Book Review: Keir, by Pippa Jay

Keir, by Pippa Jay
Lyrical Press, May 2012

Outcast. Cursed. Dying. Is Keir beyond redemption?

For Keirlan de Corizi—the legendary 'Blue Demon' of Adalucien—death seems the only escape from a world where his discolored skin marks him as an oddity and condemns him to life as a pariah. But salvation comes in an unexpected guise: Tarquin Secker, a young woman who can travel the stars with a wave of her hand.

But Quin has secrets of her own. She's spent eternity searching through space and time with a strange band of companions at her back. Defying her friends' counsel, Quin risks her apparent immortality to save Keir. She offers him sanctuary and a new life on her home world, Lyagnius.

When Keir mistakenly unleashes his dormant alien powers and earns instant exile from Quin's home world, will she risk everything to stand by him again?

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A broken, emaciated man lies in the shadows of a sewer, trapped behind iron gates. Persecuted every day of his life for the color of his skin, Keirlan de Corizi is taunted even in his last, lonely hours. He wishes for death to claim him. Death denied him. When an odd young woman named Quin is tossed into his cell, he is confounded by her light regard for her situation. She claims she can get out of anywhere and promises to take him with her. At the moment, he doesn’t have enough energy left in his body to hope that she can. There’s much he doesn’t understand in their first day together. Why does she drag him out of the sewer to freedom? Why does she care for him after their escape? Why does she refuse to leave him behind when his deteriorating condition guarantees she will be recaptured. But, she keeps her promise and takes him home with her. The man known as the ‘Blue Demon’ of Adalucien has one moment of peace and is grateful for it even as he fades away.

Keir wakes up in a strange room where he is treated gently by a woman with purple hair and fangs. She gives him clothes and introduces him to others in the compound. They are all very different…from him, the Andalucian, and each other. Strays, the kind woman calls them. He finds his savior, Tarquin Secker sitting alone in a garden. He wants to be near her. Having avoided other people all of his life, the desire terrifies him.

I seldom cast books as I read, but in this case, both leads quickly acquired living models. For me, Keir is Orlando Bloom in Nightcrawler (X-men) make-up, complete with symbols carved and inked in his skin. Quin is Bryce Dallas Howard channeling the 12th incarnation of Dr. Who. That’s more about me than Pippa Jay or her delightful novel, but I felt like sharing.

Keir is a clever amalgamation of science fiction plot devices, fantasy realms, and literary themes. It is built within a construct of futuristic devices, fantastic locations, and alien power sufficiently advanced to be considered magic. At it heart, though, it is a character driven story about embracing differences. Over the course of our lives, humans acquire memory, fears, and regrets. We either overcome our mistakes and our losses, or they overwhelm us. The one thing we cannot turn time back on them. We cannot abandon or undo them, as much as we’d like to. They become part of us, define who we are, and inform our relationships with other people. Keirlan de Corizi symbolizes a personal demon, and finding in Quin a kindred soul, he feels drawn to her and trusts her well before he learns the first details of her many secrets.

First, they must survive Keir’s home planet, a world contemporary with pre-Industrial Europe, where everyone is human, where the powerful rule the masses by force, superstition, and fear of things they don’t understand. In Pippa Jay’s universe, Andalucian is the exception, not the rule.

Keir reminded me of Dr. Who in many ways, Stargate SG-1 in others. I would sincerely recommend this book to fans of either series.

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Evolution Thursday: Joanne Brothwell

Joanne’s love of writing began at age four, when she wrote her first “book” of poetry. Five pages of scratch drawings, misspelled words and a poorly formed signature was all it took to trigger the writing obsession.

The origin of Joanne’s first novel began with characters that seemed to unwittingly spring to life within her mind. Joanne allowed those characters to speak to her, their voices growing in volume. Finally, their problems became so compelling they began to haunt Joanne’s dreams at night. She couldn’t escape the constant barrage of her characters' voices, and in February, 2008, Joanne placed her hands on the keyboard for the first time, to exorcise those voices from her head. In June, 2008, the first draft of her manuscript was complete, and now, nearly three years later, her debut novel, Stealing Breath, has been released.

Joanne lives in the country on the Canadian prairie with her family where her stories are inspired by the dead things that appear at her doorstep on a daily basis. She can be found at the following links online:

Website | Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

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Joanne, what was the first scene of Stealing Breath?

The first scene of Stealing Breath was written when I still wanted it to be a Young Adult novel. She was a teenager at high school sitting at her locker. Very boring.

Did you have a scene that you loved but ended up cutting?

I had a scene where Sarah actually dies, and has an out-of-body experience and is looking down at herself, dead on the floor. It was a really cool scene, but it just didn’t work with the story, so it got hacked. I’d love to figure out a way to use it in a future novel!

Oh, please do! I'd love to read that.

I usually have an a-ha moment, where an insignificant detail becomes something really important. Did you have a moment like that? Will it spoil the plot to tell me what it was?

Not really, to be honest. I had a lot of critical feedback that lead to some pretty major insights into plot, character and writing problems, definitely. One of the biggest was when my critique partner told me she really hated the hero, to the point where she really wanted to kick him in the ‘nards. I realized he had to be completely revamped. That earlier character is gone, there is absolutely no semblance between him and Evan. Evan is awesome. I love him.

Me, too. He is an intriguing guy. Are you surprised where the story took you? Or if ended up where you planned, were you surprised how you got there?

This story has been through so many different versions, it is nothing like where I thought it would end up. I’ve re-written it about four times, with major overhauls in between. All of the really big problems in its earlier forms have been resolved. I love where it has ended up!

While reading, I thought of "Slave Lake" as the Spirit Lake, North Dakota, where the Sioux reservation is located? Am I close? And if so, why there? What's special about North Dakota to you?

Yes, Slave Lake was inspired by Spirit Lake, North Dakota, which used to be called “Devil’s Lake”. My paternal grandmother was born there, and I always thought it was such an awesomely creepy name! I’ve never been to Spirit Lake, so I made up Slave Lake instead.

North Dakota was chosen because geographically, it is the most similar to the setting I had in my mind. I’m from Saskatchewan, Canada, and when I imagined many of these scenes, they were in specific places I’m familiar with in my home province. I wanted to target a broad audience, North America wide, so I went with North Dakota. Because who would want to read about Saskatche-what?

I would! Now, the ending allows for you to walk away, but leaves the door open to come back. Are you planning a sequel?

I’ve already written the sequel, and it is sitting with the Acquisitions Editor at Crescent Moon Press right now! The sequel, currently titled Stealing Skin, is far darker than the first. Sarah goes through some awful situations and has to make some morally difficult decisions. I tortured Sarah and Evan relentlessly!

I also wrote part of it in third person (from a different character’s perspective), but I don’t know if that will stay. I quite like it, but not a single person in the world has read it yet, so I have no idea whether other people will feel the same way about it as me!

There are plans for a third, but I’m waiting until the second one has been picked up.

Crossing my fingers for you, Joanne. And, US readers, you can win a copy of Stealing Breath at Goodreads. The giveaway is open until May 21 and I even snagged her widget. 

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Stealing Breath

by Joanne Brothwell

Giveaway ends May 21, 2012.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Next Thursday, Eilis Flynn will be here to tell us about her recent release, Static Shock.

Book Review/Trailer: Awaited, by Lynn Rush, with A Bonus Review for Prelude to Darkness

Awaited, by Lynn Rush
Crescent Moon Press, May 1, 2012 (Today!)



The voice is a powerful thing…

Russell Leonard is a centuries-old Guardian who’s lost faith in his purpose. So when he’s charged with procuring the first female Guardian in over two centuries, he can only hope it’s the red-headed beauty who’s been haunting his dreams for months. And if it is, he intends to claim her as his. But when he finds his dream woman, Annabelle is mute and bears no Guardian’s Mark.

He soon realizes she’s been tainted by an ancient evil. Russell must somehow release the secrets trapped within this delicate, mute beauty, to help her tap into the only weapon powerful enough to silence a millennia-old demon—her voice.

