Alpha Heroes

Primal Mirror, by Nalini Singh - Review

noreply@blogger.com (Nicola O.) — Wed, 24 Jul 2024 05:04:00 +0000

Title: Primal Mirror

Series: Psy-Changeling Trinity, #8

Author: Nalini Singh

Publisher: Berkley

Release Date: July 23, 2024

Reviewing: eARC via Netgalley

Reason for reading: As always, author love, series love

The Short Answer

This installment of the series resolves the Spider arc, as well as the recent arc of crisis in the PsyNet, although it's likely that future books will deal with political fallout and some world-rebuilding. Character-wise, we get a new feline pack, with ties to DarkRiver and a few attendant cameos. I enjoyed the romance but I think the freaky plot stole the show, which is unusual for me. Still, four stars.

The Blurb

New York Times bestselling author Nalini Singh takes us into a family dark with shadowy secrets, as the world of the Psy teeters on the edge of a final catastrophic collapse. . .

Daughter of two ruthless high-Gradient telepaths, Auden Scott is not the child her Psy parents wanted or expected, even before her brain injury. Her thoughts are scattered, her memories fuzzy—or just terrifyingly blank. The only thing she knows for certain is that she must protect her unborn baby . . . a baby she has no recollection of conceiving and who draws an unnerving depth of interest from her dead mother’s closest associates.

Leopard alpha Remi Denier is a man driven by the primal instinct to protect. Protect his pack, protect his allies . . . and protect the mysterious woman who has become a most unlikely neighbor. With eerie eyes that see too much and a scent that alters in ways disturbing and impossible, Auden Scott is the enemy . . . but nothing about this strange Psy is what it seems, and Remi’s feline heart is as fascinated by her as his human half.

Then Auden asks Remi to help her shatter the wall of secrets that is the Scott bloodline. What they unearth will reveal a nightmare beyond imagination. This time, the battle is to the death. . .

A Personal Aside

In some ways, perhaps it's fitting that my return to the blogosphere is inspired by Nalini Singh. Many years ago, I won an ARC of Hostage to Pleasure. Nearly a year into blogging - well past the average lifespan of a blog in those days; and not my first exposure to the Psy-Changelings, it WAS my first ARC, and also the beginning of so many things for this blog. So hopefully this will also be a new beginning of sorts. I've been reading like a madwoman lately and it's possible that I have some Things To Say. More on that in future posts.

The Plot- Some Good, Some Meh

My first priority in any paranormal romance, is, well, the romance. The characters. But just by the nature of the plot here, Auden's character was a little hard to pin down. The Psy in the Psy-Changeling series have always had a certain alignment to some of the ways that autism spectrum disorder can commonly manifest, and over the years, Singh's bravery in making these challenges more explicit and inclusive has grown, perhaps starting with Last Guard, where Canto is confined to a wheelchair and Payal has a brain tumor disorder which requires both medication and (admittedly fictional) behavioral management.

The plot of this book is a little difficult to discuss without spoilering. There are a few pieces that come together, some from very early in the series, and some from the last 10 percent of Storm Echo. Still, the realization of the horror that is being inflicted on Auden unfolds slowly, at least it did for me. Given the readers' knowledge of prior books, we figure out what is happening before Auden and Remi do, but the plot device of her dual scent gives them a critical clue.

Ever since the fall of Silence, at the intersection of the original series and the Trinity "chapter two" books, there has been an instability in the PsyNet which threatens the survival of all the Psy. In Last Guard, the Anchor designation is introduced and their unification with each other and with the Ruling Coalition provide some new defenses against the ongoing failures, but even so, the destabilization accelerates. Readers who have been finding this arc to be dragging on a bit will find a resolution in this book, as the original PsyNet finally fails.

Without spoilering, I think it's safe to say this is not the end of the series. Therefore, fans can reasonably expect to learn more about how the Psy will survive their next evolution in future books... and that a significant portion of the population survives.

I will say that I did not love how this problem was solved. Given all the buildup and the hopelessness that was created over multiple books, I found that the way the salvation hinged on something that to me seemed very very small. I think I would have preferred to see the "new way" built up for a bit of time before the primary PsyNet failed utterly. On the other hand, my history teacher used to paraphrase the Constitution thus: "While evils are sufferable, men will suffer," meaning that well, change is hard. The devil you know, etc. So perhaps its believable that the failsafe could not be activated until the primary net had...failed.

The Characters

When I turned the last page of this book, I had that happy glow that I always get from this series. This is a couple that fights hard for their Happily Ever After, that overcomes an exceptionally creepy and horrifying villain - this is a very personal and amped up villainy compared to say, Payal's horrible family in Last Guard. Ming Le Bon aspired to this level of evil.

Have to say I absolutely loved Remi's character progression, as he takes on more and more of the business of building his pack and becoming a good alpha. Absolutely loved it. I especially enjoyed the mentorship he was getting from Lucas; and factors like the delicacy of pack members moving from one pack to another. At the beginning of the story, Remi is a rising star, coming into his power, but still something of a junior player.

Auden on the other hand, enters the story on the verge of collapse. Pregnant, suffering from memory loss, blackouts, what might be conventionally described as psychotic breaks or possibly even schizophrenia, she doesn't trust herself. Remi's protective instincts are triggered, and as he strives to protect the woman and unravel the mystery of her illness, they catch feelings despite the timing being the worst ever.

I would say this isn't my most favorite couple in the P-C universe. Maybe I was just reading extra fast to get to the bottom of the villainous fuckery. Maybe Auden's struggle made their connection a little less believable for me (possibly a mental illness bias on my part that could stand some examination?). I felt like the emotional connection was less intense than what I usually get from the series, but I'm calling that a 4-star rather my usual 5-star rating*. This is not a disappointment of a book. I think it's incredible that we are 23 books into this series, not counting novellas, and I for one am still loving it. That is one hell of an accomplishment. Don't stop, Nalini!

Connections
Possible spoiler alert: If you enjoyed the speculative sci-fi elements of this story, I would recommend The Echo Wife, by Sarah Gailey. If you look up even the plot description, it will be a bit of a spoiler for Primal Mirror, but AFTER you've read Primal Mirror, if you liked it, go read this title, then tell me what you think.

*Most of the time I don't do star ratings. Too much pressure. But if I did, this series would be a whole long string of 5-stars.

Measuring Up!

noreply@blogger.com (Nicola O.) — Sun, 06 Jun 2021 23:47:00 +0000

This is a thinly disguise brag post.

OK, it's not actually disguised.

Earlier this year, I saw a link to "The 27 Greatest Romance Novels to Read in Your Lifetime". OMG that's a hilarious title. The hubris! And yet, it was irresistible. I popped it into my "saved" articles on Facebook and just got around to reading it. Honestly, it's a great list! Here's the article, and here's my editorializing:

1. Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen. OK, it's like a law that you have to include this one in any romance list that claims to be canonical. I have tried more than once to get through this book and I just can. not. even. Basically I can only relate to the buffoonish father who wants nothing to do with society stuff and then I fall asleep. It's a no for me.

2. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. I saw a snip of a PBS production when I was in middle school and fascinated by all things miserable, so I did manage to read this one. But I was like 11 and I didn't really get it. Nor was I ever tempted to read it again. So yes, but also no.

3. Shanna by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss. YAAAAAAASSSS. I actually re-read this somewhat recently and could have sworn that I reviewed it here. Ah, good intentions. This was literally the first romance I read that wasn't a category. Be still my heart. Yes, yes, and again yes.

4. Morning Glory by LaVyrle Spencer. Oh yes. I went through a BIG LaVyrle Spencer phase, in real time when she was publishing. I agree this is the best of a really wonderful oevre. YES she deserves a pretentious French word.

5. Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase. Yes yes. So many good titles, but hard to go wrong with one that includes the heroine shooting the hero right in the first few chapters.

6. Indigo, by Beverly Jenkins. Not yet. I have a couple of Jenkins titles on my TBR and this is definitely high up there.

7. The Viscount Who Loved Me, by Julia Quinn. Yep, Uh huh. Early readers of Alpha Heroes may recall several discussions of the whole Bridgerton series (here's the best overview), BEFORE Netflix and Shonda Rhimes got on board. (I mean, Netflix was mailing DVDs out at the time, remember that?)

8. Delaney's Desert Sheikh, by Brenda Jackson. I have not read this one. A 30 book series you say? Hmmmmmm. Dare I? Certainly worth considering.

9. Dark Lover, by JR Ward. Oh hell yes. There are no less than 35 articles on this blog tagged with JR Ward, so uh, yeah. Yeah.

10. Bet Me, by Jennifer Crusie. Yep. Another favorite here at Alpha Heroes, and this title is often considered her best.

11. A Hunger Like No Other by Kresley Cole. This is the second book in the IAD series, but the first full-length one. I do like this series though I will admit that I am not 100% caught up. Hot sex, lots of mythology-based worldbuilding, and laugh-out-loud humor, this series is a yes from me.

12. Slave to Sensation, by Nalini Singh. At this point, I'm thinking I need to call up the author of the article because we should be best friends. I love this series so hard and I'm still loving it. Fun fact, Hostage to Pleasure, the 5th book in this series, was the first ARC I ever got, reviewed here on the blog.

13. Devil In Winter, by Lisa Kleypas. OK yes, but with caveats - I know I've read this one but I don't really remember it. This doesn't mean a lot because there are hundreds of romances that I've read over the years and don't much remember. This is definitely a reader favorite but it didn't stand out that much to me personally. Maybe I should try a re-read.

14. Vision in White, by Nora Roberts. Yes, I'm a Nora Roberts junkie. This is a lovely, super-duper extra romantic quartet. So, yes.

15. Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake, by Sarah Maclean. I'm a little on the fence for this one. I really admire Sarah Maclean's voice of advocacy for the genre, but I've tried a few of her books, including this one, and they just didn't grab me that hard. Maybe? I feel like I could give this author another shot, idk.

16. The Duchess War, by Courtney Milan. Oh hell yes. I even forced my slightly-snooty litfic-leaning bookclub to read this one. Chess champion heroine and reformist duke hero? I repeat, oh hell yes.

17. The Magpie Lord by KJ Charles. In general, I am a little meh on m/m romance. I picked up a different title by the same author and remain a little meh. This author is much beloved, so I can't argue with the rec, but it's not for me.

18. Tangled by Emma Chase. No idea! maybe I should try. It's a contemporary billionaire trope which I'm so/so on, but I won't rule it out.

19. Glitterland, by Alexis Hall. Yes! This is a tear-you-up, rip-your-heart-out romance. A big part of my "meh" for m/m romance sub-genre stems from the fact that a lot of its early start was erotic m/m written by women, and seemingly for women. Much of it lacked authenticity and like a wallpaper historical, felt like a hetero romance with an extra penis and coming-out-of-the-closet angst for conflict (not to minimize those emotions- in this context I'm saying it felt rote). Not so with this book. Authentic and emotionally devastating. Big big yes from me.

20. Ante Up by Christina C. Jones. Not so far. Based on the track record of this list though, I might have to check it out.

21. An Extraordinary Union, by Alyssa Cole. Very much yes. Not going to lie, this is a tough read. Back in the 80s when I was really diving into romance, the (American) Civil War setting were really appealing to me. Mostly Gone With the Wind inspired, they were all about genteel white southern women surviving the war. This one is... definitely not that. It pulls no punches about what slavery was like. An engrossing, important read that is also an amazing romance with an unforgettable heroine. Definitely yes.

22. Acting on Impulse, by Mia Sosa. I haven't read this one. I did read "The Worst Best Man," which got rave reviews, but I thought it was just OK. I couldn't put my finger on what didn't work for me though. I guess I'll say I'm on the fence for this title, but it's not high on my list.

23. Hate to Want You by Alisha Rai. Yes yes! The article incorrectly refers to this book as Rai's debut, which it is not. Rai has a number of erotic titles that precede this trilogy. The Hate To books are Rai's debut with Avon though, and they are STEAMY. Come for the diversity and that GORGEOUS cover, but stay for the off-the-charts chemistry. Oh yeah.

24. Long Shot by Kennedy Ryan. Meh. I'm not big on New Adult or sports romance, so I'm not feeling super inspired by this one. Call it a "probably not."

25. The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang. Definitely yes! often called the "reverse Pretty Woman" story, with a hired-escort hero and a wealthy, non-neurotypical heroine. A truly lovely and tender romance. (I reviewed this for RT in 2018 and rated it a Top Pick). Yes from me!

26. Red, White & Royal Blue, by Casey McQuiston. Surprise, yes! despite my usual meh on m/m, this was a delightful fantasy about two princes - one literal, one American - navigating an enemies-to-lovers relationship in the public spotlight. Imagined in a near-future where gay relationships are a little more common but still politically delicate, the characters make this one sing. So -- yes.

27. A Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics, by Olivia Waite. Uh. I read this for a bookclub but I honestly don't remember a thing about it. I didn't hate it. Most of the bookclub enjoyed it. I hate to end the list on a whimper but here we are.

So if you're following along, that's 19 read, 3 probably not, 4 maybes, and 1 definite need to read.

What do you think of this list?

Coastal Magic 2022, Yes Please!

noreply@blogger.com (Nicola O.) — Thu, 03 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Hey everybody! Have you missed book cons? I have. SO MUCH!! Between COVID, and some personal stuff, and the demise of RT, it's been A REALLY LONG TIME since I've been to a book con. I had two of them scheduled for 2020, and of all the things that I didn't get to do last year, those really hurt. Even so, this year still feels a bit too soon for crowded cons. But next year? Yeah.... next year...

So I'm crossing my fingers, and making a plan to head to THE BEACH next February for COASTAL MAGIC'S TENTH ANNIVERSARY CONFERENCE. Did I mention BEACH? in FEBRUARY? And BOOKS? Yeah. Sign me up.

Literally, you can now sign up! Check out the many-splendored Featured Author listing to see the fantastic lineup. These authors span a variety of genres, and whether they’re auto-buy faves already, or “new to you” authors just waiting to become your next binge read, there’s something for just about everyone.

