.


From the moment she learns the CIA has put out a burn and delete notice on Richard "Rock" Babineaux, Black Knights operator and, apparently, CIA spy, everything in communication specialist Vanessa Cordova rebels. She's had feelings for the man since the first time she heard his slow Cajun drawl, but more than that, she partnered with him on a recent undercover op and she just can't believe the man she knows has committed the heinous crimes the CIA is accusing him of committing.

With the full weight of the Black Knights' support behind her, Vanessa is determined to help Rock clear his name. She just has to find him first.

He's been in the wind for six months and Rock knows he has to keep his head down as he scrambles to figure out who screwed him and set him up. Practically buried in a South American jungle, alone, he's running out of options, resources, and leads, but he's resolute about not risking his friends. Until one fiery and magnificent woman crashes into his jungle and blows his best intentions straight to the same hell he'll likely be getting an up close and personal tour of all too soon.

The dangerously tempting Vanessa has found him, but by doing so, Rock knows unless he manages a miracle, she's likely doomed them both.


This fourth book in a series that has posed varying problems for me since its debut is definitely my favorite, though it's not without some large issues. Unlike its predecessors, however, I found myself entertained despite them. Walker's humor, which is sometimes silly but usually geeky and cute, is more prevalent in the narrative, and there were none of the darker, sadistic scenes I found so jarring in previous books. There's a ton of action which appealed, and plenty of sexy goodness to raise the temperature. The plot wasn't quite as layered as some of the previous books, but sometimes simple is, if not better, at least no worse.

All in all, I liked this book, though there were definitely elements that made me cringe a little. Or a lot.

I loved Rock, even with his persistent and repetitive warning against Vanessa loving him. He was strong and self-sacrificing, sexy and absolutely delicious. Vanessa, frankly, couldn't hold a candle to him, which is a huge shame, because I thought she was going to when she was first introduced in the previous book. Unfortunately, instead of strengthening her character in this book, broadening it and intensifying it, Walker went another route.

From competent and savvy communications specialist to crying (and oh my god, the crying!), wailing, screaming, stumbling, scared of the dark, horny emotional idiot whose entire existence seemed to revolve around her desire to make Rock love her, Vanessa's character went through a serious deconstruction in this book. I was completely boggled by it, and her personality grated on me before I was into the third chapter.

So did Rock going on and on to himself about how magnificent she was every single time he sees her. Like telling us he thought she was all things hot, courageous, and brilliant was supposed to convince us she was all those things despite all manner of evidence to the contrary. I'm not quite so easy to convince. One single scene in which she was faced with a difficult situation and didn't burst into tears or have some sort of emotional meltdown would've been far more effective. So would having her alleged excellence in her field serve as more than a transitory benefit in the story.

Unfortunately, it didn't happen.

Other than Becky, featured romantic heroine of the second book and a strong secondary character in this one, there hasn't been a female character that hasn't been a weeping, weak, nervous, shy, innocent stereotype of every bad romance novel cliche. And while that's normally a huge hot button of mine and slams the brakes on my interest in a book or a series, there has so far been enough good in these books to keep me reading. And there was enough in this one to actually entertain me regardless.

I'm worried about the next book, though. Nothing about Becky's friend and Wild Bill's former (and obviously not-so-former) crush Eve has indicated she's not exactly that same sort of weak heroine that's been bugging me since the beginning of the series. In fact, she's been drawn as a shy, nervous, uber-rich debutante, and I'm not exactly brimming with enthusiasm about that personality type filling out a main plot arc.

With this book, Walker seems to have finished straddling the line between light and serious romantic suspense and has come down on the lighter side. That works for me, as I've always thought the straddling was doing the series no favors. Plus I like humor and several scenes in this book made me chuckle to myself. Personally, I hope this is indicative of how the series intends to continue from this point. Now, if it could just put forth a heroine that doesn't make me roll my eyes, piss me off, or embarrass the hell out of me to be a woman, we'll be golden. But I won't hold my breath.


Black Knights Inc. Series:

Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Bad Boys of Crystal Lake, Book 1
Rating: 3 Stars
Length: 384 Pages
Formats: Paperback, Kindle
Disclosure: An ARC of this book was provided to me by Sourcebooks Casablanca publisher Sourcebooks via NetGalley. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.





A decade after putting his hometown of Crystal Lake in his rearview mirror, tragedy has drawn rock guitarist Cain Black back. One of his best friends is dead, a grim statistic of a war on foreign soil, and Cain has returned to mourn and pay his respects.

And because his own life is in shambles and he could use a break.

One of the first people he sees at the reception after the funeral is Maggie O'Rourke, single mother and redheaded temptress. Not that she's trying to be. In fact, the fiery beauty makes it quite clear that she wants absolutely nothing to do with Cain and would be perfectly happy if he would disappear off the face of the planet entirely.

Not that one of Crystal Lake's former Bad Boys is going to let that stop him. In fact, he's thinking he may as well stay in town for awhile, because there's just something about Maggie that reaches out and squeezes him hard - in all the best places. What surprises him the most, though, is there's also something about the shadow's in her eyes, the wariness and caution, that makes him want to slay her dragons.

There is absolutely no doubt in Cain's mind that the ethereal but haunted Maggie O'Rourke has them.


Maybe I should've stopped before I started this book. It's not a bad romance, and there were parts that really worked for me, but overall I had too many issues with it and some of those issues started early. When the book opens there are several melancholy scenes surrounding the death of one of Cain's best friends. It set a darker tone than appealed to me. I almost put it down at that point, not because it wasn't well written, just because I wasn't really in the emotional place to want to deal with it.

Still, I kept reading, and I was relieved that at least the melancholy waned relatively quickly.

I thought it was going to be good from that point. I liked Cain, even though the rock-n-roll romantic hero isn't a favorite of mine. I liked Maggie, too, even though she's a single mother and that theme also isn't a favorite of mine. I loved her son Michael. I absolutely adored him. More, I was completely and thoroughly enamored with the depth of love in the relationship between mother and son. It was one of my favorite things about the read.

Cain's relationship with Michael was another huge high point. It never once felt forced or awkward, or a footnote just to appeal to readers. It felt truly organic to all the characters involved.