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Awaited opens with Guardians Russell and Durk seated on a private jet, en route to a small Colorado town to retrieve a young woman. She is the first female to born in centuries. They would have preferred to drive for the legroom, trunk space for weapons, and the privacy to speak freely, but Jessica, their enigmatic 56-going on-17 leader, insisted they be on that flight. Annoyed but obedient, they comply with her other strange instructions even while wondering what she knows but won’t tell them. They take extra socks. She gives a bag she packed with matches and a foil blanket. She slips in three granola bars. All of it becomes necessary for their survival when the plane crashes in the Rockies, killing everyone on board except them and a female in the cockpit.

And that’s when things get weird.

Russell has been dreaming about this young woman for three-months. She can hear, but she can’t talk. She trusts Russell on sight, but she looks at Durk like he’s made candid comments to eat her. She has Guardian-like powers, but not the Mark that would identify her as their object of their search. And she has an awful secret.

Awaited is book two in Lynn Rush’s Wasteland series, which takes the reader into a bizarre world of immortals that walk among us. Wasteland introduced us to half-demon David Sadler and Guardian queen Bekka, who are mentioned through the sequel. In Awaited, we learn more about Bekka’s former sidekick, Russell Leonard, a jaded warrior who is going through the motions of serving The Light while wondering for what reason they bother. At his very core, he’s a lonely man looking for a purpose. He’s never before thought about love, but since having dreams of a honey-eyed woman, belonging to someone beside Archangel Michael becomes like an open wound. When Annabel quite literally falls into his arms, his pain sparks an obsession to claim her as his bonded mate.

During my reading of Wasteland, I felt the attention to David's urges a bit excessive. It is almost a third main character of the story, easily overshadowing his mission to deliver a certain teenage girl to his Master. From the beginning of that book, David restrained his urge to outright violate the Guardian queen because doing so would mean losing his soul; he had refused for centuries to give his Master the satisfaction of completely owning him. As Bekka’s attraction to David steadily grew hot enough to sear, his resolve was steeled by a more powerful desire to protect her, firstly from himself.

Russell’s situation is different, but he and David shared one very important aspect…they’re 400-year-old virgins when the right woman enters the scene at the exact right time. (We are talking about people governed by fate, after all.) While reading Awaited, I considered David as I read about Russell, and this time I found their obsession to claim and protect the women they love appropriate.

Wasteland’s relentless pace continues in Awaited as Russell and Durk fight a demon gang and navigate the Colorado Rockies on foot with a human in tow that is both more and less vulnerable than she appears. The series continues with the as-of-yet untitled Wasteland #3, which is Durk’s story after the events of Awaited render him a heartbroken, angry rogue. I recommend this series to fans of Rebecca Hamilton and Jordan K. Rose.

Awaited will available for purchase tomorrow, May 1st.

Rating: ★★★★★

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BONUS Review!

Prelude to Darkness (Wasteland 0.5)
Crescent Moon Press, May 7, 2012

For a slave, hope is a dangerous thing.

Margaret Rousseau dreams of freedom from a life of servitude. When a mysterious woman saunters into the servants’ tavern promising the impossible, Margaret dares to hope she could win the heart of the one man she has secretly coveted since she first wore a corset...

The Prince.

Margaret desperately grasps for the opportunity to change her bleak destiny by placing faith in a woman who is not as forthcoming as she seems. Blinded to the stranger’s dark motives, Margaret surrenders herself to gain her heart’s desires.

But her choice may bring forth a darkness that could destroy all she holds dear.

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Margaret Rousseau is a young, ambitious servant of England’s royal family. While not mentioned in the story, the setting is in the latter half of the 17th century, likely during the restored Stuart years. That’s neither here nor there to the young maid, who thought her deepest desire in the world was to dive into the Queen’s steaming bathtub for a proper soak. She’s wrong, though. She knows she’s wrong when the busy Queen offers the bath to her son, Edward, and he sends her fellow maid Anne Marie away. This leaves poor young Margaret alone with a handsome royal who recently tangled with ruffians and can’t quite reach his own back to scrub off the stench of his travels.

Prelude to Darkness is a parable of sorts, a fairy tale with a tragic ending. It stands alone, but those who read Wasteland prior to Prelude will know the consequences of Margaret’s greed and naïveté. But while David is well within his rights to hold a grudge against the woman who sold his soul to a demon, a reader would be hard pressed to judge her too harshly at the end of her story.

Imagine your neighbor’s teen daughter is given an opportunity to spend some quality time with Robert Pattison. While chatting about whatever, he gets an itch on his back that he can’t reach. While she’s helping him out, he asks if she’s got a boyfriend. Perhaps he’s just making conversation, but it sets the wheels turning in her head. Could he really be interested me? This is the situation in which Margaret finds herself in Prelude’s first chapter. How many young women fall prey to the sparkly charms of young men with far less going for them than Robert? It’s really not hard to see how the young maid’s story goes sideways in a hurry.

Margaret betrays three people in this story. First, her son when she commits to the terms of a demon’s offer. Second, she betrays herself when she signs it. All she truly wants is to be loved, to be cared for as she cares for Queen and her family. She’s had that man in her life for years, and her poor choices punish him as well for loving her unconditionally.

Lynn Rush’s writing is slower paced in this short than in the related Wasteland novels. It is also tighter and more nuanced. Fans of the Wasteland series will want to read Prelude to Darkness to answer the nagging question of how Margaret came to sell her son’s soul. It may also appeal to younger fans of Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Rating: ★★★★★

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Driven to write, Lynn Rush often sees her characters by closing her eyes watching their story unfold in her mind. Lynn Rush is a pen name that is a combination of two sources – Lynn, the first name of her mother-in-law, who passed away and Rush – since the author is a former inline speed skater and mountain biker. All of Rush’s books are dedicated to Lynn, her namesake.

Rush holds a degree in psychology from Southwest Minnesota State University and a master's degree from the University of Iowa. Originally from Minneapolis, Rush currently enjoys living in the Arizona sunshine by road biking nearly 100 miles per week with her husband of 15 years and jogging with her two loveable Shetland Sheep dogs.

Fans may adore Lynn by visiting these links:

Catch the Rush | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest

New Release/Blog Tour: Keir, by Pippa Jay

I've been enjoying six sentence snippets of Keir for a few months now, and I'm antsy to get my hands on this book. The wait is almost over.

Outcast. Cursed. Dying. Is Keir beyond redemption?

For Keirlan de Corizi--the legendary 'Blue Demon' of Adalucien--death seems the only escape from a world where his discolored skin marks him as an oddity and condemns him to life as a pariah. But salvation comes in an unexpected guise: Tarquin Secker, a young woman who can travel the stars with a wave of her hand.

But Quin has secrets of her own. She's spent eternity searching through space and time with a strange band of companions at her back. Defying her friends' counsel, Quin risks her apparent immortality to save Keir. She offers him sanctuary and a new life on her home world, Lyagnius.

When Keir mistakenly unleashes his dormant alien powers and earns instant exile from Quin's home world, will she risk everything to stand by him again?

WARNING: Contains sweet romance, some violence and plenty of adventure.

Keir will be available from Lyrical press on May 7, 2012. Click the link for more information and a snippet.

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Pippa Jay is a stay-at-home mum of three who spent twelve years working as an Analytical Chemist in a Metals and Minerals laboratory, Pippa Jay bases her stories on a lifetime addiction to science-fiction books and films. Somewhere along the line a touch of romance crept into her work and refused to leave. In between torturing her various characters, she spends the odd free moments trying to learn guitar, indulging in freestyle street dance and drinking high-caffeine coffee. Although happily settled in historical Colchester in the UK with her husband of 18 years, she continues to roam the rest of the Universe in her head.

A Surprise visit from S.M. Boyce!

UPDATED (April 19): When you buy a pendant, you’re automatically entered in a contest to make a short guest appearance in Heritage, the epic finale to the Grimoire Trilogy. Click here for more details!

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Hey gang! I’m thrilled to be sharing some awesome news with you, and I’m so grateful that Wendy let me kidnap her blog for the day to do it. You may remember me from when I was here a last month on my Hidden World blog tour promoting my novel, The Grimoire: Lichgates. To those of you who participated and won some of the hundreds of dollars in prizes, thanks for making that tour so epic!