I haven't been to CMC before, but I'm jumping in this year -- the 10th anniversary, how cool is that? ANNND I am ridiculously pleased to have been asked to be a Featured Blogger (I hope they'll be gentle with me). So, I’ll be doing monthly author spotlights with a few of these amazing writers (my fellow Featured Bloggers will be doing some, as well, so be sure you’re following each of us, and you won’t miss any!) This is going to be a fantastic way to get to know the authors a bit BEFORE our weekend together. I just miiiiiiiiiiiiiiight be reprising my #5Words game with some fresh blood... uh, I mean, new players. Yeah, new players. We'll see if they are up for the challenge!

You can check out the website at http://CoastalMagicConvention.com if you want to learn a little more about the event. Things will update as new information is released between now and next February. You can also join the Facebook Authors & Attendees group if you’d like to interact with some of the authors and other readers you might see there.

If reading challenges (either on your own or with a group) are your thing, there’s a group for that!! With a suggested schedule of reading, planned author interactions, points to earn and prizes to win, our Reading Challenge group is definitely the place to be. You can read all about how the challenge works on the website, HERE! Also hit up the website for all the usual social media suspects!

The Promised Queen, by Jeffe Kennedy - Review

noreply@blogger.com (Nicola O.) — Tue, 25 May 2021 05:17:00 +0000

Title: The Promised Queen
Series: The Forgotten Empires (book 3)

Author: Jeffe Kennedy
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Release Date: May 25, 2021
Reviewing: e-ARC via NetGalley
Reason for reading: Love this author

The Short Answer:
The Promised Queen caps off a trilogy of fresh, engrossing worldbuilding. Eschewing the sea of vampires and shifters, Kennedy reaches into the mythology of earth magic and shapes it into something vital, feminine, and powerful. The romance is positively gravitational between the protagonists -- slow, inexorable, profound, unbreakable. Highly recommend - but start at the beginning of the trilogy.

The Blurb:

Claim the hand that wears the ring, and the empire falls.

Conrí, former Crown Prince of Oriel, claimed the hand that wears the Abiding Ring, but the prophecy remains unfulfilled. Queen Euthalia of Calanthe returned to her island kingdom, but broken in mind and body. With the blood of war unleashing ancient terrors, Calanthe isn’t the haven it once was. Lia must use her magical bond with Calanthe to save their people while Con fights to hold off the vengeful Emperor Anure and his wizards. Con and Lia will have to trust in each other—and in love—to fend off ultimate disaster.

In The Promised Queen, the thrilling finale to the Forgotten Empires trilogy, the fate of the world hangs in the balance as Con, Lia, and their allies sacrifice everything in a final bid to destroy the corrupt empire.

More Details:

I am longtime fan of Jeffe Kennedy's, across the several genres in which she writes. When I first started blogging, I received an ARC for a fantasy romance, and that's when I realized the it's a) an under-represented subgenre and b) I love it a lot. Since then of course, more authors have come along but I think there's a reluctance among SFF authors to take on the Romance mantle as well, for reasons that should be obvious. Not Kennedy. Ever since publishing The Mark of the Tala in 2014, she's been penning traditional swords-and-sorcery fantasy WITH all the things romance readers demand -- deep emotional engagement, fiery characters, and a happily-ever-after. The Promised Queen follows a newer format with a traditional SFF trilogy carrying the plot-driven conflict, and a romance the spans the three books. I want to be clear: I AM HERE FOR THAT. This book realizes the HEA, but it takes all three books, so know that going in.

Now. I love the Twelve Kingdoms series and its several spinoffs. A lot. But this new trilogy -- it's crisper, it's fresher, and it absolutely sings. Kennedy takes on something like the Land King myth, where the prosperity of the land is tied to the health of its ruler, and breathes new, feminine life and imagination into it. When The Orchid Crown opens, the world is under the thumb of a ruthless and evil conqueror Anure. He has stripped the lands of their rightful rulers, taking their places in attempt to harvest the power they are entitled to, with the help of some wizards in the tradition of Arthur's Merlin.

Euthalia still rules her own land, but the sword of her betrothal to Anure hangs over her head and that of her domain. There's an expiration date on her freedom, but she's become an expert at extending it. Here's where the worldbuilding is so cool: her magic, her very physiology, is entwined not only metaphorically with the land, but also literally. She is a bit alien, a bit weird, and Kennedy doesn't shy away from exploring some aspects that defy conventional definitions of beauty. (There is also some cool stuff to explore here around how image and façade might enhance your power, but comes at a cost).

Traditional SFF are often coming-of-age stories, with young protagonists who grow into their powers and agency, whether they are political, realistic, or magical, over the course of the story. In fact, I think a large percentage of fantasy published before 2010 or so would be considered YA if they were published today. What I absolutely LOVE about many fantasy romances is that the protagonists discover magical, political, and sexual potency in a big beautiful tangle of emotion and drama, all the while taking down the bad guys. This trilogy delivers on all of that and I can't get enough.

As the final book in a trilogy, The Promised Queen needs to deliver on three books' worth of tension building. There are three books' worth of skirmishes, torture and atrocities to resolve. And when I was thinking about how to discuss that resolution, it occurred to me that the showdown scenes happened kind of fast. In term of page time, it was about three chapters in the third book, so arguably only three out something like 75 chapters. That's not much. Is it enough?

One of the answers that came to me is that it's often the case in real life when there is something terrifying, monstrous, mountainous, that seems impossible to overcome. We might spend 60 chapters or so trying to figure out how to delay the inevitable, to hold on to the tenuous peace we have rather than risk the treacherous journey to the other side. But then, when we get that push, when the fuse is lit, it turns out that maybe that mountain, while not exactly a molehill, is not actually a match for our own efforts, once we put our mind to it.

Another answer is this: maybe it doesn't have to be so goddamn bloody and gory. Maybe we don't need a Red Wedding. Maybe we don't need an army of orcs. Maybe a gentler, cleverer, more magical way can be just as effective. And where the romance part of the fantasy romance comes in, crushing the bad guys into oblivion is not the only barrier to Euthalia and Conri's happiness: there is also emotional work to be done. And the resolution of these obstacles is just as satisfying and probably even more wrenching.

As a longtime reader, I can say Kennedy's worldbuilding chops keep getting better and better, more original and yet true to the best traditions of both the fantasy and the romance genres, and all executed flawlessly. When she's describing costumes, jewelry, architecture, landscape, or people, imagery leaps vividly to mind. The pacing is on point. Secondary characters fairly pull at the leash to get their own arc, but never distract. And the emotional pull always delivers. If you've read the first two books, you don't need my endorsement to go get this one, it's probably already preordered. But if you were waiting to get an idea of how good the whole trilogy is... well, now you know. Go get it.

Thursday Thirteen, Edition 38

noreply@blogger.com (Nicola O.) — Fri, 02 Oct 2020 04:23:00 +0000

So, 2020, amirite? fffffff*ck.

Anyway, it's Thursday and I've been pondering what a winter quarantine is going to look like and thinking back over the last few months, and thought I would put down some Thoughts. I've learned a few new things, and others I already knew and I'm doubling down.