The plot didn't break any new grounds, which normally isn't a huge criticism of mine. It's contemporary romance, and as a fan I expect some formula. Still, there could have been more depth and the last fifteen to twenty percent of the book was almost painfully predictable. I saw the conflict climax coming from the moment Maggie's past is revealed. Other story elements and character choices did provide pleasant surprises throughout the narrative, so I was disappointed that the end truly didn't.

And I began having a problem with Maggie late in the book. She's a very secretive person. Her past is filled with trauma and as a result she doesn't share anything about herself or that past. At all. With anyone. For awhile, I was fine with that, but the longer she was in the relationship with Cain and the more he opened up to her without any reciprocity, my struggles with her character grew. Because she was such a closed book with everyone, even her closest friend in town, I began to have a very hard time maintaining an emotional connection to her character.

That's when it became more than frustrating, it became detrimental to the story.

I also had trouble with the scenes that featured shifting points of view in a congruent timeline. It's a narrative style that rarely works for me because it can and does breed timeline inconsistencies like the one that occurs during the book's climax. For a detail-obsessed reader like me, those sorts of inconsistencies completely derail an intensely suspenseful or emotional scene.

Also, I know he was a secondary character and so not a tremendously big factor in the main story arc, but I had a huge problem with Jake. I don't care how close a friend a person is, or how long our history, if I hear them speaking to another friend of mine (and in this case a grieving widow) the way that Jake speaks to Raine in this book, I'd have his guts for garters. I was infuriated that no one deigned to address it or even made an attempt to rein in Jake's increasingly unconscionable behavior towards that poor woman.

There were just too many things that went awry for me in this book. And I had a lot of unanswered questions, which is uncommon for me in this genre. Unfortunately, they're the sorts of questions that can really compromise the effectiveness of a romantic resolution. Like...is Maggie still married? If not, when, exactly, was her divorce final, because unless I missed something, the way the scant details were divulged, there didn't seem to have been time and she sure didn't seem to have opportunity.

Between of those sorts of questions and my other issues, it was all just too much for me to really enjoy this read. The characters, especially Cain and Michael, were completely lovable, and I even liked Maggie throughout most of the book. And even with my issues, I thought a good portion of the romance between her and Cain was very sweet and incredibly hot.

Maybe with some distance I'd give a second book in this new series a try, but if Jake's going to be the male romantic lead in that one, I'm going to have to wait for awhile to see how the reviews shake out first.

Genre: Steampunk Romance
Series: London Steampunk, Book 2
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Length: 437 Pages
Formats: Paperback, Kindle
Disclosure: An ARC of this book was provided to me by Sourcebooks Casablanca publisher Sourcebooks via NetGalley. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.





When Lena Todd was growing up, all she wanted was to be a part of the Echelon, the ruling class of blue bloods and their human thralls, but that was before her father was murdered and her life irrevocably changed. Then her sister met and married the rogue blue blood Blade and her brother safely transitioned after being infected with the craving virus. Lena was able to leave her home in the warren...and the infuriatingly attractive verwulfen who lived there...for another chance at her dream.

It was a dream that became a nightmare. Now Lena sees the Echelon for who they really are, and uses her position as ward of her blue blood half-brother to gather information on them and pass it on to Mercury, the leader of the Humanist party. Lately, though, Lena's been growing more and more uncomfortable with her role with the group and she's starting to wonder what their end game truly is.

Will Carver knows the fire that destroyed the Echelon's draining factories, the filtering and storing factories that supply the necessary blood to the ruling class, is an act of aggression that the Echelon won't take lying down. The Humanists have started a war that could level London under a swath of destruction.

He should've known if there was trouble, Lena Todd would be up to her pretty neck in it. The woman is as irritating as she is beautiful and as stubborn as she is elegant. She's also the only woman Will has ever wanted, but because of the loupe virus that taints his blood, she's nothing he can ever have. That doesn't mean he won't do everything in his considerable power to protect her.

Will doesn't know exactly how she is connected to the Humanists, but he's going to find out. Lena may never be his, but the only way the woman will become collateral damage in an escalating conflict between blue bloods and humans is over his dead body. And a protective verwulfen in a berserker rage is almost impossible to kill. Almost.


Kiss of Steel, the first book in Bec McMaster's London Steampunk series, was one of my favorite reads of 2012. I fell in love with McMaster's authorial voice and the gritty, dangerous world she created. The characters were vibrant and layered and their struggles and triumphs captivated me. It was a fresh and original read that stuck with me long after I turned the last page.

That's an awful lot to live up to, but even allowing for that going into this book, I ended up less entertained by this second installment. The world is still well-drawn and wonderfully atmospheric, with a myriad of dangers ranging from the mundane realities of day-to-day living in the rookeries to the paranormal threats posed by powerful blue bloods, and McMaster's writing is just as awesome a blend of detailed description and pulse-pounding action, but neither the plot nor the main characters of this book thrilled me like the first one did.

I couldn't warm up to Lena. I wasn't crazy about her in the previous novel, and she didn't do much to endear herself to me in this one. She's young and reckless with it, which too often put her in the role of a helpless victim bordering on stupid, and that bothered me. Even late in the book, when she'd gone through some pretty significant changes, she still couldn't manage to get herself out of trouble without help. And the games she played with Will through most of the book were immature and showcased an unappealing insecurity.

Will was the more likable of the two of them. He's the definition of taciturn, and he has that self-sacrificing martyr gene that tends to rub me the wrong way, but he's also a strong, protective, possessive alpha male. That appealed. I just wish I'd gotten as good a feel for him as a character as I did Blade in his book, but too much of his character definition revolved around him having loupe, not who he was as a man, and it made him seem a bit limited and two-dimensional to me.

When their relationship finally started to gel, I enjoyed both of them much more, but that came surprisingly late in the book. The reasons for the slow progression of the relationship arc were fairly significant and valid, and their chemistry in shared scenes was strong, and if the external plot conflicts had more appeal to me, everything would have been great.

The blue blood political plot threads and the Humanist agenda may not have been as personally appealing to my tastes for plot conflict as a rampaging vampire slaughtering the masses, but it was solid and well blended, if not as detailed and spectacular as I would have liked. The steampunk elements had more presence in the narrative, which worked well for me. It got off to a slow start for me, though, and it didn't really start to work for me until I was well into the book.