So today, I’m here with awesome, Grimoire-related news I think you’ll really like. Because we of the modern era like information to be fast and furious, I made this quick video to tell you what all the fuss is about:



Isn’t that cool? I’m bringing the Grimoire pendant from my novel to life!

There’s a lot of buzz around the pendant, and I’ll fill orders in the order they’re received. That means it’s really best to act as soon as you know which pendant you want. For all the ordering info, head over to the pendant’s page on my blog.

Thanks again for having me today! You’re all amazing and I can’t thank you enough for reading Lichgates. You’re making all my geeky little dreams come true.

Learn More:

The Real-Life Grimoire Pendant

The Grimoire: Lichgates

S. M. Boyce’s Blog

Taste Book Trailer and Excerpt Reveal

Taste
by Kate Evangelista

At Barinkoff Academy, there's only one rule: no students on campus after curfew. Phoenix McKay soon finds out why when she is left behind at sunset. A group calling themselves night students threaten to taste her flesh until she is saved by a mysterious, alluring boy. With his pale skin, dark eyes, and mesmerizing voice, Demitri is both irresistible and impenetrable. He warns her to stay away from his dangerous world of flesh eaters. Unfortunately, the gorgeous and playful Luka has other plans.

When Phoenix is caught between her physical and her emotional attraction, she becomes the keeper of a deadly secret that will rock the foundations of an ancient civilization living beneath Barinkoff Academy. Phoenix doesn’t realize until it is too late that the closer she gets to both Demitri and Luka the more she is plunging them all into a centuries old feud.

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Before you read the excerpt below, be on the lookout for a hidden link somewhere on this page to a super EXCLUSIVE bonus excerpt.

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Excerpt of Taste:

I sat up and followed Calixta’s gaze upward. I rubbed my eyes. I didn’t know what I was seeing at first. A statue?—My brain refused to snap together coherent thoughts. I didn’t realize I’d fallen so close to one of the garden benches until I stared up at the boy that sat on one. He was strikingly beautiful. His tumble of blonde hair curled just above his sculpted cheekbones. He wore a silk shirt and a loosened cravat, like he’d become bored while dressing and decided to leave himself in disarray. His ivory skin and frozen position was what had me mistaking him for something carved from marble by Michelangelo. Then he sighed—a lonely, breathy proof of life. If I had to imagine what Lucifer looked like before he fell from heaven, the boy on the bench would certainly fulfill that image. My brain told me I had to look away, but I couldn’t.

“Luka,” Calixta said again, her voice unsure, almost nervous. It no longer contained the steel and bite she had threatened me with, which made me wonder who the boy was.

He leaned on his hands and crossed his legs, all the while keeping his eyes fixed on the night sky. His movements spoke of elegance and control. I’d encountered many people with breeding before, but his took on the air of arrogance and self-assuredness of someone used to getting what he wanted when he wanted it.

I only realized I’d been holding my breath when my lungs protested. I exhaled. My heart sputtered and restarted with a vengeance. Luka tore his gaze away from the stars and settled it on me. I’d expected pitch-black irises, like the other Night Students, but blue ice stared back at me.

“Human,” he whispered.

He reached out, and with a finger, followed an invisible trail down my cheek. I stiffened. His touch, cooler than Demitri’s, caused warm sparks to blossom on my face. He lifted his finger to his lips and licked its tip. He might as well have licked me from the way my body shivered.

Luka’s curious gaze held mine. “Leave us,” he said, but not to me.

“But—” Calixta protested like a spoiled child.

He spoke in a language I hadn’t heard before, remaining calm yet firm. The words had a rolling cadence I couldn’t quite follow, like rumbling thunder in the distance. They contained a harsh sensuality. The consonants were hard and the vowels were long and lilting.

Footsteps retreated behind me.

Luka reached out again.

It took me a minute to realize he wanted to help me up. I hesitated. He smiled. I smiled back timidly and took his hand, completely dazzled. Even with my uniform soaked from melted snow, I didn’t feel cold—all my attention was on him and the way his callused hand felt on mine. Without moving much from his seated position, he helped me stand.

“What’s your name?” he asked. He had a voice like a familiar lullaby. It filled my heart to the brim with comfort.

I swallowed and tried to stop gawking. “Phoenix.”

“The bird that rose from the ashes.” Luka bent his head and kissed the back of my hand. “It’s a pleasure meeting you.”

My cheeks warmed. My head reeled, not knowing what to think. I couldn’t understand why I felt drawn to him. And the strange connection frightened me.

From behind, someone gripped my arms and yanked me away before I could sort out the feelings Luka inspired in me. I found myself behind a towering figure yet again. Recognizing the blue-black silk for hair tied at the nape, relief washed over me. Calixta hadn’t come back to finish me off.

Demitri’s large hand wrapped around my wrist. Unlike the night before, no calm existed in his demeanor. He trembled like a junky in need of a fix. The coiled power in his tense muscles vibrated into me.

“What are you doing here?” Demitri asked.

I didn’t know he’d spoken to me until I saw his expressionless profile. I sighed.

“Phoenix.”

I flinched. The ruthless way he said my name punched all the air out of me. “You owe me answers,” I said with as much bravado as I could muster.

“I owe you nothing.” He glared. “In fact, you owe me your life.”

“I don’t think so.”

Ignoring my indignation, he faced Luka, who’d remained seated on the bench during my exchange with Demitri. “Why is she with you, Luka?”

“I wasn’t going to taste her, if that’s what you’re implying,” Luka said. “Although, she is simply delicious. I wouldn’t mind if you left us alone.”

There it was again. Taste. The word that kept coming up between these Night Students and I was connected to it in an increasingly uncomfortable way. To taste meant to sample, but what? My flesh? They had to be joking because the alternative wasn’t funny.

“The sins of the father …” Demitri left his sentence unfinished.

Luka’s smile shifted into a snarl. “Obey my command.” His chin lifted. “Kneel.”

Demitri’s stance went rigid. His grip tightened around my wrist.

Okay, weird just got weirder. Why would Luka want Demitri to kneel before him? I thought back to Eli and the others bowing to Demitri when he questioned them, but they didn’t kneel. Seriously? Were they all living on a different planet or something?

“Kneel.” Luka’s detestable smirk made his features sinister rather than angelic. The real Lucifer: a fallen angel.

Without letting go of my wrist, Demitri knelt down on one knee and bowed his head, his free hand flat at the center of his chest. “Your command has been obeyed,” he said formally.

Luka nodded once.

Demitri stood up and pulled me toward the school without telling me where we were going. Not having the time to thank Luka for saving me from Calixta, I risked a glance back. Luka smiled at me. His smile spoke of whispers, secrets, and promises to be shared on a later date.

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When Kate Evangelista was told she had a knack for writing stories, she did the next best thing: entered medical school. After realizing she wasn't going to be the next Doogie Howser, M.D., Kate wandered into the Literature department of her university and never looked back. Today, she is in possession of a piece of paper that says to the world she owns a Literature degree. To make matters worse, she took Master's courses in creative writing. In the end, she realized to be a writer, none of what she had mattered. What really mattered? Writing. Plain and simple, honest to God, sitting in front of her computer, writing. Today, she has four completed Young Adult novels.

Author Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Crescent Moon Press

Book Review: Perpetual Light, by Jordan K. Rose

Perpetual Light, by Jordan K. Rose
Cresent Moon Press, February 26, 2012

Fate is cruel. Especially when the one you've sworn to love for all eternity, the very soul who changed your destiny, is the last person you should trust. After more than three hundred years of running, Lucia DiComano must make a choice. Forced to take her place as a Pharo of Redemption, the divine slayer needs to master her forgotten powers. Lucia turns to Vittorio, the one vampire she's failed to deliver from eternal damnation. But overcoming smoldering remnants of love, lust and anger aren't their only obstacles. Samuel, who may know Lucia better than she knows herself, hunts her with a fervor stoked by a thousand years of vengeful hatred. His plan-capture and enslave the weakened Pharo then take control of her elusive power. Can Lucia trust Vittorio long enough to reclaim her powers? Or will she have no choice but to kill him and battle Samuel alone?