Thirteen Things I've Learned from Quarantine

1. Everyone thinks they are being VERY careful. Even though there's a huge range of how people have adapted to the pandemic. Everyone is sure they are being just careful enough, and everyone else is either crazy over the top or crazy irresponsible. But if you're at a public, indoor location without a mask, be aware that I am judging the FUCK out of you.

2. Bras are not as necessary as I always thought.

3. I'm working full time, 100% remote, and without the judgment of co-workers, I am perfectly happy to wear the same 3 pairs of pants pretty much indefinitely.

4. I never liked getting take-out. If I'm going to leave the house and pay restaurant prices, I want to eat there. I have learned that I am right about this. Take-out might be better than cooking, but it's a distant second to dining out. I really miss restaurant dining. #doubledown

5. You can get used to on-line meetings. I may never love them, but they are a reasonable second-choice to in-person.

6. I have tested the limits of inactivity and have found that yes, even I crave some minimum amount of physical activity.

7. If I'm going to be on camera, I should put on some lipstick. Mom was right.

8. But not if I'm going somewhere, because masks+lipstick are not good.

9. Contemporary romcoms pair best with the apocalypse, for me anyway. I have re-named the genre "pre-apocalyptic fantasy."

10. I don't actually need to go to Target every week.

11. The pleasure of an old-fashioned phone call. I'm still stupidly reluctant to take a call or to "dial" someone up. But after an awkward minute or two, it all just flows and I wonder why I'm being so weird about it.

12. You know how so many people are taking up cooking and breadmaking? I still don't enjoy cooking. #doubledown

13. Putting away laundry the same day it comes out of the dryer. Now that I'm home all the time, there's no reason not to-- yeah no, just kidding, I still don't do that.

Thursday Thirteen, Edition 37

noreply@blogger.com (Nicola O.) — Thu, 30 Jan 2020 21:45:00 +0000

I think it's 37, anyway. We'll go with it.

Here it is Thursday again and I'm going to squeak in under the January wire with 13 books I'm looking forward to this year! A lot of these are series-oriented, because once you start a good series, half the fun is the anticipation for the next book. Without further ado, here is the list:

2020's Thirteen Most Anticipated Books:

Crush the King, Jennifer Estep: the first two books in this series were amazing! Maybe I was just ready for some high fantasy, but I love these characters and the world-building.
The Empire of Gold, S. A. Chakraborty: high fantasy in the swords & sorcery tradition, but rather than another Brit/Euro-centric take, this series is fueled by Arabian mythology.
Smoke Bitten (Mercy Thompson) by Patricia Briggs. This series is an auto-buy for me.
Harvest of Sighs, Sierra Simone: I binged this author so hard last year, and this series slayed me. Cannot wait for more.
Wicked Bite, Jeaniene Frost. This one released last week and features Ian, Bones' sire from the can't-get-enough Night Huntress series (also known as Cat and Bones, because Cat and Bones are amazing)
Chaos Reigning, Jessie Mihalik: this space-opera romance trilogy took the Romlandia by storm, me included. I love these smart, powerful women and how they triumph in a society that in spite of being centuries in the future, bears a marked resemblance to romance's beloved Regency era. Plus ça change, and all that.
Deal with the Devil, Kit Rocha. First of all, Kit Rocha. Second of all, post-apocalyptic mercenary librarians. POST-APOCALYPTIC. MERCENARY. LIBRARIANS. Need I say more? I think not.
The Fiery Crown, Jeffe Kennedy: Last year's Orchid Throne was the start of a new world, and as much as I loved the connected Twelve Kingdoms/Uncharted Realms/Dasnaria books, this world is so rich and intriguing, I'm dying for the next installment.
Wolf Gone Wild, Juliette Cross: I can't get enough of Cross's broody dark heroes, and this new series promises a little touch of humor which makes it even better. Already out, I haven't got to it yet but looking forward to it!
Alpha Night, Nalini Singh: The Psy-Changeling series is another auto-buy.
A Heart of Blood and Ashes, Meljean Brook, uh, I mean, Milla Vane. I've been waiting so long for something new by this author! To be honest, I'm not sure how I feel about a barbarian hero, but I'm willing to find out.
Dragon Unleashed, Grace Draven: I haven't liked everything I've read by this author, but I really loved Phoenix Unbound, the first in this sort of "alternate-history-Roman-Empire with magic" series; plus I was very intrigued by Halani's character.
From the Grave, Kresley Cole: the conclusion to the only YA series I've ever loved, this book has been delayed several times. The series has been suspended over a cliff for so long, I can't stand it! I have so many questions, it's hard to believe they can all be wrapped in one book, but if anyone can do it, it's Cole.

Bam. Thirteen. That should get your 2020 New Releases juices flowing.

Thursday Thirteen - 2020 style!

noreply@blogger.com (Nicola O.) — Thu, 09 Jan 2020 08:30:00 +0000

I am happy to report that the Thursday Thirteen Linkup is still alive and kicking! Let me start 2020 out on a roll with two posts in less than a week! Woo hoo!

January is all about lists. Last weekend, I gave you my list of the best of 2019. Here is a Thursday 13 rundown of other 2019 retrospectives in the #RomBkBlog world:

Under The Covers
Miss Bates Reads Romance
Kini's list at Smexy Books
Angela's list at Smexy Books
Lots of SFF in the mix at Reading Reality
Wendy The Super Librarian
Ellie Reads Fiction
Shallow Reader (don't believe the blog name!)
Book Binge
Ana's list at Love In Panels
I Heart Romance
Kaetrin's list at Dear Author
And just to round things out, here is the GoodReads list for Romance.

I'm definitely seeing a few titles on repeat throughout these lists that I'll need to check out. Also, how could I have missed Sapphire Flames on my own list? Jeeze.

I hope you enjoyed this list! I recommend you head on over to this week's Thursday Thirteen linkup and check out a few participants. This is not a book-focused meme (except here at Alpha Heroes!) so who knows what tidbits you'll pick up to brighten your week!

2019 Look Back, 2020 Look Ahead

noreply@blogger.com (Nicola O.) — Sat, 04 Jan 2020 23:53:00 +0000

Ever since I started this blog, I have almost always managed an end of year post. Despite the long silence this year, January always brings some optimism about re-invigorating the blog and this year is no different!

By The Numbers
I did a better job of tracking my reading this year, so I think the numbers are pretty accurate.

Total: 126 titles
Nonfiction, mostly audio: 11, with two DNFs
Bookclub books: 13, one DNF. Considering I participate in 3 monthly bookclubs, this is kind of terrible, lol. But two of the three did not manage to select 12 books for the year; and there were a handful that I chose not to even start on the basis of having zero (possibly negative) interest in.
Podcast reads: 13
Rereads: 12 (many for the podcast)
Novellas: 7
Diversity: 14, mostly authors of color, and two LGBTQ titles. I would like to do better in 2020.
Reedsy Reviews: 5
Total DNF: 6. I do have 3 or 4 titles in progress that I haven't officially given up on. They'll go toward my 2020 numbers.