Right or wrong, had the first book not wowed me as much as it did, I think I would have liked this one more than I did. Some things were great, and it was certainly just as well written as its predecessor. Other elements just didn't provide the same level of visceral pleasure I got from that one. That being said, I can't wait for my next visit to McMaster's London Steampunk. I really like the story potential of the characters that will be featured in the next installment.


The London Steampunk Series:

Genre: Paranormal Romance
Series: Dead in the City, Book 1
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Length: 320 Pages
Formats: Paperback, Kindle
Disclosure: An ARC of this book was provided to me by Sourcebooks Casablanca publisher Sourcebooks via NetGalley. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.





Three hundred years ago, Olivia Hollingsworth watched a monster slaughter the only man she ever loved, then was forced to become a monster herself. She's never quite gotten over it.

Sure, being a vampire has its perks, but mostly Olivia just tries to keep her coven, those vampires she's turned and the humans she's saved, safe and gainfully employed at her night club. In all that time, through every thing she's seen and done, with every soul she's saved...one way or another, she has never forgotten the man she gave her heart and body to all those years ago.

For the past two decades, against everything she knows to be true about her kind, Olivia has dreamed of that man. Her Douglas. The one she couldn't save. And then he walks into her club, alive, breathing, and decidedly human, and Olivia's reality takes a quick trip to the land of surreal.

Homicide detective Doug Paxton has a grisly case on his hands, a victim who looks like he was mauled by an animal, the blood drained from his body. All evidence points to the night club near where the body was found. Meeting the owner, however, rocks Doug to his core, because for all that he knows he's never met the deliciously gorgeous Olivia before, he's seen her almost every night for as long as he can remember. In his dreams.

Two souls separated by centuries, divided by more than surface differences, are destined to complete each other in ways neither had ever dreamed. If the forces working against the city's inhabitants and the vampire race itself doesn't kill them both first.


I had some trepidation when I picked up this book. I wasn't a big fan of Humphreys' Amoveo series debut and I was a little worried by this book's title and cover, which gave me the impression of this being a fluffier book than I favor for my paranormal romance. Fortunately, however, that impression was wrong. This is more the sort of darker-edged story that I prefer.

In fact, neither the story nor the characters are anywhere in the vicinity of fluffy, and for almost three-quarters of the book I was highly entertained by the foundations of the gritty world that Humphreys started fleshing out here, as well as the deadly plot and intense characters. I enjoyed the role reversal in the power structure of the relationship between Olivia and Doug. For all that Doug is quite obviously an alpha male, he is human when he's introduced as a character and Olivia is not. She's a former warrior and current savvy business woman, fiercely independent and more than a little jaded about her kind.

She is the power in the relationship and I liked that dynamic between them very much. I was less fond of her three hundred year celibacy, but that was more in how it kept being mentioned. After three hundred years, one would think the subject would be played out, that it would be a moot point, just a fact of Olivia's unlife or whatever, so it didn't feel natural that it kept coming up in the narrative. I get that readers need to be made aware, but a more organic way would have been appreciated.

That was a relatively minor hiccup in my fondness for Olivia's character, however. She's keenly intelligent, loyal to her family, and struggles with the darker side of her nature. I found her interesting and wish the story had provided even more depth to her character, delving into more of her issues with the dark impulses of her kind. She's obviously set herself up as an outsider in her world, and her entire coven are misfits, all survivors of one tragedy or another. I would have loved to have a more comprehensive view of all of that.

With so strong a female lead, I was surprised to find myself liking Doug as much as I did Olivia. Humphreys tread a delicate line in their relationship. Olivia was strong in ways that didn't undermine or contradict Doug's own strength of character, and that thrilled me, but he was also quite endearing, mostly for his butt-over-brains reaction to coming face-to-face with the woman of his dreams. He was so adorably poleaxed by Olivia I couldn't help but be charmed. That he was also a no-nonsense homicide detective with a hella amount of sexy going on just upped his appeal.

Well...I did for most of the book, anyway. My appreciation for Doug as a character in general and as the romantic hero went through a very large change right around the same time he did. Frankly, I thought he was more than a little bit of a douche bag at times in the latter half of the book, and he spouted off some pretty unpalatable plans to address his new condition.

I think I could have accepted that as a part of his character evolution, though, had there been a corresponding evolution of the romance arc surrounding it. As it was, I just couldn't engage in any of the sexy good times between Doug and Olivia so soon after he tossed himself on the not-so-metaphorical pyre and acted like a judgmental, ignorant wanker. And there was a disappointing lack of addressing that issue throughout the end of the book.

Unfortunately, that downturn in the romance coincided with a couple of elements of the external conflict in the plot that didn't appeal to me. For the majority of the book, this was a nicely woven, darkly suspenseful tale with a strong thread of romance tying it all together. Then things went just a step too far down the road of implausible, illogical, and abrupt and I had to shake my head a little.

Beyond my issues with the not-so-fabulously changing Doug, the conclusion to this book was not to my taste. The resolution of several of Olivia's and Doug's life-threatening problems got handed to them on a silver platter that came out of nowhere, and it included some very odd story developments and awkward attempts to hash out a few more quick bits of world building and shady explanation. In a few pages, what had been a dramatic Sword of Damocles hanging over their heads morphed into into a quick, way-too-convenient and tidy conclusion. It was a very uncomfortable deus ex machina that left me feeling confused and a little frustrated.

It was still a better read than I was expecting, though. I didn't have a lot of luck with the Amoveo series. It just wasn't my cuppa, and I was worried this book would also fall short. It didn't, really, even if the ending was too abrupt and clean for me. The larger portion of the book was a lot better than I was expecting and highly entertaining for it all. I may have absolutely no idea what direction the series is heading in - not after that conclusion - but I'd be interested in finding out.

Genre: Steampunk Romance
Series: Steam Guardians, Book 1
Rating: 3 Stars
Length: 320 Pages
Formats: Paperback, Kindle
Disclosure: An ARC of this book was provided to me by Sourcebooks Casablanca publisher Sourcebooks via NetGalley. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.





Janette Aston is a young woman ahead of her time. While her contemporaries are attending society balls and getting courted by wealthy and titled suitors, Janette is sneaking science circulars into her home and hiding them from her disapproving father. He wouldn't be happy with her interest in the Illuminists, a secretive order of scientists who are disdained by polite society.