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Something strange is happening to 37-year-old fashion buyer, Lucia DiComano. The episode begins as an ache, followed by a cadence that she hears and feels. Her heart tries to keep pace with it, but fails. Darkness looms heavily around her. Her skin crawls. Then the ambient light around her becomes blinding bright, banishing darkness, panic, and all the other strange sensations with it. The episode, as well as her recent sensitivity to light, concerns her shopkeeper parents. As her mother hounds her, Lucia denies having any more nightmares. In truth, Vittorio, her dream husband, and the wicked blonde man who hunts her relentlessly, are frequent visitors. Inside, she questions her sanity as an alternative to possible demon possession, before mostly dismissing both.

She’s saved from the motherly interrogation by Peter, the last man on earth she wants to see. She’s been promoted at work; she has to train someone to take her place, and the cocky "junior" gets under her skin without saying a word. They are due to leave for Boston, where they are meeting Elizabeth, a jeweler, at a fashion event, and he’s come to pick her up. He takes her insults and abuse well until they are out on street, when his entire demeanor changes like a flipped switch. He orders her into the car. When she bristles at his rudeness, he picks her up, throws her bodily into the back seat, and drives like a maniac from Providence all the way to Boston.

At the event, everything goes sideways. A co-worker named Marie insists that she meet a Chilean designer, alone, outside of the hotel, and she’s not kind about it. In a separate incident, Peter, Elizabeth, and her nephew must intervene when a trio of foul smelling men with European accents confronts Lucia. They all seem to know each other. With the situation defused, Elizabeth introduces Lucia to her brother-in-law...Vittorio. He stuns her by knowing about her dreams. He knows what's up with her eyes. He explains that he, Peter, and the others are vampires, and they have been protecting her for him. She doesn’t believe him, reacts poorly, and bolts into a restroom. Marie corners her there, determined to drag her out to meet the Chilean designer. Lucia gets away, but spotting Vittorio across the room, she looks for a back door out of the building. On her way out, she is confronted by the second man from her nightmares.

The evil blonde, Samuel, attacks her. She escapes, runs out of the building, and right in front of a moving truck. When she wakes up in the hospital, she doesn’t know her parents or her boyfriend. She cries out for Vittorio.

A caged-ball.

I am a huge fan of slow reveals, and in Perpetual Light, Jordan K. Rose pulls off the equivalent of a caged-ball. She starts with a heroine that knows nothing about herself, and surrounds her by people who know what she is, what’s happening to her, and the role she plays in the grand scheme of things. Add in the fact that they’re vampires, she’s a Pharo (slayer), and one of them is was her husband 10 past lives ago, and Ms. Rose has a recipe for undead armageddon. Which keeps things moving, but it’s the ball in the box that I found interesting. The author removes the layers of Lucia’s memory block, in the same manner as a whittler would the wood around the block. Bits here, pieces there, when details are necessary.

If her role, and the power that she needs to play it, is the ball in my metaphor, then the cage is a book. Vittorio and his vampire family have been keeping a journal about her past lives. She has holes to fill if she is to destroy Samuel before he captures and enslaves her, and the book has those answers. But Vittorio only allows her to see bits and pieces at a time. He fears that his and Elizabeth’s observations would be out of context, that they would hold Lucia back and take her down a wrong road. To be of use to her, he believes, her past must be remembered on her own.

Unlike Joss Whedon's characters, Ms. Rose's slayers don't wield wood stakes and her vampires aren't damned creatures that simply dust when impaled. Her vampires walk in sunlight. They go to church. They decorate Christmas trees and watch television. They have souls. Vittorio is a proper gentleman who cares for two younger vampires he sired as if they were flesh and blood sons. He’s gentle with Lucia. He is reasonable and fair with those around him. He exhibits tremendous control of his desires, his thirst, even his temper. One might be tempted to liken him to Twilight’s Carlisle Cullen, which would be a mistake. The vampires of this story, every single one of them, are vicious when provoked. Vittorio’s not the most savage in the story, but the degree of his control makes his mean snaps far more striking that Samuel’s vile actions.

Like Buffy, though, Lucia is a flawed heroine. As she regains her memory and power, the revelations range from lovely to horrible. While Vittorio loves her deeply, her actions enrage him at times and her power terrifies him at others. In similar manners, the author rounds out all of her principle characters but Samuel, who she leaves intentionally flat. There are hints there is more to him than bloodlust. Jordan K. Rose leaves a dozen plot threads dangling at the end of Perpetual Light. I have confirmed with her that there is a sequel. I think I know where Lucia and Vittorio’s long road ends, but I’m anxious to see how they get there.

Book Review: Static Shock, by Eilis Flynn

Static Shock, by Eilis Flynn
Crescent Moon Press, March, 2012

Can you live without your computer? Can you wear a watch? Do you know anyone who can't?

In a time not long from now, there are people whose life paths are determined by such simple details. Legally recognized as electromagnetics, or "Readers", they are a twist in evolution, an anomaly in a society that has become technologically dependent. Considered second-class citizens because of their heightened electromagnetic fields, Readers can't wear watches, get too close to a TV, or even drive for fear they will shut down the car's electrical system. Computers become worthless doorstops quickly around Readers. Career prospects are limited.

Reader Jeanne Muir decides to expand her horizons when she's unexpectedly offered a new job opportunity. But she hasn't been told that her job description includes being framed for a crime she didn't commit. Because Readers are not held in high esteem, Jeanne's an easy scapegoat, and law enforcement definitely is not on her side. Knowing she was set up and the odds are against her, Jeanne can't let herself be taken in-and risks asking mysterious, sexy Ran Owata, a fellow Reader who is no longer accepted among their kind, for help. The problem is: Can she trust him? Does she have a choice?

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Abandoned by her normal parents at age eleven, EM-charged Jeanne Muir spent her teen years between a university research lab and the streets of Seattle. An adult now, she does part-time work for the Geller Institute consulting on energy leaks. Six months ago, she was arrested for being in the wrong place at the wrong time and it earned her an abrupt change in duties. She was remanded to testing (that she dislikes), training (that didn’t interest her the first time around), and boring consulting jobs.

Static Shock opens with Jeanne on two critical missions. First, she must reach her destination without overloading every single thing that runs on an electrical charge. It’s a challenge for her anywhere in urban Seattle, but today, points A and B are on the U of Washington campus. Second, she has to ask something of her boss. She’s optimistic, but there’s a good chance that he will say no. The boss that greets her in the Gellar Institute director’s office, however, isn’t the one she’s expecting. That man, Sam, was peeled off a campus statue a few hours earlier and carted off to a mental institution. The new director is a sexy younger man who puts her on her guard. He’s a reader who doesn’t behave much like one, which tips her off to who he is.

Ran Owata serves as a bridge between readers and normals, but his name has become a dirty word among those like him and Jeanne. Because their EM fields magnify each other in close proximity, readers are prohibited from congregating in groups…a violation of their Constitutional right to assembly that does not escape Jeanne. Ran’s advocation of self-control for integration purposes rubs most readers the wrong way, but that’s the bright side of his problem. He’s also associated with a controversial law that would see readers interred into camps. At the least, he’s viewed by readers as the enemy, at most, the boogeyman. At the thought of his name, Jeanne freaks out, and her EM field blows half of the light bulbs on the director’s floor.

Static Shock has an intriguing premise. The extra-normal condition of Jeanne, Ran, and the other readers is a byproduct of an evolutionary change colliding with a technological society where that this new property of the human condition negatively affects. As such, the readers are ostracized by the other 80% whose lives are built upon the electronic backbone of modern societies’ critical infrastructure. The views of norms, as the readers call them, range from wariness to prejudice to outright fear. Politicians, whether caving to the masses or earning brownie points, have written increasingly restrictive laws inhibiting where they can go, when they can go there, and who they can meet. Other laws have upgraded the wiring in apartment houses to sensate wiring…a technological advancement for which landlords charge their tenants more. Landlords who don’t have it can charge readers a premium that makes renting nearly impossible in one of the America’s most expensive cities. The gloves that readers wear to shield both them and the devices they handle from shock are the new badge of discrimination and segregation…like the Stars of David and colored triangles of Nazi Germany, or racial identifiers throughout history.