Highlights:

Favorite new (to me) author: Sierra Simone! I had read the first American Camelot book previously and didn't like the cliffhanger ending, but A Lesson In Thorns blew me away. Rereading the American Camelot series, I appreciated the Arthurian bits more. I think Thorns is probably my favorite book of 2019. I also loved Tasha Suri's Empire of Sand.
Best non-fiction was definitely Born A Crime, by Trevor Noah. I had been meaning to get to this one for a long time and I'm sorry I waited. Humorous, thought-provoking, and horizon-expanding for this mid-west US white girl.
Non-fiction runner-up: Educated, by Tara Westover. I have read very few memoirs, but this was wonderful. Engaging, even horrifying at times, with novel-like storytelling.
Some great new series: Jennifer Estep's fantasy Crown of Shards series is amazing; third book due out in March (I haven't read her previous series, apparently I need to), and Jessie Mihalik's Consortium Rebellion series top the list. In the mood for more romantic space opera, I gave Susan' Grant's Star series a go and it's awesome! Also, G.A. Aiken's title, Blacksmith Queen, is the first of a new series and I liked it very much. Oh, and unsurprisingly, Jeffe Kennedy's Orchid Throne, first in a new romantic fantasy series.
Binge: I've been catching up on the neglected Immortals After Dark series by Kresley Cole, which is just as good as I remembered. I've really been enjoying Cynthia Eden's Bad Things series -- I had read one of hers before and was turned off by the "medical experimentation" centered plot, which is just a personal squick, so I'm glad I gave her another shot.
Favorite titles: (in non-exact order)

A Lesson in Thorns, by Sierra Simone
Circe, by Madeline Miller
The Overdue Life of Amy Byler, by Kelly Harms
Lady Derring Takes a Lover, by Julie Anne Long
Kill the Queen, by Jennifer Estep
Polaris Rising, by Jessie Mihalik

Podcasts and TV: 2019 was the year I started watching TV again, and also found some podcasts I like. I'm mostly watching Netflix, and my faves were Lucifer (OMG, he's pretty), the Cumberbatch/Freeman Sherlock Holmes, Lost Girl, and (surprisingly) iZombie. Podcasts, besides ShelfAddiction where I guest host, I've been enjoying Craft A Life You Love, and The Good Life Project.
3Bloggers1Series Weekend! Since I wasn't able to go to any conferences this year, my awesome podcast partners came to Seattle over Labor Day weekend and we had an AMAZING time. Wine tasting, cheese eating, book shopping, Facebook Live-ing, and some great sightseeing. A big highlight for me!

Lowlights:

Well, blogging took more of a backseat than ever in 2019. I returned to work at the beginning of March after five months of chemotherapy, and just didn't have the brain capacity to do much more than that. I am expecting 2020 to be a better year health-wise, but I also have some ground to make up career-wise, so it's hard to say how the blog will fare.
Speaking of cancer, one of my bookclubs chose a book that I absolutely hated while I was in the midst of treatment. Every review called it funny/humorous; for example, "wildly funny;" "arch, achingly funny, and surprisingly heartfelt;" "expansive, great-hearted and acidly funny;" It's a litfic story written in a weird POV (first-person plural) about the people who work for an ad agency. The owner of the company gets a breast cancer diagnosis about 25% through the book, and has something of a breakdown over it. Meanwhile, here's an example of how SUPER funny it was (and incidently, the place I called the DNF):

What's Next?
I think I am not going to tempt fate by making any promises about blogging more -- although I always hope to. For reading goals, I have three ideas in mind:

1. Julia Quinn Bridgerton Re-read, in preparation for the Netflix production. Unfortunately, I seem to have offloaded my paperbacks after reading them back in 2008? or so? so I will have to re-acquire them. I'm undecided about whether I want to binge the series or just read the first book shortly before the first series debuts.

2. This shelf:

I want to put (gasp!) something other than books on it. There are ~40 books on that shelf-- it's (part of) my Paranormal TBR. Wish me luck!

3. Sherlock: As mentioned above, I really adored the Benedict Cumberbatch/Martin Freeman Sherlock Holmes series. I read all of the original SH stories back in middle school, and I have a notion to re-read the ones that have corresponding episodes and noodle about them here on the blog.

Conferences in 2020: I'm signed up for ApollyCon in Washington DC, March 26-29, and Avon's KissCon in Chicago, April 17-20. If you're headed for either one, do hit me up and let's connect!

Link Up:
Do you have a 2019 roundup or 2020 lookahead to share? Post in comments and I'll edit it in!

Finally, I hope you all have a happy, healthy, prosperous new year, filled with awesome books!

Vampire Blood Series by Juliette Cross - on sale

noreply@blogger.com (Nicola O.) — Tue, 21 May 2019 01:08:00 +0000

If you like paranormal romance and you haven't discovered Juliette Cross yet, allow me to introduce you. I had the pleasure of reviewing this four-part series for RT. In addition to offering a fresh take on some favorite fairy tales (no really, everyone always says that but these really are fresh and twisty), and some dark vampire horror, the underlying theme of women demanding to be heard and recognized vibrates with right-now relevancy. All four titles are available at a great sale price right now, so it seems like a good moment to re-post these reviews.

But seriously though, what about those covers? I love that there is variety. And while I have zero -- repeat, ZERO-- issues with some naked male chests, I have to admit that Emerald there is my favorite. Mmm mmm.

THE BLACK LILY
Juliette Cross
Four Stars
HOT

Cinderella meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets revolution in this fresh take on familiar tropes. Cross debuts her new paranormal fairy tale series with a brave and clever heroine, a Grimm Brothers-esque mysterious forest—and vampires. The world that Cross builds is layered, and we get tantalizing hints about what the forest might reveal in future books, including a killer plot twist. The fairy tale trappings are familiar with a modern horror treatment. Marius’ altruism feels a bit stiff, which detracts a little from the chemistry, but overall a solid offering for fans of dark sexy vampires and fairy tales.

SUMMARY: As the leader of the rebellion against the vampire aristocracy, Arabelle cannot afford to fall in love with its youngest prince. Conceding that he may not be a mindless murdering monster goes against her entire life’s ambition. On Marius’ part, falling in love with and nearly being murdered by the same fascinating woman serves as a turning point. As he discovers just why she wanted him dead, he learns more than he bargained for about his life of privilege.

THE RED LILY
Juliette Cross
Four and a Half Stars, Top Pick
HOT

There's no sophomore slump in this dark fairy tale adventure series! When Red Riding Hood and her guardian wolves meet a renegade vampire who fights for the commoner, it's anything but a routine re-telling. Fans of Kelley Armstrong will find a similar blend of horror and legend, with a bonus complete romance. The connection between these two is strong and hot, and their mission is compelling. Layers of intriguing world-building are revealed and open up some great possible future directions - this series could go anywhere. Cross doesn't pull punches with the brutality of her war, so be wary about reading it at bedtime.