Sneaking into their Solitary Chamber to listen to a lecture on electricity is the riskiest thing she's ever done, but thrilling in a way that stirs her unquenchable thirst for knowledge. Getting caught and being manhandled by Illuminist Guardian Darius Lawley, however, isn't  the high point of the afternoon.

Darius takes his job as Guardian very seriously, even when tempted by the surprising and captivating Janette Aston. She's a rare Pure Spirit, though she doesn't know it. Unfortunately, she's also a member of the upper class, which should by all accounts make her off limits. It is illegal to recruit Illuminist membership, and even if Darius weren't the honorable rule-follower that he is, to do so would prompt Janette being shunned by society.

Problem is, now that her identity as a Pure Spirit has been revealed, she is in grave danger. If the Helikeians find out about her, they will take her and use her for their evil agenda...or kill her if she refuses to comply. And it didn't take five seconds in her company for Darius to know that compliance is not in the young woman's vocabulary.


As intriguing a world as Wine has created for this series, and as much story potential within the plot concept, I can't say this was one of my favorite steampunk romances. Despite a strong start with what seemed, at first glance, to be an independent and intelligent heroine and a rigid but honorable hero, the plot never quite came together for me, the world-building lacked the sort of defining explanation that would provide clarity, and the main characters got bogged down by less than appealing habits, which threw off the arc of their romance evolution.

I liked Janette well enough. Sometimes she took being headstrong a little too far, and she straddled an uncomfortable line between scandalized socialite and avid intellectual a little too often for my tastes, but she wasn't unpalatable. Darius, on the other hand, often was.

For a good majority of the book, he seemed completely incapable of conversing with Janette without coming off as either a sanctimonious prig or a doomsday prophet. I found him tedious and two dimensional. I'm all for the noble guardian type, but there has to be a bit of evolution in his character as the story progresses or I end up just wanting him to spontaneously combust. That tends to but a crimp in the effectiveness of the romance.

Unfortunately, that was a large part of my problem with the book as a whole. It wasn't bad, and I certainly wouldn't say I disliked it, but it just wasn't as effective at keeping and holding my interest as I would have liked. The story was just a bit too muddled and hectic, the characters were inconsistent and a little limited, and the manner in which it all came together made it hard for me to really immerse myself in the story as it went along. I don't regret reading it, but I'm not anxious to dive into the next book in the series, either.

Genre: Romantic Suspense
Series: The Night Stalkers, Book 2
Rating: 4 Stars
Length: 416 Pages
Formats: Paperback, Kindle
Disclosure: An ARC of this book was provided to me by Sourcebooks Casablanca publisher Sourcebooks via NetGalley. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.





After years of intense work and training, viciously struggling for every hard-earned inch of achievement, Sergeant Kee Smith has finally made it. Using everything from the grim lessons she learned as a kid on the streets to the impact her luscious warrior-woman body has on a man, she has clawed and wrestled and fought for every last bit of progress in her military career, all to get her to one place: SOAR.

The Army's Special Operations Aviation Regiment is the best of the best in the sky, and Kee is driven to not only be the second woman ever to make it into SOAR, but to excel in the deadliest piece of military hardware ever flown, a Direct Action Penetrator (DAP) Black Hawk helicopter.

She's finally made it. She's in SOAR and she's got her DAP Hawk. Okay, she's a little disappointed at the lack of excellence in her team. Sure, she respects team member Lieutenant Archibald Jeffery Stevenson III. Despite the pretentious name, he's a hell of an Army pilot. The fact that he's also a long drink of water who makes her hormones sit up and take notice ain't too shabby either.

The rest of them are just going to have to eat her dust as she shows them what a real female warrior can do in a helicopter.

Problem is, when you're on the front line in a hot zone, missions have a habit of not going according to plan. Kee is in a deadly position in a dangerous world, and simple survival is often dependent on your team. Kee needs to be more than just a hell of a gunner or the best woman in SOAR. She's going to need Archie...and a pretty big attitude adjustment...just to get out alive.


Two books into this series and I'm still surprised and impressed by Buchman's world of brave, loyal military heroes. I'm so glad I didn't let my prejudices about male romance authors and my ambivalence for military-themed romance hold me back from this series. I would have missed out on great characters and thrilling stories.

The beginning of this book worried me, though. I loathed Kee. Frankly, I would've been thrilled if Emily had parked a DAP Hawk on her head. She was an abrasive, obnoxious, ignorant, disrespectful bitch in need of a swift kick in the ass. Every time she referred to Emily as Major Hoity Toity, or dared to be dismissive of the elite force she was fighting beside, I wanted to drop her into a vat of boiling oil.

Of course, one of the reasons she offended me so much was because she mocked the heroes Buchman introduced in the first book, heroes I love as much as I loved their story. Seems to me, hating Kee for that is more a credit to the job Buchman did bringing those characters to life than a condemnation of Kee's character.

Well...okay, it can be both.

Kee is deeply wounded and insecure despite her achievements, and she wears Bitch like a flak jacket to hide those insecurities. She has some serious self respect issues and gets defensive with anyone who has had an easier life than she has - and in her mind, that's just about everyone. The chip on her shoulder is an RPG. On the flip side, she is also intensely honorable and a real straight shooter, even at her own expense. By the end, thankfully, and with a lot of help from Archie, I liked her.

Archie was not what I normally prefer for my romance heroes. Alpha male he definitely is not. Intelligent, awkward with women, polite and moneyed, he's more genteel gentleman than kick-ass warrior. A romantic suspense anomaly. While I can't say he hit the same Happy Reader buttons that Major Mark "Viper" Henderson did in the first book, I will say that I completely appreciated him as a change of pace in the genre, and liked him very much as a character.

I liked Kee and Archie as a couple very much, too.

The plot was lighter on suspense than the first book. That wasn't as appealing to me, but I can't argue that Buchman writes a hell of a tale. The suspense inherent in wartime operations is what drives those elements of the plot and Buchman does it extremely well. He imbues every scene with an air of authenticity and realism that is, at times, truly terrifying. It was much more believable as a story than the plotline of the previous book, if perhaps not quite as entertaining on a personal level.