The details, great and small of this world makes the not-so-distant-future in Static Shock tangible for the reader. The social issues and concerns are contemporary, relevant, and I very much appreciated the focus given to civil rights. In addition, the author's style is fluid and clean, which allowed me to read the bulk of the story in four hours, and the interaction between Jeanne and Ran was, for the most part, believable and appropriately paced. My problem with the book lies in one particular scene with Jeanne and Ran that I found un-believable. Ran does something that I feel…based upon his behavior to that point…was very much out of character. And Jeanne’s response to it felt out of character as well. After this very short, very odd scene, they find their groove again and the relationship continues exactly as I had expected it to. If the scene had been written slightly differently, or taken out completely, I would have given this book five stars.

Jeanne is enjoyable as a beleaguered smart ass, and Ran is charming as an understated, older, wiser counterpart. Clearing Jeanne’s name of the crime she’s wanted for may be the point of their adventure, but it would be hard not to cheer on bond that forms between them along the way. Static Shock is a solid book that I believe my fellow fans of made-for-SyFy movies will enjoy.

★★★★

New Releases from Crescent Moon Press

Crescent Moon Press as three brand new releases! Covers and blurbs are below. Photos and titles are linked to Amazon. Author's names are linked to their sites. Enjoy!

Fae Dragon Chronicles: Book One, Love Chosen, by Marne Ann Kirk

For millennia, dragon and fae have peacefully co-existed, but the fae themselves have lived segregated and very different lives.

Now a malevolence threatens to separate them all permanently. Can a Queen's guard and a rebellious outlaw join forces to defeat this common enemy?

Tyler's touch sparks fierce desire, drawing Issie to him, but she despises his way of life and all that palace society represents. If he learns she wields majic to help the less fortunate escape the kingdom, he'll charge her with treason. Her punishment - death.

Issie, is a sassy rebel who is constantly looking for ways to circumvent the conventions of their society. Tyler's head warns that she's a non-majical lower, beneath him. His heart sees by her inner strength and outer beauty. Only a binding love will lend them strength to save her life - their world.

Can either of them bend enough to trust that love?

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Hellbound: Guardians of the Seven Seals, Part 2 by Berinn Rae

Everyone has monsters under their bed...

The Seven Seals are said to be all that stands between humanity’s survival and the end of days. Led by a reclusive angel, the Seven are immortals, enhanced by the marks they bear. After centuries of bloodshed, the Seven and their Guardians have brought down the nefarious Dominion. But the world isn’t safe yet. Now, a rogue hellhound is building an army to claim the Seven Seals for himself.

But what if you're one of them?

In one night, Lana Wolfe’s life was destroyed and she was reborn a walking nightmare. A year later, she dedicates her life to destroying others like her. That is, until she discovers Orion Benandanti, the Alpha of all hellhounds and host to the Third Seal. But when the hunter becomes the hunted and Orion’s Seal is put at risk, the only way to survive is for Lana to trust the man who very well may destroy her soul. Will she let him claim her—for the Seal’s protection and for a passion forged in hell’s hottest fires?

Click the link to read about Knightfall, Guardians of the Seven Seals Book 1.

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The Never Prayer by Aaron Michael Ritchey

The Fury of Heaven
The Desires of Hell

A Broken Girl
Shattered by the death of her parents, Lena knows she is not handling her sorrow well – keeping to herself, running drugs, risking her little brother. But she’ll do whatever it takes to keep her disintegrating family together.

Two Lost Souls
Lurking on the edges of the afterlife, Chael and Johnny Beels have spent centuries manipulating events, one pushing for good, the other sowing chaos. Now these two desperate souls have taken human form to play a dangerous game of hope and despair with Lena trapped in the middle.

The Ultimate Sacrifice
Lena must maneuver the shadowy realm between angel and demon, love and lust, good and evil, until she finds the courage to see the truth and make the ultimate sacrifice.

When do we struggle to change the world?
When do we let go and embrace life’s broken beauty?

My Favorite Book

I'm over at Kinley Baker's blog rambling about Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age, aka my favorite book ever. Click here to check it out!

Book Review: Season of the Harvest, by Michael R. Hicks

Season of the Harvest, by Michael R. Hicks
February 6, 2011

At a genetics lab where a revolutionary strain of wonder food crops is being developed, FBI Special Agent Jack Dawson’s best friend and fellow agent, Sheldon Crane, is brutally murdered. The killer was looking for very special seeds that Jack’s friend had taken from the lab, and tore his body apart trying to find them…

Jack is convinced that Naomi Perrault, the beautiful geneticist who leads a group of suspected eco-terrorists, is behind the murder. But when FBI agents who aren’t quite who they claim to be show up on Jack’s doorstep after a bomb devastates the FBI lab in Quantico, destroying the evidence from his friend’s murder, Naomi becomes Jack’s only hope of survival.

Framed for murder and confronted by the terrifying truth of what the genetically engineered seeds stolen by his friend are truly for, Jack joins Naomi in a desperate battle across half the globe to save humanity from extermination…

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There is a hell of a mess in Special Agent Sheldon Crane’s kitchen. Every single box, jar, bottle, and takeout container has been emptied, sifted on the counter, and wiped carelessly onto the floor. The intruder even hacked up a frozen roast looking for something very small. SA Jack Dawson is a veteran analyst with the FBI, and the question of what the perpetrator was looking for (and therefore, what has gotten his friend killed) is on his mind. But, who tossed the home weighs heavier on the agent in the moment than why, because what he sees is impossible. There are no voids in the pile of food in the kitchen, nor footprints marking how the intruder left after he was done with his search. And, this is the second crime scene he’s seen in 24 hours apparently left behind by a ghost.

Season of the Harvest begins with a prologue introducing the reader to the genetically modified food industry. For those who’ve never looked further into agriculture than the produce section of their grocery store, the seed business is a multi-billion dollar per year industry and its secrets are fiercely guarded. This fact is borne out in Season’s first chapter, which shows SA Sheldon Crane in a dire situation. Succumbing to a paralyzing neurotoxin, Crane takes measures to protect four kernels of corn he has stolen from a genetics lab, dropping them onto the repeater of his Glock’s magazine before reloading the .40 caliber rounds. He then swallows the rest of the seeds, hoping that when his pursuer find them, those in the gun will go unnoticed until the lab in Quantico, Virginia finds them in evidence.

Crane’s break-in to the lab sets off a chain reaction. The race to protect the world’s last untouched-by-science seed vault pits a small group of geniuses branded eco-terrorists against paramilitary troops employed by a genetics lab, which is in turn subsidized by the U.S. government. Led by Jack Dawson, now a rogue agent on the FBI’s Most Wanted List, and Naomi Perrault, a long missing genetics researcher, the “terrorists” take risks to discover what danger lurks in Crane’s precious kernels and stop the manufacturer before they can unleash it on an unsuspecting world.

Michael R. Hicks has an engaging style marked by tight prose and smooth verbiage well suited to the Sci-Fi Thriller genre. He builds his scenes with as few words as necessary, and while I’m not a fan of using dialog to communicate plot details, Mr. Hick’s scenes rarely seem to be forced for the reader’s benefit. The scenes transition cleanly between each other and the hand offs between Points of View (POVs) are clear. In regards to the voice, he gives each POV a distinctive voice. (The scene told by Alexander, Dawson’s cat impressed me.) Mr. Hicks is also very good about keeping his characters in character. I kept waiting for something to happen between Jack and Naomi, two people who deserve, and would benefit from, a few minutes of naughtiness, but they remain true to the genes Hicks gave them in the beginning. Jack and Naomi have pressing problems and personal issues…like exhaustion, personal baggage, and something unpleasant lurking in their underground bunker just to start.