SUMMARY: Powerful magic grounds Sienna to the forest where she is protected, but greater need calls her abroad where she is vulnerable. She'll need a powerful protector, and Nikolai is just the vampire for the job. As they travel from town to town, recruiting for the army of the Black Lily and sowing insurrection against an incredibly strong, incredibly evil villain, they are in danger at every turn. But the greatest risk they'll face is to reveal their secrets - and their hearts - to each other.

THE WHITE LILY
Juliette Cross
Three Stars
SCORCHING

Readers who are coming back for more of the heat and passion found in the first two books of Cross’s fairytale/vampire mashup will be more than pleased with The White Lily. Passion takes the main stage between these two characters and their love scenes burn up the pages. But the characters lack a clear mission outside of Dominick wanting Brennalyn in bed, and Brennalyn wanting to take care of the seven orphans she’s collected. The vampire spin on Snow White lacks the magic and tension of the earlier offerings, but turns up the erotic content noticeably. A bit more of the White Lily’s insurrectionist activities on the page for the reader would go a long way to livening up her character as well as the plot.

SUMMARY: Dominick is a powerful vampire, descended from generations of cruelty. Brennalyn, abandoned for her infertility, is dedicated to protecting her adopted family, and providing a better future – even if it means revolution. When Dominick discovers that a rebel has put his dukedom in the crosshairs of a vengeful, cruel king, he knows he must find the White Lily before the king does. When it turns out to be the most beautiful woman he’s ever seen, he’ll question everything he thought he knew about how to manage his life.

THE EMERALD LILY
Juliette Cross
Four Stars
Hot

The Vampire Blood series peaks in this fourth book, bringing the war of the Lilies versus Queen Morgrid to a dramatic conclusion. While this book may be read alone, it will spoil the earlier books in the series, so reading in order is a good idea. Cross has built a world of good and evil, blood and cruelty, and the mysterious power of love. Mikhail is a worthy hero: focused, disciplined, and dedicated to the higher good, but Mina steals the show. Her story is one of realizing and claiming feminine power, as Sleeping Beauty awakes in more than one sense of the word. Her clarity of character, her drive and purpose embody the word “regal,” and this queen slays. It’s tough to pull off a series climax, but The Emerald Lily delivers the plot, the politics and edge-of-seat tension that this excellent paranormal romance series deserves. A number of scenes will recall the classic Sleeping Beauty of childhood, but Cross flips them and subverts them and makes them her own.

SUMMARY: Princess Vilhelmina Dragomir has defied the evil Queen Morgrid, and sentenced to a torturous vampiric coma of nightmare and starvation for her trouble. Powerful friends arrange for her escape, but the only way out of the bloodless sleep is by the blood kiss. Captain Mikhail Romanov will do everything he must to save her, but the indelible bond that forms when he gives her that kiss wreaks havoc on his duty and his mission to take down Morgrid. The most powerful kind of love is never convenient, but nothing else is strong enough to prevail over the evil threatening their world.

--------------------------------------------------------------

These reviews appeared previously in RT Magazine.

Sunday Soup - April 14 2019

noreply@blogger.com (Nicola O.) — Mon, 15 Apr 2019 00:52:00 +0000

In The Soup: Starla Night, Kresley Cole, Talia Hibbert, Elizabeth Harmon, Jessie Mihalik, Reedsy, Shelf Addiction

Soup Dish: on my mind right now
✽ This goes back a little ways, but since I've been slacking on the blog, I hope you'll forgive me. Romance Novels Are Not Junk Food

✽Trying to read more diversely? There are lots of lists out there, but here is a great one: 80 Black Romance Novels

✽Not romance, but sort of anti-romance? I love a good take-down review: Psycho Analysis, on Bret Easton Ellis' latest.

✽This tweet made me laugh and laugh-- I love the word nerds in my timeline:

Link to tweet

Stalking Me: where else to find me
✽My recent Reedsy reviews: Secrets of the Sea Lord, by Starla Night (3 stars) and upcoming in about week look for a review of The Cemetary Circle, by I.L. Cruz. Link to come.

✽On the podcast, Tamara released our #3Bloggers1Series discussion of Endless Knight by Kresley Cole. The podcast is pre-recorded, but we are doing live listen-along commentary on the Shelf Addiction Facebook Group, which is a ton of fun. The next one, for Dead of Winter, will be Wednesday April 24th, 6 pm Pacific. I haven't done a Shelf Byte in a while, but Tamara's got a great one for Consumed by JR Ward (which I reviewed last fall, here).

Recent Reads:
✽I am having such a hard time NOT bingeing on the Kresley Cole Arcana series (it's no good to get too far ahead of our recording schedule) that I decided to catch up on the Immortals After Dark series. I don't know how I get so far behind on these things, but I am going way back to books 9 and 10, with Pleasures of a Dark Prince, and Demon from the Dark. Yumm. I'm on a wait list at the library for the next one, so I'm taking a probably-well-advised break for a week or two. Loved them.

✽Mating the Huntress, by Talia Hibbert. I am really loving Hibbert's contemporaries, so when I found out she had a paranormal romance out in the world, I had to snap it up. Really good, and I'm sad that she isn't doing more PNR. Among other things, it inspired a bit of a riff on Twitter (be sure to click into the replies 😉 ) with the hashtag #HeSmelledLikeThreeThings:

...so maybe he'd always had this incredible scent, this heady mixture of power, fresh pine and midnight heat, and she'd never noticed.

✽I read Pairing Off, by Elizabeth Harmon, who is an author I met through the Rust City Book Conference a year or two ago. I've never read a figure skating romance before, set mainly in Moscow, and I enjoyed those elements a lot. It wasn't overly jargon-y on the skating technicalities, but focused more on the emotional dramas and pressures between pairs partners, ex-partners, coaches, and family. There is a lot I liked about it, but I found it a bit draggy and just too long.

✽The biggest win of the last month was Polaris Rising, by Jessie Mihalik. This was a romance book club pick, and I was happy to give it a try, as it was getting so much good buzz from people whose recs generally work for me. Man, this was a five star read for sure, maybe 6 on a scale of 1-5. I loved it a lot, and I am not a space opera person. I am, however, a fabulously competent heroine on an epic adventure person, and this totally worked for me. Tech was perfectly on point, completely believable (I say this as a person who has worked in high tech for 20-plus years) and not boring. I'm already seeing some buzz about the sequel and I can't wait.

Well, it looks like these posts are coming more like monthly... that's not too bad, right? What's going on in your reading world?

Sunday Soup - 3/17/2019

noreply@blogger.com (Nicola O.) — Mon, 18 Mar 2019 02:52:00 +0000

In The Soup This Week: Katy Regnery, Alyssa Cole, Cynthia Eden, Stephen Lawhead, Jennifer Estep, Kresley Cole, Book Riot, Reedsy

Soup Dish: on my mind this week
✽ Love this article from Book Riot on why the word "clean" to describe books without explicit sex is problematic, as well as this good-natured response from Delilah Dawson:

✽Emerald City ComicCon is here again, and once again I have failed to take advantage of the lonnnng list of amazing authors who are here. Maybe next year I'll make my children the happiest of teens and set aside my introvert dread of crowds and do the thing.