I've become quite a fan of this series and the characters in it. Every element is just damn good. Even those things that annoy or frustrate me, or characters who really rub me raw, work well within the framework of the story and the world of the series. Things like the extensive military jargon, which is often hard for me to follow, lends itself to the feeling of authenticity. And Kee, who infuriated and offended me at every turn in the beginning, was still someone very easy to imagine in the real world. That's adroit storytelling, and it provided a well-balanced, solid, entertaining read. I'm very much looking forward to the next in the series.


The Night Stalkers Series:

Genre: Romantic Suspense
Series: Black Knights, Inc., Book 3
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Length: 352 Pages
Formats: Mass Market Paperback, Kindle
Disclosure: An ARC of this book was provided to me by Sourcebooks Casablanca publisher Sourcebooks via NetGalley. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.




Four years ago, Navy SEAL Jake Sommers made the biggest mistake of his life. He's been paying for it ever since. He pushed away the woman he loved, lost her to his best friend, and held that much better man in his arms as he bled out in a hostile desert halfway around the world.

But that was then, and after working hard to get himself into a better head space, Jake "Snake" Sommers has finally come back to Chicago. He came for one reason: Michelle Carter, the only woman he has ever or will ever love.

His friend and former CO Frank Knight now runs a special ops unit fronted by a custom motorcycle shop. As far as Jake is concerned, Boss is just going to have to deal with him coming back for his sister Chelle. After all this time, Jake isn't going to be taking no for an answer, not from Chelle and certainly not from an overprotective big brother. Michelle is his.

She can't deny seeing Jake again after four long years is a shock that she hadn't expected. And if Michelle were honest, there's more there than just surprise. She's not, however, the same inexperienced woman she had been the night he broke her heart. She's a mother now, first of all, and absolutely nothing is more important to her than her son. Jake Sommers is not to be trusted.

When her brother gets word that his Black Knights are being targeted by a mobster with a grudge, the unit mobilizes and Jake steps up to the plate, offering his help in guarding Michelle - over her protests. As grimly certain as Jake is that no one is getting past him and threatening Michelle and her son, Michelle is equally convinced that having Jake in her home, her sanctuary, is a breach that will make keeping him out of her heart almost impossible.

And that's a fear that goes far beyond anything a potentially psychotic crime lord can dish out.


After three books of Walker's series, I'm still not entirely sure what to make of it. One one hand, it's got a lot of elements that I enjoy in romantic suspense: sexy alpha men on kick-ass motorcycles, lots of action and danger for all, and lusty, humor-laden romance. On the other hand, I continue to struggle with the dichotomy between the humor and the often brutal violence or serious themes, the only heroine I've liked is Becky from the previous book, and I haven't been completely sold on the plotlines of the external, non-relationship conflicts in any of the books.

It's a conundrum.

I have to admit, the appeal of this book was further hampered by a couple of personal reading preferences of mine. I'm not crazy about second chance romances and if children are involved in the story, I find single fathers far, far more palatable than single mothers. As this story features both a second chance romance and a single mother, it started at a disadvantage for me that is in no way related to the strength of the story.

Other issues were, however. I wasn't crazy about Michelle at any point in the story, but there is a fairly significant reveal late in the book that made me actively dislike her. Throughout the book, though, she seemed just a little too...sheltered, too cautious maybe. And in her environment, with the men as contrast, caution looks like weakness. I couldn't shake that feeling while I was reading. She also had some seriously skewed decision-making skills. Or lack thereof.

Jake was fine as the hero. He didn't wow me, exactly. His character was perhaps a bit too similar to every other alpha male warrior in the genre for that, but I did like him well enough. I understood his flaws and had sympathy for his pain and insecurities. I had quite a lot of sympathy for him towards the end of the book, when his world was spun on its axis, and I wish he'd held out a little longer on granting forgiveness over all that. I'm petty that way.

The threat posed by the Bad Guy was better balanced in the narrative than it has been in previous books. It's still not as fleshed out as I would have preferred, and there were a couple of questionable elements in the arc, but it provided a foundation for the plot that I did enjoy. And then there was the ancillary plot thread that focused on Vanessa and Rock.

I loved them! I loved everything about them both. Their plot thread, while not a complete secondary romance, was still more entertaining to me than the main characters' arc in a lot of ways. Vanessa made me chuckle and Rock melted my heart a little. They fit well together, and their chemistry was rock-solid. I'd love to see them in their own book and wish their roles had been expanded in this one. Without them, this would have been a much less entertaining read.

I really want to be able to connect to this series. So much of it is everything I like in romantic suspense. For one reason or another, though, something always seems to hold me back. In this book, one of the biggest "somethings" came with the big reveal that set up the relationship conflict towards the end of the book. Just thinking about it still makes my eyes cross. Plausibility did not seem to be a consideration for that one.

Normally, three books are more than enough to let me know if a series is going to be a good fit for me. Not so here, but I keep hoping for that one book to make everything click. So far it hasn't quite happened, though there are definitely series and story elements that totally work for me. Work so well, in fact, that it keeps me reading. I guess I'll continue to do so.

Genre: Romantic Suspense
Series: Black Knights Inc., Book 2
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Length: 311 Pages
Formats: Mass Market Paperback, Kindle
Disclosure: An ARC of this book was provided to me by Sourcebooks Casablanca publisher Sourcebooks via NetGalley. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.




It had certainly seemed like a good idea at the time. Rebecca "Becky" Reichert needed a vacation. After Frank Knight, head of the covert special ops team her custom bike shop fronts, shot her down personally and crushed her hopes of ever becoming an operative, she had to get far, far away from the man.

Three and a half years of hoping and yearning, wanting him to care for her like she did him, and all of it wasted, leaving her with nothing but broken dreams and a battered heart. It made it impossible to stick around Chicago while she licked her wounds...and talked herself out of killing the stubborn jerk.

So yes, cruising around the Indian Ocean on her best friend's catamaran, enjoying warm seas and a tropical paradise, all seemed like the perfect recipe for healing. Sort of makes that whole pirate thing even more of a bother.

Being overtaken by Somalian pirates, boarded at gunpoint, and held for ransom shouldn't be all that much of a surprise, really. It's just another example of how Becky's life doesn't ever go quite as planned. On the bright side, she has not a scintilla of doubt that Frank, her brother, and the other operatives of Black Knights, Inc. will be racing to rescue her and her friend as soon as they find out.