As a sci-fi thriller, there’s a lot of action, cut into nice bite-size chunks by witty banter and scenes of key players executing their part of the storyline, from the federal officials all the way down to an amorphous mass in Naomi’s lab. Season of the Harvest, which the author says was born out of a joke made by his wife, is an entertaining, thought-provoking blend of motifs from popular commercial works, most notably the X-Files. The story reminded me of several as I progressed through it…Dan Brown’s Deception Point and the film Long Kiss Goodnight, to name just two. And I would bet a Snickers bar that Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child’s novel Relic is on Mr. Hick’s bookshelf. In addition to sharing several plot factors, Season’s first scene takes place in Lincoln, Nebraska, and has a character named “Preston.”

I enjoyed this book, and I would recommend it to any fan of made-for-Syfy disaster/creature films. And if you’re a fan of grandiose battle scenes, there’s one in this book that might impress Michael Bay.

Rating: ★★★★

Book Review: Wilde's Fire, by Krystal Wade

I'm at Ciara Knight's blog today giving my two cents on the disappointing phrase, "I just didn't love it enough." I hope you check it out, but don't go yet! (There's a link at the bottom of this post.) Here's my newest book review.

Wilde's Fire, by Krystal Wade
Noble Young Adult, 2012

Katriona Wilde has never wondered what it would feel like to have everything she's ever known and loved ripped away, but she is about to find out. When she inadvertently leads her sister and best friend through a portal into a world she's dream of for six years, she finds herself faced with more than just the frightening creatures in front of her. Kate's forced to accept a new truth: her entire life has been a lie, and those closest to her have betrayed her. What's worse, she has no control over her new future, and it's full of magic and horrors from which nightmares are made. Will Kate discover and learn to control who she really is in time to save the ones she loves, or will all be lost?

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Katriona “Kate” Wilde got home from her first year of school at Virginia Tech yesterday. It’s Memorial Day weekend and the family had plans to go camping in the Blue Ridge Mountains, same as they do every year, but this year her mother is very ill. After waking up from a nightmare about a lover named “Arlan” being brutally murdered in front of her, Kate, her sister Brittany “Brit”, and her BFF Brad go on their own. On the road together, Kate and Brit pass the time singing, but Brad is very quiet. This is his first trip back to the woods after getting very lost at the age of ten. The girls know the trail very well, but before they reach their destination (a two day hike), she has a fainting spell, a strange dream, and discovers that Brit and Brad both want to talk to her, but neither with the other around. She also notices strange gold lights, which flash in the woods, and eventually lead her to her favorite swimming hole and an underwater cave.

The three enter the mouth of the cave together and fall face first into a midnight massacre of women and children. Kate pushes her sister back into water, now a portal behind them. Brad kisses Kate, and believing they’re going to die, she kisses him back. They’re attacked; Brad is impaled by claws that go right through him. When she wakes up next, it is two days later. Brad is hanging onto life by a thread, slowly succumbing to poison for which there is no antidote. And the bed she’s been sleeping in belongs to the underground bunker’s commander, Arlan, the same man she’s seen die a thousand times over in her nightmares.

Let me talk a little bit about Arlan Maher. I don’t know what I was expecting from the hero of this book, but I really wasn’t expecting him. He’s been commanding soldiers in a bunker for years waiting for Kate Wilde to return to their world, and when she’s finally in his house, he manages to avoid being either bumbling, insecure, or obnoxiously confident. Arlan is a gentleman, a warrior, a man whose life has been defined by destiny and duty, and he’s comfortable in his own skin. His secrets are simply withheld data; they never amount to masks. Responsible for the lives of 47 people under his roof, he succeeds in protecting them with a combination of decisive action and charm. All, that is, but Kate.

In one key scene of the book, Brad has woken from his drug-induced coma after three weeks and finds Arlan and Kate locked in a steamy kiss. Brad, whose obsession with Kate has led to a delusion that they’re together, is furious that she’s betrayed him. In stark contrast to Brad, Arlan is not a child. The sunless world in which he was raised never afforded him even moments of immaturity. Though only five years older, Arlan confronts Brad with a true leader’s wisdom…stern, quiet, and fully resolved to put the kid in his place. But Kate steps in front of Arlan just as Brad throws a punch, earning a quick trip to the floor and a shiner for her trouble. Protecting her is Arlan’s foretold destiny, and given that he loves her deeply the fact that this is just one of the moments recently that she’s saved him, he questions whether he’s worthy of being her guardian.

Kate is a very naive, very innocent; twenty-years-old and never been kissed until Brad plants one while thinking they're going to die. When Kate loves someone, whatever the nature of that love, she gives with her whole heart. Looking back on her life, she remembers a boy who has been in every day of her life since grade school. Others around her see Brad's behavior differently, and while they've tried to tell her, she either misses or dismisses their concern.

Setting the manly-men problems aside, Kate is also an independent girl who doesn't like to be told what she will or will not do. People try to cover her escape; she stays behind to fight or die, which really is admirable. For a college sophomore who falls through the bottom of a river into pitch black hell, she handles the news that it’s her destiny to save this strange world rather well. What she doesn’t take well is learning all the secrets that have been kept from her, particularly the twenty-year-old betrothal to the creepy albino soldier in Arlan’s bunker. Perth serves as multitasking plot device. First, he symbolizes the complicated politics that surround Kate and the war being fought with Darkness to save what remains of humanity. Second, he’s an obstacle standing between Arlan and Kate. But there’s something about Kate’s mother, who joins her in the dark world, that makes me think that Perth will be either a big problem, or a persistent one…but not both. That’s pure speculation on my part, and speaking of that, this book left me with a lot of suspicions that I can’t wait for the sequel to answer.

Wilde’s Fire, written in first-person present tense, is a young woman's adventure into the unknown. As past tense generally serves to tell a story remembered, even when there is great conflict or danger, the reader may rely upon those verbs as assurances that the narrator pulls through…like a tight-rope walker high above a waiting safety net. But Kate’s story leads the reader blind from one moment to the next, with only her remembered nightmares of Arlan dying to hold onto for hope that they survive the unfamiliar battle they fight now. Krystal Wade truly is a hot, new talent.

Click for details.

And I hope you'll check out Ciara Knight's blog.

My Red Star Award

So, I've been devouring books lately. And like Rebecca Hamilton, a writer I very much admire for her talent, taste, and wisdom beyond her years, I round up on my star ratings, and for the same reasons she does. That's resulted in a string of 4 and 5 star ratings. (I only have time for books I think I'll like, I find them deserving of high marks.) 

One of the books left me with a feeling of euphoria. I didn't want to read another book when I was done because everything was executed so well, and the ending hook was fantastic, I wished to have the sequel in my hands right that second. Since then, I've wanted to reward this book, and its author, with special recognition. I figured why not make it my little blog thing. 

My first Red Star goes to Sean Poindexter, for The Shadows of Tiamat. 

Book Review: Ruined, by Kinley Baker

Ruined, by Kinley Baker
Crescent Moon Press, July 2011

Jessica is one healing away from death. Under the thrall of her gift, the Court’s Senior Healer risks giving her life in exchange for her patient’s.

Vale is a rebel ruler. When his brother is killed, he’s given the throne and the decree from the Court to produce an heir or lose his family’s hold on the land—and his deceiving advisors aren’t afraid to use murder as weapon if their directive to stay away from the Senior Healer goes unheeded.

But Vale burns to possess Jessa. The heat between them leaves a wake of smoke, and even the powerful forces above want to bind them forever. Vale taking another would be a betrayal neither could survive.

Their enemies fear a child born of such a powerful Healer and Warrior, but little do they know, the true threat lies in the bond forged in shadows and fused in fire.

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Jessalyn spies from the shadows while a man swims in a pond with his dog. She shouldn’t watch, she knows, but he’s beautiful, naked, and she can’t help herself. As Senior Healer in the king’s service, she knows that it’s a day of reckoning for his brother, Valerian. Their kingdom’s laws provide that the people should not go more than 45 days without a ruler on their throne, and King Zander has been missing for 44. Shortly after, the prince is summoned. His play time is over, and Jessa reluctantly returns to work.