✽I'm now reviewing for Reedsy, which is a new site that helps indie authors find a production team, and also offers reviews. It launched about two weeks ago, with some good publicity from Forbes, Good e-Reader, and The Digital Reader. My first review is up, a contemporary by Katy Regnery, and can be viewed here. I'd love to hear what you think of the site!

On the podcast: the sound of my voice
✽New Shelfbyte (5- minute review) of Kill The Queen, by Jennifer Estep (5 stars!)

✽Have you been following the #3Bloggers1Series podcasts? If not, catch up with us on Kresley Cole's YA post-apocalyptic fantasy series, The Arcana. We spoiler the heck out of these in our discussions so we recommend you read along and listen AFTER you finish the book. We have just gotten started on this series so catch up and join us! If you like to listen real-time, we are hosting listen-along parties on Facebook for this series. Join the Shelf Addiction Facebook Group to keep up on details. Podcast link for Poison Princess by Kresley Cole.

Recent Reads
✽A Hope Divided, by Alyssa Cole. I loved the first in this series and I'm not sure why I waited so long to get going on this one. It's a wonderful story, but at times difficult to read. As a kid I used to enjoy stories of the Underground Railroad; the stories sounded exciting and adventurous, with heroic people along the way, helping slaves find their way to freedom. Cole reframes this narrative, elevating the "passengers" in a way I haven't seen before, and pointing out that by focusing on the "heroes," the escaping slaves are subtly dehumanized. Further dehumanized, that is. I would call this book, more so than the first, uncomfortable and important to read.

✽The Iron Lance and The Black Rood, by Stephen Lawhead. I've read some of Lawhead's books before, in his Arthurian series. At some point, I picked up The Iron Lance and while it's a bit of a slower read, hefty with a lot of history, I really enjoyed it. So I grabbed the second in the Celtic Crusades trilogy. The first follows a Scottish noble who chronicles the sacking of Jerusalem, which is surprisingly not something I've read about before. This book pulls no punches about how gruesome and dishonorable the event was. The second book follows his son, who returns to the Holy Lands because he believes that he's been called to reunite the four pieces of the Holy Cross, which were split up in order to be able to motivate Christian armies in more than one direction. If that makes sense. Epic quests, with a touch of supernatural to them. I'll most likely pick up the third this summer. Very enjoyable.

✽Wicked and Wild, by Cynthia Eden. I believe I acquired this book as either a freebie or a 99-cent deal. I'm not sure why else I would have picked up number 7 in a series without reading any of the earlier ones, but I want to tell you all -- it works just fine. Yes, there are characters with history that make you go "oh, I should read their book too!" but not "well crap, I don't get what's happening here." Smart heroine with a great arc; I enjoyed the worldbuilding, and the plot had some good twists. I will most likely go back and start at the beginning of this series. Thumbs up from me.

Who Wants To Play?

noreply@blogger.com (Nicola O.) — Sun, 24 Feb 2019 02:11:00 +0000

Conference season is coming up! Need swag? Read on:

Sadly, I won't be able to attend any conferences this year (but maybe 2020). In past years, as an "official" blogger for some smaller conferences, I ran a game I called "Five Words." It's a fun progressive fiction game, with 4-8 or so players. I give the first player five words that they need to incorporate into their narrative, along with a couple of loose world-building rules, and then that player leaves 5 words for the next player to use. The idea is to make the words pretty awkward, and sometimes the stories take some crazy turns. Entries run from about 100-300 words each. I did the editing and formatting, and created physical chapbooks as swag for the conferences.

Here's what I'm thinking. If there are authors who would like to participate, I will do the same as before. But I won't be at any of the conferences to distribute them! My costs for printing and materials run to about $1 per book. So if participating authors want to chip in up to $20, I will make up to 20 books per author and mail them to you. No charge for my time and work, because it's fun for me 😊. Here's an idea of what they look like:

Interested? Repeat ~~offenders~~ participants are welcome! Leave me a comment and/or contact me at nicola327 at hotmail dot com.

And here is how one story unfolded:

Part 1, by Laura Bickle
Part 2, by Calandra Usher
Part 3, by AJ Norris
Part 4, by Roselynn Cannes
Part 5: by Gina Conkle

Part 6: by Nancy Holzner

Shelf Bytes!

noreply@blogger.com (Nicola O.) — Sat, 16 Feb 2019 23:33:00 +0000

Can you spot the new tool in my blogging arsenal? If your eye went to the headset, good job!

It's not news that I've been guest-hosting on Tamara's #3Bloggers1Series podcast feature for a little more than a year now. It is so much fun! I can talk for hours with Tamara and Casey about books, and we often do -- but we try to keep the actual podcast part to an hour or so.

At the beginning of the year, Tamara decided to launch a super-short feature - the Shelf Byte, a full book review in five minutes or less. I thought that sounded super-fun so she is letting me do a few of these for her too. These are a great gateway if you're still on the fence about podcasts (I was for a long time), as 5 minutes is pretty low-commitment. Or if you're already a podcast addict and need some bite (byte) -sized 'casts when you don't have 30 or 60 minutes for a longer listen.

I thought I'd do a quick link-up here. Watch this space for future Shelf Bytes!

Check this page to stay up to date for all of the podcast goodness at ShelfAddiction.

Beneath a Scarlet Sky Shelf Byte (Tamara)
Diamond Fire Shelf Byte (Nicola)
His Package Shelf Byte (Nicola)
Two Girls Down Shelf Byte (Tamara)

2018: Numbers and Highlights

noreply@blogger.com (Nicola O.) — Wed, 16 Jan 2019 02:08:00 +0000

I'm always a little bit slow with these round-up posts, but for those of you who are interested, here is a 2018 lookback. In total, I read (or attempted) 108 titles in 2018, although I'm not the best record-keeper so there may be a few physical books in there that didn't get counted.

The Breakdown:

Novellas: 4
DNF: 11
Total bookclub reads: 14 (3 DNF)
Podcast reads: 11
Reads for RT reviews (RIP, RT Book Reviews ): 7
Books by authors of color: 17
Nonfiction on audio: 3
Nonfiction ebooks: 2

Some highlights:

I discovered Elizabeth Vaughan's Warlands series and it was amazing. Definitely my favorite binge of the year.
Lexi C. Foss's Immortal Curse series. Complex world building, cool magical powers, old enemies and shifting alliances -- you never know who to trust in this series and the plot twists are Machiavellian.
Jeffe Kennedy makes regular appearances in my reading. 2018 was a particularly prolific year for her and features some really lovely additions to her portfolio.
A nonfiction title blew me away this year! Please immediately acquire The Order Of Time by Carlos Rovelli, specifically the audio version, narrated by none other than Benedict Cumberbatch. I promise you it is a mind-bending experience.
Tiffany Reisz' The Red. Beautiful, haunting, erotic, and a little disturbing. This is her best work yet, IMO.
I'm pleased with the percentage of authors of color that made it into my reading this year. I've said a number of times over the life of this blog that I miss the "globe trotting" historical romances of old-skool days, though often part and parcel with a lot of problematic content. It turns out that getting some fresh perspectives and new settings is as easy as seeking out more diversity in the authors I'm reading. Worth the effort.