The less bright side: she is just as confident that Frank is going to somehow blame her for this whole mess. Again.


I wasn't sold on the first book in this series. It had some positives, but issues with the inconsistent tone of the tale and some dissatisfaction with the main characters kept it from being as entertaining as I had hoped it would be. Then I dived into this second installment and was pleasantly surprised by both the story and the characters.

Becky and Frank were introduced in the previous book. The groundwork for their relationship was well-laid and their story thread, though ancillary to the main plot, was one of the brights spots of that book for me. I liked them both a lot as characters, and I looked forward to seeing their story transition into the main relationship arc of this book.

I was a little concerned that having the age difference as the main bone of contention between them would start feeling a little one-note if it dragged on too long, but Walker handled it nicely. There were several separate issues, some that were offshoots of the age thing and some not, and they kept me from losing interest or getting frustrated. All told, their relationship issues were believable and realistic within the framework of the story.

At least through the first three quarters of the book, anyway.

The suspense plot threads were a little disappointing. The Bad Guy was a bad guy, all right, but his presence felt almost transitory, and he never really posed more than an academic threat through a good portion of the middle of the story. I appreciated the glimpses of what made him who he was, but would have appreciated more seeing him and his storyline have more impact in the book.

The narrative was much smoother and more balanced than the first, though, which I liked. It didn't sway wildly between too-sweet saccharine moments (mostly absent in this book, thankfully) and moments in the most graphic of war-torn hells. There were still occasions of minor disconnects between the humor inherent in Walker's writing style and the grimness of the storyline, but they were far, far less jarring.

Unfortunately, my biggest issue with this read spanned almost the entire last quarter of the book. There is a very thin line between a story that evokes emotion and one that flagrantly manipulates it. The way in which the story was written to hide details (or reveal them) in certain key moments smacked of emotional manipulation and made some pivotal scenes distasteful. One of them was the initial sexual encounter between Becky and Frank, and that was a huge problem for me.

The way in which the narrative was crafted around that scene made it tread dangerously close to one of my reading red lights (something in a story that is so anathema to me that it stops me in my tracks and can turn me off an author's entire body of work). And it was obviously intended to do so. Then, when the story progresses to the point of climax and resolution, and truths are revealed while explanations are given, the reason behind the angst seemed ludicrous.

Twelve years old? Really?? And not once did Frank entertain the notion (insane as it may be) of having one single, honest, adult conversation with the person to whom he could address a pledge made by a child. Instead that pledge becomes a twenty-seven-year-old albatross around a certain bullheaded idiot's neck, even as it silently strips away any lingering hope for a life with the woman he loves.

Even with that, though, Frank and Becky's story was a more entertaining read for me than it's predecessor. I really enjoyed the first three-quarters of the book and the characters, especially tomboy mechanic Becky, charmed me. The introduction of several new characters also offers a glimpse of the great story potential for upcoming books. I still think there's promise in this series for me, but it's going to have to have an improved romantic resolution. The one here was a killer.

Genre: Steampunk Romance
Series: London Steampunk, Book 1
Rating: 5 Stars
Length: 448 Pages
Formats: Mass Market Paperback, Kindle
Disclosure: An ARC of this book was provided to me by Sourcebooks Casablanca publisher Sourcebooks via NetGalley. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.


When her father was murdered and the Blue Blood responsible put a price on her head, Honoria Todd slipped out of the city proper with her younger sister and brother. They disappeared into the rookeries, into the fringe of life on the edge of Whitechapel. For six months she's been using an assumed name and practically starving as she works to the bone to feed her family and keep her brother's illness at bay.

The rookeries have their own version of a king, and no one dares cross the rogue Blue Blood known as Blade. If you're under his protection, no one would dare hurt you. If you're an enemy, the angels themselves couldn't save you. And as Honoria scurries home from her much-needed job, hiding herself along the journey to keep secret where she lives, one of Blade's people waylays her and lets her know a chilling fact. She's been summoned for an audience with the king.

Blade's viral count is dangerously high. He's already showing signs of the first symptoms of the Fade, that slow, inexorable descent into madness that will change him from man to monster, from blood-drinking ruler of the rookeries to mindless, ravening vampire. He doesn't have much time left.

Blade views Miss Todd, and yes, he knows who she really is, as a pawn. He's aware that his most reviled enemy, the member of the Echelon responsible for his infection and, ultimately, his sister's death, is hunting Honoria and her siblings. The price on their heads, most notably Honoria's, is extremely high.

He doesn't know why...yet...but he'll find out. And he'll use that knowledge to get what he wants. That's what he does. That's what he has always done. Then again, he's never before met anyone quite like Honoria Todd. And as he gets to know the fiercely prim warrior that challenges and resists him at every turn, even when exhausted and half-starved, he comes to realize something almost miraculous for it's simple truth. The king of the rookeries, battle-hardened gang leader and borderline monster, has met his match.

But with a voracious vampire cutting a bloody, deadly swath through Whitechapel and his own Fade creeping ever closer, the damnable truth is that it may just be too late for him. It may be too late for them all.


Wow, what a spectacular debut this was! I loved everything about it. The world was gritty, dangerous, and dark, the characters were full of strength and passion and furious honor...even as they danced along the gray line between black and white, and the story was action-packed, dangerous, and powerfully emotional. Hands down this is one of my top three reads of the year to date. I'm definitely the most excited I've been about a new series in a very long time.

I'm still sort of a steampunk neophyte, so I don't have a large reservoir of material to compare, but I loved the mix of steampunk and paranormal in this fantastic romance. The steampunk elements were fairly low key, which might bother true enthusiasts, but my largest passion is paranormal romance, so this worked just fine for me. I'd even suggest the steampunk-curious try this one to get their toes wet. I think it would be a good way to delve into the genre.

The whole grimy, soot-stained, virus-ridden world felt deliciously fresh and original, and I adored what was a completely new take on both vampire and werewolf mythos here. The ruling Echelon, with their infected blood rites and power-hungry House structure, was freaky-scary in concept. Considering they were knowingly and enthusiastically infecting themselves with a virus that demands blood-drinking and would lead to their eventual destruction when the virus overwhelms them, it all seemed a rather profound statement on the vagaries of vice and power.