Vale, as the rogue prince is commonly called, has labored hard his entire life to avoid responsibility, so the obligation to determine his missing brother’s fate is a heavy one. In truth, while they cared for each other, Vale and Zander were never close. The younger brother was perfectly happy being next-in-line to rule while Zander was present, healthy, and bound to have an heir sooner or later. But now, as he stands before a restricted chamber door, key in hand, he is moments from learning the king’s fate, and by default, his own.

The artifact that lies within is a massive stone fountain called The Well. Water pours into the catch pool from nine feet above, and small bubbles float in the water below. Each one holds the spark of a Shadow Shifter’s life force. The one belonging to Zander is dim. Vale is hopeful for his brother’s life, and his own freedom, only long enough to summon his sister, Arianna. Together they watch the light in their brother's bubble go out.

Jessa is then summoned to pronounce the king dead, a stark duty of her position. Afterwards, Vale gives her a letter left behind in the chamber by the king. There was one for each of them. Zander tells tells his brother that Vale is the better man. He warns his sister not to marry a certain ambitious council member under threat that he'll come back to haunt her. To Jessa, he shares a secret and an instruction to destroy the letter. The king’s siblings find it strange that their brother would confide in his doctor (presumed to have been his lover) and not them. But, as they both admit when their grief dulls a bit, they didn’t know their brother any better than they knew him. On the other hand, Jessa was Zander's closest friend.

As in nearly any case when a balance of power shifts suddenly, there’re people cranking their brains to finds ways to take advantage of the situation, and there is no rest for the wicked in this kingdom. In motion are plans to marry, depose, and kill Vale before the guy has a moment to remember that he left his dog by the pond.

Unlike Vale, who can transport his body through shadows, Lady ran the whole way home in the rain. (Poor soaked dear!) It's a pretty little metaphor for the abrupt shift in the prince's life; he's made a leap into a dangerous arena, while the casual life he prefers remains behind with his dog.

Adding to Vale’s concerns about becoming king, and Jessa’s about her job security, they both have a great deal of lust for each other. They are both also under the mistaken impression that the other doesn't share their feelings. Their dance around each other dominates the first half of the book, and I was reminded of Benedict and Beatrice from Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing.” Jessa and Vale are intelligent, strong, even stubborn characters who flirt with denials and snark. Vale resists his desire, as getting it on with his dead brother’s mistresses is against his own rules. Jessa interprets his blundering attempts at avoiding temptation to be disdain for her. She has a less than innocent reputation, after all, and since clearing up the misunderstanding would actually cause her greater scandal than being a whore, she lives with the shadow. For her part, she resists temptation to spare Vale the same scrutiny that Zander faced during their acquaintance. Vale just doesn't know what to do with the thought of a woman who doesn't want him and fires her on more than one occasion, regretting the move each time. Finally, when Vale learns the truth, that she loves him…always has, and always would, he knows he'll never be with another woman.

Of course, when you see the word "never" in fiction, it usually indicates a conflict brewing. And what's a romance without something tearing the lead couple apart. In Ruined, that something is a heavy, multi-dimensional obstacle.

Ruined is a quick, buttery-smooth read, from a talented writer, and the execution of drawn-out sexual tension is one of the best that I've read in last twenty years. Bypassing this book would be a shame. Also, there's a sequel coming.

Rating: ★★★★★

Book Review: Stealing Breath, by Joanne Brothwell

Stealing Breath, by Joanne Brothwell
Crescent Moon Press, March 2012

Deep in the backwoods of North Dakota, twenty–one year old Sarah Ross is searching for a missing child when she is attacked by a glowing–eyed, transparent... creature. Sarah survives, destroying the monster by using mysterious abilities she didn’t even know she had.

Bloody and bruised, Sarah flees the scene and runs directly into Evan Valente, a handsome, charismatic stranger who helps her back to safety. But what is Evan doing out in the forest at five in the morning?

Turning to a healer, Sarah is shocked to learn her eyes bear the mark of the Indigo Child—an evolved human with the ability to feel the emotions of others. But her indigo aura also makes her an easy target for those who wish to consume her powerful essence.

Soon, Sarah is falling deeply in love with Evan and wants nothing more than to follow her heart and trust that he is the man he says he is. But she can't ignore the lingering feeling that Evan is hiding a terrible secret. The deeper she digs, the more danger she faces, leading her on a course that will force her to face the darkest, innermost parts of her soul.

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Sarah Ross is an empath. She can feel the emotions of other people near her as if they are her own. In fear of being misunderstood, she doesn’t talk about it ever. On one summer day, while partying camping with friends, she wakes to a child’s cry for help. The news has been reporting for days that a ten-year-old girl is missing from the Native American reservation, so Sarah ventures into the woods calling out Jessica’s name. But as she gets further into the woods, the tone of the voice changes from fearful to taunting. She walks into a clearing to find an abandoned house, ravaged by elements and drunk teenagers. She follows the voice inside, up the stairs, and falls through weak wood. It’s while injured that she is confronted by something she can’t explain. It’s human-ish, transparent and shimmery, like a mirage, with eyes like yellow bile. And when it touches her, she feels yucky and suffocated. Reacting on instinct, she pushes the foreign feelings out, and the creature retreats.

She stumbles out of the house and runs into the owner of the property, a gorgeous specimen of male with dark hair and blue eyes, named Evan Valente. He helps her back to his SUV, patches her up and returns her to her friends. Sarah cannot read him the way she does most other people, but she feels a connection with him the moment they touch.

Sarah learns through her native friend’s mother, and the woman’s contacts on the reservation, that the thing that attacked her was actually a person. The Navajo, they say, have people called Skinwalkers who practice dark magic and who use it for astral projection. In their disembodied state, they seek out souls to consume, which increases their power. The natives have known that Skinwalkers are in their town for a while. They are certain that the intruders are responsible for the disappearances of the missing girl and her mother. They believe that Sarah, who they call “The Indigo Child” for the violet glow of her spirit, is their next target.

While Sarah finds the information hard to believe, Evan is incredibly receptive, which gives her the confidence to tell him things she normally wouldn’t tell anyone. But he’s more than he seems to be…which could be taken for granted given he’s tall, dark, handsome, and the object of affection in a paranormal novel. He’s not in Slave Lake to develop land, as he claims. Nor was his presence at his woodland property during Sarah’s attack a coincidence. However, Sarah’s challenge with Evan isn’t coming to terms with these deceptions. Her wealthy Italian hottie from Navajo country has dangerous secrets lurking in deep, dark places. Despite them all, she’ll have to trust him if she plans to go on breathing.

I found the concept behind Stealing Breath very intriguing. The extraordinary power in this story, while having a magical component, is untapped human potential. Some characters are taught magic to wield power, but others are drawing upon energies naturally, instinctively, and even obliviously. The connection between Sarah and Evan is palpable, particularly in my favorite scene of the book, where he dives off a bridge, catches her and rolls into the water below. At a time when she thought she couldn’t trust him, the moment she feels his arms around her, she knows without thinking that she was safe. And if you read books for sex and fights, the author has included several scenes that bring down the house. I actually mean that literally.

This book has much going for it, but there were a few things that I found distracting from the story. For one, the author uses conversation in many places where it gets underfoot. Another, the pacing of the revelations is rather quick. I’m a fan of slow reveals, so I preferred to be strung along a bit. These are both personal preference; other readers may not share it.

Otherwise, Joanne Brothwell has woven an intriguing story using Native American and Italian folk tales, and set her characters up nicely for a sequel.

Rating: ★★★★

A Busy Week at Crescent Moon Press

Crescent Moon Press released three new books this week, as well as a print version of one released last month. The covers and blurbs are below!

The Summerland, by Elizabeth Cheryl

When Abigail Parker moves to Salem, Massachusetts, with her Aunt Bridgette, nothing makes sense from the moment she arrives. A familiar but unknown voice whispers words of reassurance. Her aunt's behavior is confusing at best.

When Bridgette's gravely injured, Abigail desperately seeks help from a spell book she found in her closet. But something goes terribly wrong. Abbey is hurtled three centuries backward in time.landing in a vastly different Salem.

It's summertime 1692 - the infamous witch trials are in full swing and Abigail's sporting pink nail polish and a tattoo. Abigail finds William, the source of the familiar voice and something much more. However, she must return to modern Salem to retrieve the spell book.