I loved it.

And Honor and Blade were fantastic main characters. Honor was everything I could have ever dreamed. Fierce, intelligent, independent, proud, she was both a free thinker and riddled with prejudice and fear, stubborn and generous in equal measures. She sometimes took wild, dangerous risks, throwing herself into battle for those she loved, and she would defend them to the death. She stood up to Blade, a man who is everything that most terrifies her, even when he had her completely at his mercy. I liked her as a person and respected the hell out of her character, even when her obstinacy regarding Blade started to really frustrate me.

One of my favorite things about this book was that it wasn't just me that it frustrated. Blade was quite vocal in his frustration with Honoria, as well. That was a fantastic thing to read. I can't tell you how many times I've suffered with a mind-numbingly frustrating heroine's sundry issues only to curl my lip at the hero's seeming limitless patience for - or obliviousness to - those issues. Sometimes it's just nice to see a hero call her on it, be affected by it, acknowledge it as the head-cracker it is. Blade did that, and I loved it.

That's not the only reason I loved Blade though. He was...it. The perfect "it." Bad boy with a heart of gold, borderline monster with a soft spot for his woman, honorable crook, violent protector, the most loyal libertine. And he had this unguarded tenderness in him for Honor. Against even the warnings of his own people he wanted her and took care of her, fought with her and yearned for her, protected her and wanted to throttle her. He was jealous and adorable with it, fierce and sexy as hell with it, resolute and uncompromising and utterly trustworthy with it. He was, in short, perfect. Even his flaws were perfect.

Together their chemistry was tempestuous, emotional, fraught with tension, and absolutely incendiary.

Combine two awesome characters with a perfect complement of memorable secondary and ancillary characters, give them a layered, complex plot with several meaty, overlapping plot threads to keep them racing against time and evading danger, and you have this book. I was in reader heaven. I loved the story, the journey from the opening words to the final sentence. Villains and their villainy, hopelessness, loss, injury, lust, threat, risk, failures and triumphs littered the whole of the book in such a way that every chapter was an odyssey.

Some story elements surprised the heck out of me, some I'd figured out fairly early, some made me nervous and some made my gut churn with dread, desperate for it all to work out. The overall plot did absolutely everything it was supposed to do. It entertained the hell out of me.

Books like this are exactly why I'm so rabid about reading. I was transported into McMaster's world and held there until she deigned to let me go. Her writing is a stylized joy, her imagination a fierce weapon, her sense for story and character a tremendous gift. And I'm thrilled, just thrilled, that there is more to come in this series. I can't wait.

Genre: Historical Romance
Series: Jewels of the Ton, Book 1
Rating: 3 Stars
Length: 356
Formats: Mass Market Paperback, Kindle
Disclosure: An ARC of this book was provided to me by Sourcebooks Casablanca publisher Sourcebooks via NetGalley. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.




She is...flawless. Women revere her for her sense of fashion and style, men yearn for her attention. The Duchess of Dalliance, sobriquet bestowed by the Prince Regent himself, supports herself on little more than the fickle attention of the ton. She is a known courtesan, one of three under the protection of the Earl of Sinclair, the Earl of Sin.

The truth, Juliette knows, is largely immaterial in these sorts of matters.

The papers have lately taken to linking her name with the Duke of Pelham, a man whom Juliette has never actually met. To fan the very flames of speculation and rumor which assure her continued validity in Society, Juliette maneuvers an introduction to the dour but powerful Duke when presented the opportunity at Prinny's latest fête.

The Duchess is horrified - on the inside, she certainly doesn't let it show - when the Duke publicly cuts her, then calls her a whore. In front of the Prince Regent and all the ton.

With her future now at risk and humiliation burning a hole in her soul, Juliette escapes the crowd. Unfortunately, her evening is not destined for improvement. As she stands in the shadows on the balcony, the Duchess witnesses a vicious murder. To truly consign the evening's events to the deepest depths of hell, the victim is no other than the Duke of Pelham's fiancée.

And Juliette knows the killer, a true devil of a man who calls himself Lucifer.

Her first instinct is to flee, but her actions throw her directly into the path of the Duke of Pelham. Problem is, the man not only doesn't believe her, he makes it clear he has no intention of sullying his reputation with the likes of her, no matter how desperate she is for his help.


This series debut by Galen perplexed me a little. It wasn't at all what I was expecting. There is quite a discrepancy between the book blurb and the actual storyline. And not only that, but the tone of the book is different, as well.

That's not a criticism. I liked the premise of the storyline quite a lot and particularly appreciated the threads of suspense in the book. It was more the characters and the inconsistency in the execution of the story that gave me pause in places.

I struggled with Juliette's character. I kept hoping she'd explode across the page with self-sufficiency and independence, push beyond the dictates of society and force Will to judge her based solely on her wit and strength, and that just never quite happened. It's not that she was a victim or a damsel or anything like that, but she very much lived a life within the boundaries. That disappointed me.

The Duke, Will, was a bit of a different kettle for me. I loved his quirky OCD issues and all his stiff-upper-lipness. I was so charmed by him when he got his first glimpse of Juliette. I loved Galen's writing in that scene. There was such a delightful sense of self-deprecation in him.

And then, unfortunately, he spoke.

He turned into an utter prat who treated Juliette with cruelty and disrespect for no other reason than he was displeased by his attraction to her and he assumed she was responsible for the gossip articles that his friends keep mentioning to him. He punished her, was as offensive and humiliating as he could be. And throughout the rest of the book, just when I started to warm to him again, feel some sympathy for his character or amusement at his quirks, he'd open his mouth again and crush Juliette.

By about the third time I could no longer understand why she took it like she did. And that severely impacted my ability to fully enjoy their romance. By the end of the book he had disparaged her one time too many and the final resolution didn't have nearly enough of him on his knees grovelling for her forgiveness.

I had a couple of other small issues with the plot of the external conflict. It seemed fairly one dimensional, and there was an odd plot twist or two that lacked the emotional impact it could have had. There were surprises, but those surprises were based on my uncertainty about the plausibility of some of the events, and I wish Juliette's backstory had been better represented to provide a more well-rounded foundation for others.

Without a doubt, there were some fun moments in this book, and I thoroughly enjoyed Galen's writing style. The plot thread with Lucifer is something I'm assuming is going to carry through each book of the series, so I look forward to seeing how the other two diamonds will play into it all.

Genre: Paranormal Romance
Series: Underbelly Chronicles, Book 2
Rating: 4 Stars
Length: 352 Pages
Formats: Mass Market Paperback, Kindle
Disclosure: An ARC of this book was provided to me by Sourcebooks Casablanca publisher Sourcebooks via NetGalley. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.




They are among us, but we will never know they're there. Incubus, siren, werewolves, Valkyrie, and more, all paranormal species, all living right beside us. They stay far under our radar, governing themselves, living their lives. They have completely integrated into our world. 

They had to after their ancestors crash landed on our planet.

Werewolf Gabe Lupinsky hasn't even had a chance to celebrate being named interim Director of Physical Sciences at Sebastiani Labs before professional thorn in his side, archaeological wunderkind, and Valkyrie Second Lorin Schlessinger interrupts an Underworld Council meeting with shocking information. Patching in from the Isabella archaeological dig in northern Minnesota, where she'd gone to prepare the dig for the coming summer, Lorin informs the various leaders that she's found something remarkable, something that may be the key to a thousand years of their history. 

And then she promptly breaks every biohazard protocol that exists while getting the mysterious artifact on camera. Though accidental, Lorin's touch causes the box to open, and with that one mistake, Gabe's stellar summer plans become a several months-long study in frustration and discomfort. He's been sentenced...er...reassigned to supervise Lorin's work in all things related to the dig and the artifact. At the site. In the wilderness. With the bugs. And dirt. And appalling limitations to personal hygiene. 

Not to mention the nearly criminal disregard of anything resembling detailed, ordered, methodical reporting and records keeping. But that has more to do with an obstinate Valkyrie than the wilderness. 

To top off the joy that this nightmare of a summer is going to bring him, Lorin is about as fond of Gabe as Gabe is of her. When he tells the Valkyrie Princess that he is going to be her site supervisor for the whole season, Gabe has no doubt just how welcoming her reaction will be. Then again, working together won't be a problem if they end up killing each other before they discover the first thing about that mysterious artifact.


Well, damn, when it comes to having expectations tossed out the window, I don't think I've ever seen it done as thoroughly as Tamara Hogan did with this second installment of the Underbelly Chronicles. Nor do I believe I've ever read a second book that is both so dependent on and yet different from the series debut. And that is in no way a criticism, because frankly, this book really impressed me.

I liked its predecessor well enough, I suppose, but I had some issues with the main characters and the romance didn't do much for me. The world was interesting and Hogan's creativity and originality were great, but I wasn't completely won over by that story. She leveled me with this one.

Weaving science fiction story elements into an edgy paranormal romance series? Yeah, I didn't see that coming. I don't know if I missed some major series setup in the first book or if this aspect of the Underbelly Chronicles was just introduced to readers in this installment, but that took me completely by surprise. Though it did answer a few of my lingering questions about the Big Bad from Taste Me.

And while I was already captivated by the depth and unique complexity that Hogan brought to her world in that book, Hogan ups the stakes by giving us Gabe and Lorin for this one. I loved them. I adored them. I couldn't get enough of them.

Gabe is a delightfully atypical werewolf with his obsessive Type A personality, appreciation for the urbane, and science-loving geekiness. He lives in a world where werewolves have a whole host of problems, including a bigoted blowhard for an alpha and Underworld Council First. As a race, werewolves are suffering from a lack of genetic diversity, and Gabe's family has been particularly hard hit. One sister can't hear, another was born without a leg, and Gabe has vision problems.

The fierce Valkyrie Lorin, daughter of the Council's Valkyrie First, is everything Gabe is not. She's headstrong, passionate, fiery, quick to anger and just as quick to forgive. Her race demands she blow off energy at regular intervals or her head and heart could explode. She's usually moving too quick, thinking too fast, leaping too far to take the time to be a meticulous records-keeper, and she doesn't have the patience for trying. Or for anything resembling convention.

The two are about as different as the sun and the moon and they were awesome together. I have a soft spot for Gabe, who is so adorable at times with his uncertainties. Then again, Lorin is exactly the kind of brilliant, strong female lead that I most favor. Their relationship starts out strictly professional and intensely rocky, then quickly morphs into something with real teeth. 

There is snark and attitude and one-upmanship. Lust, frustration, and aggression. Wit and wisdom and passion. Respect and trust and love. The evolution of that relationship and all its inherent baggage made for a rock-solid (no pun intended) romantic read that tickled all of my Happy Reader buttons.

Meanwhile, the dig and the story surrounding the artifact Lorin found, not to mention the glimpses of the alien Big Bad and his nefarious scheme, all blend and work together to provide several very good external conflicts and a few plot-driven crises that kept me completely engaged in the world and the characters' lives. 

I don't know where Hogan has been, but she writes like a seasoned veteran with an eye towards huge, rich, decadent storytelling. Her characters are three dimensional, like living, breathing creatures, people who suffer and triumph, who feel petty jealousies and passionate pleasure and everything in between. And the world in which they live is just an imagination away from our own. 

The only thing that kept my enthusiasm for this book tempered was my uncertainty over how I felt about the space ship and aliens elements. I loved these main characters and I adored their story, but the interloper from off-planet, while absolutely original story-wise, wasn't quite a seamless fit into this storyline. Part of my issue with it, though, may be nothing more than the jarring surprise of his existence, a surprise that lingered long after his introduction.

Still, there were so very many good points in this sophomore effort by Hogan. I definitely preferred it over its predecessor. I'm very glad, though, that I read the first book. Not only did it appease my OCD tendencies, but it set the framework and provided an introduction to the world and the plethora of characters that are included in each book. The stories themselves may be practically mutually exclusive, but both the world and the characters in this series are complex and well integrated into each book, and it helped me immensely having that first one as a step on the way to this one. 

I am truly excited to revisit this world and spend more time with this author's work. It's one of the most, if not the most, unique stories I've read in awhile. This was more than a four star read for me, but the science fiction was just a bit too jarring to take it to a four and a half. 

Quotables:

"Why buy the pig if you just want some sausage?"

This morning, she wanted to give every person with a penis a FastPass to hell.