Can she do so in time to save her family and without exposing herself to accusations of witchcraft? Most importantly, how does she leave when she's just finding love?

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Stealing Breath, by Joanne Brothwell

Deep in the backwoods of North Dakota, twenty–one year old Sarah Ross is searching for a missing child when she is attacked by a glowing–eyed, transparent... creature. Sarah survives, destroying the monster by using mysterious abilities she didn’t even know she had.

Bloody and bruised, Sarah flees the scene and runs directly into Evan Valente, a handsome, charismatic stranger who helps her back to safety. But what is Evan doing out in the forest at five in the morning?

Turning to a healer, Sarah is shocked to learn her eyes bear the mark of the Indigo Child—an evolved human with the ability to feel the emotions of others. But her indigo aura also makes her an easy target for those who wish to consume her powerful essence.

Soon, Sarah is falling deeply in love with Evan and wants nothing more than to follow her heart and trust that he is the man he says he is. But she can't ignore the lingering feeling that Evan is hiding a terrible secret. The deeper she digs, the more danger she faces, leading her on a course that will force her to face the darkest, innermost parts of her soul.

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Static Shock, by Eilis Flynn

Can you live without your computer? Can you wear a watch? Do you know anyone who can't?

In a time not long from now, there are people whose life paths are determined by such simple details. Legally recognized as electromagnetics, or "Readers", they are a twist in evolution, an anomaly in a society that has become technologically dependent. Considered second-class citizens because of their heightened electromagnetic fields, Readers can't wear watches, get too close to a TV, or even drive for fear they will shut down the car's electrical system. Computers become worthless doorstops quickly around Readers. Career prospects are limited.

Reader Jeanne Muir decides to expand her horizons when she's unexpectedly offered a new job opportunity. But she hasn't been told that her job description includes being framed for a crime she didn't commit. Because Readers are not held in high esteem, Jeanne's an easy scapegoat, and law enforcement definitely is not on her side. Knowing she was set up and the odds are against her, Jeanne can't let herself be taken in-and risks asking mysterious, sexy Ran Owata, a fellow Reader who is no longer accepted among their kind, for help. The problem is: Can she trust him? Does she have a choice?

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Perpetual Light, by Jordan K. Rose

Fate is cruel. Especially when the one you've sworn to love for all eternity, the very soul who changed your destiny, is the last person you should trust.

After more than three hundred years of running, Lucia Dicomano must make a choice.

Forced to take her place as a Pharo of Redemption, the divine slayer needs to master her forgotten powers. Lucia turns to Vittorio, the one vampire she's failed to deliver from eternal damnation. But overcoming smoldering remnants of love, lust and anger aren't their only obstacles.

Samuel, who may know Lucia better than she knows herself, hunts her with a fervor stoked by a thousand years of vengeful hatred. His plan-capture and enslave the weakened Pharo then take control of her elusive power.

Can Lucia trust Vittorio long enough to reclaim her powers? Or will she have no choice but to kill him and battle Samuel alone?

Perpetual Light, by Jordan K. Rose, was released on February 26th, but the print edition went live today on Amazon.

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And finally, a new cover reveal!

Fae Dragon Chronicles: Book One, Love Chosen, by Marne Ann Kirk

For millennia, dragon and fae have peacefully co-existed, but the fae themselves have lived segregated and very different lives.

Now a malevolence threatens to separate them all permanently. Can a Queen's guard and a rebellious outlaw join forces to defeat this common enemy?

Tyler's touch sparks fierce desire, drawing Issie to him, but she despises his way of life and all that palace society represents. If he learns she wields majic to help the less fortunate escape the kingdom, he'll charge her with treason. Her punishment - death.

Issie, is a sassy rebel who is constantly looking for ways to circumvent the conventions of their society. Tyler's head warns that she's a non-majical lower, beneath him. His heart sees by her inner strength and outer beauty. Only a binding love will lend them strength to save her life - their world.

Can either of them bend enough to trust that love?

Have I mentioned recently that I love my publisher already? No...well, I do.

Book Review: The Curse of Gremdon, by Ciara Knight

The Curse of Gremdon, by Ciara Knight
Crescent Moon Press, December 18, 2011

In a world where marriage is forbidden, sex is only granted to male warriors, and the outer realm is full of murderous creatures, Arianna fights to protect the life of her only living relative, her brother.

Tardon, an elite warrior, is granted anything he desires by the Elders, but finds little joy in the voluptuous women presented to him. Born for the bloodlust found only in battle, complicated emotions emerge when he discovers his equal in the alluring warrior, Arianna.

Charged by the Elders with saving the castle from attack, Tardon and Arianna risk the curse when they traverse the vast outer realm to retrieve serum from the Tree of Life. If successful, the Elders have promised Tardon the right to marry and Arianna the cure for her brother’s death fever. Will their love carry them through or will the discovery of a great deception be their ultimate demise?

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“A society that will trade a little liberty for a little order will lose both, and deserve neither.”

Those words were spoken two centuries ago by American founding father, Thomas Jefferson. (Or Benjamin Franklin. Depends on who you ask.) It popped into my head several times as I read The Curse of Gremdon. The first time was when Tardon, a celebrated warrior, was condemned to burn at the stake for a small carnal act. The Elders allow him moments of release, but this wasn’t a designated time and Arianna was never intended to be a “gift.” In fact, the female warriors aren’t permitted sex at all. He claims responsibility for the incident, as he was the one who initiated, but the people believe that she bewitched him. Tardon stares down his fellow warriors as a vicious mob demands that Arianna burn as well, and he tells them, “These are the people we fight for.”

The question implied in his statement is clear: Are these people worthy of the risks they take? The answer is not so clear.

The kingdom depicted in The Curse of Gremdon is a harsh, cold place. Fog covers their skies most days. There are no small animals or abundance of plant life. Sex is forbidden to all but the male warriors, who earn these gifts by performing well in battle. Marriage is an exceedingly rare privilege. There are no children. The people have few choices. They may train to earn status among the warriors that guard the walls. They may provide a function for society, such as keeping shops or healing the sick. They may please deserving warriors. If they cannot, or will not, do one of these things, they starve in the streets of the inner court. Some rot in the dungeon. Others are tossed in fire pits. Every breath of their lives is spied by a council of Elders, who have laid down inflexible laws that are strictly enforced. As most of the citizens were children when their families sought refuge within the walls, they grew up grateful to the mysterious Elders and repay their debt with obedience.

What laws would you break to protect your family? To be with your lover? To save his/her life? What would you sacrifice to cure your sibling’s illness? To protect your heart from breaking? What would you risk to defend your people from a terror that lurks beyond your borders? What if those people didn’t deserve it?

These are just some of the questions that the author asks her leads to answer. Arianna and Tardon are two disciplined warriors who demonstrate a willingness to burn before lying, to die so the other may live. Naturally, the Elders find their devotion to each other threatening. And useful.

At its heart, Gremdon revolves around the illicit romance between Arianna and Tardon, but it’s built on a complex skeleton of illusion, lies, and pent-up lust. Nothing in the story is what it seems, from the very first scene, when Tardon discretely throws a sword fight, letting Arianna (and the Elder who was judging her) believe that she beat him. From then on, there were only two things that I was certain of as I read the book.

One, Arianna so loves Tardon that if he were mortally wounded, she would cut her heart out of her chest and shove it into his if there was a .1% chance the gesture would save his life.

Two, the Elders were bad guys. They may have saved the people of the kingdom, sheltered them in their castle, and kept them alive all those years, but nothing benevolent asks for so much simply because they can. And as the story progresses, the Elders’ price goes up.

The Curse of Gremdon is a tense, frustrating, heart wrenching romance, set in a fully realized world whose barriers against a zombie-apocalypse are weakening. In a world where hopeless people are surviving on instinct, Arianna and Tardon are bright, rebellious stars, with the strength and temerity to fight for their freedom, and everyone else’s too…whether or not their service is truly appreciated.

Ciara, please tell me there’s a sequel.

Rating: ★★★★★