Lowlights:

Anne Bishop's Others series -- quite the disappointment, although it started out strong. Have a listen to our podcast series for more details (while the books disappointed, the podcast will not!) (Written in Red, Murder of Crows, Vision in Silver, Marked in Flesh, Etched in Bone)
Several of my bookclub reads were DNFs. This isn't really surprising. The bookclub I belong to through work rotates through all different genres and it turns out that I know my preferences pretty well -- there's a reason I don't read much lit-fic. I'm giving them a good try, because 1) I enjoy the conversation; 2) it's a good brain-stretch exercise; and 3) every now and then I find a really awesome one that I would otherwise not have tried. So I'm pretty happy with finishing 10 out of 12 titles. The third DNF was from my romance bookclub and was mainly due to health issues. Although it is true that the book wasn't exactly my cup of tea, I probably would've finished it if it hadn't landed in the midst of a flurry of doctor visits.
I was sad to see the end of RT Book Reviews. I had been reviewing for them for about three years, and very much enjoyed the conferences in the years I was able to go. I won't be able to try out the BookLoversCon this year, but if the feedback is good, maybe next year.

Looking forward:

On the Blog: I have a few modest blog goals this year. I'd like to post a minimum of two reviews a month, and get back in the habit of a weekly reading roundup. I'm making an effort to read the physical books that are on my shelves.
If you enjoy Twitter, please keep an eye out for my live-tweets, usually tagged with #amreading. I try to remember the #bkbrk (book break) tag as well.
Finally, I'm very much enjoying my role as guest-podcaster with Tamara at Shelf Addiction. We are continuing the #3bloggers1series read-alongs (I'm super excited about the series that we'll be starting after the 3rd title in the Grisha trilogy), and I'm doing some mini-reviews in the new "Shelf Byte" feature that Tamara kicked off this year. So if podcasts are your jam, please check this one out.

Sunday Soup: December 2, 2018

noreply@blogger.com (Nicola O.) — Mon, 03 Dec 2018 02:33:00 +0000

In The Soup This Week... Oliver Willis, Chuck Wendig, Sam Sykes, Rachel Caine, JR Ward, Ilona Andrews

Soup Dish: personal dish; on my mind; good links
It's been a while since I dished, so I'll take a few minutes to catch you up on what's going on with me...

✽ I'm in the midst of a temporary health challenge that has me off work for several months. I have lots of time for reading and reviewing, though the illness comes with some challenges to energy and focus. So far I think I can say the blog is coming out a little bit ahead on the equation.

✽ If you've been reading here for awhile, you might recall that I've been trying to get myself to read a bit more (some? any?) non-fiction, and it's been quite the uphill road. I've figured out the solution: audiobooks. Generally I do not like listening to talk radio, or talking-head TV. I never thought I'd like audiobooks, but it turns out that a good narrator is able to bring non-fiction to life in a way that my inner reader-voice cannot. I don't really want to dilute my brand here on the blog so when I choose to review those, I'm putting them over on Goodreads.

✽ So I mentioned before, I had been reviewing for the last few years for RT Book Reviews. With their closing, I'm selectively choosing a few books off of Netgalley and other sources for review, but my self-discipline has never been great. I am forcing myself to review everything I have open there before picking new ones. So you're going to occasionally see reviews for older releases, but hey, why not.

✽I wrote this bit (slightly updated) almost a year ago and never posted, but the links are worth checking out if you haven't seen them: Twitter is evolving. There have been threadrolls and Storifications and so on before but I've never seen anything quite like what Oliver Willis has done, and it is insanely good (the whole project is available as a novella on Amazon - I recommend it, assuming your politics align). However, before Willis launched this masterpiece, we had Yo Can You Help Me Out from Sam Sykes and Chuck Wendig, which I 100% adore. I was not the only one, so there have been a few more of these epic dialogs unfold, like the Lovecraftian Hey How's It Going; a hellish goat pyramid scheme in "Yo Hey You Busy."

What I'm reading
I just can't get enough Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance lately. Having some trouble getting into historical or contemporary-- bring on the werewolves, vampires, witches and magic!

✽Rachel Caine's Weather Warden series. I've had a number of these paperbacks around for a couple years now and I decided to get serious. I binged the first 5 books but got a little stuck on the 6th. Probably just needed a wee break. I'm enjoying them and hoping to write up a series review when I finish them.

✽Jeffe Kennedy's Dasnaria Chronicles. The third in the trilogy, Warrior of the World, is due out in early January. Look for a rave review from me as we get closer, but I've enjoyed the whole trilogy (oh hey, looks like the first in the trilogy, Prisoner of the Crown, is on sale for $0.99 -- do yourself a favor and snap it up), as well as the latest in the Uncharted Realms series, Arrows of the Heart.

✽I went back to my PNR roots and grabbed the most recent Black Dagger Brotherhood book, The Thief (when I noticed the price had come down). I liked it, but I felt a little let down with Sola's character. I liked her so much in the early parts of their arc but she didn't quite hit the high notes for me overall. The Jane and V arc worked fine for me, though I'm finding these original-brothers'-marriages-in-crises arcs to be getting a little stale/repetitive.

✽Last but definitely not least, I grabbed the latest Hidden Legacy (Ilona Andrews) book, a novella titled Diamond Fire, about Nevada's younger sister Catalina. Predictably, I loved it a lot and it inspired a re-read of the whole preceding trilogy. These are so, so good.

That's it for this week. Happy reading!

ps -- apologies for the wonky font situation. My HTML is befuckered and I have run out of patience trying to deal with it. Sigh.

Consumed, by JR Ward - Review

noreply@blogger.com (Nicola O.) — Mon, 19 Nov 2018 11:00:00 +0000

Title: Consumed

Series: Firefighters (book 1)
Author: J. R. Ward
Publisher: Gallery Books (Simon & Schuster)
Release Date: October 9, 2018
Reviewing: e-ARC via NetGalley
Reason for reading: With JR Ward, hope springs eternal

The Short Answer:
Consumed brings in the best of the Black Dagger Boys in a contemporary, non-paranormal context. Danny reads a little bit like a less-damaged Butch, and the boys in the firehouse are deftly set up for the next JR Ward Dude Group. The characters are diverse and down-to-earth; more blue-collar and less blue-blood; struggling with the real-life baggage that tends to get in the way of a healthy relationship. The suspense plot keeps it from being too angsty and Ward's hallmark storytelling is on point.

The Blurb

Anne Ashburn is a woman consumed...

By her bitter family legacy, by her scorched career as a firefighter, by her obsession with department bad-boy Danny McGuire, and by a new case that pits her against a fiery killer.

Strong-willed Anne was fearless and loved the thrill of fighting fires, pushing herself to be the best. But when one risky decision at a warehouse fire changes her life forever, Anne must reinvent not only her job, but her whole self.

Shattered and demoralized, Anne finds her new career as an arson investigator a pale substitute for the adrenaline-fueled life she left behind. She doesn't believe she will ever feel that same all-consuming passion for her job again--until she encounters a string of suspicious fires setting her beloved city ablaze.

Danny McGuire is a premiere fireman, best in the county, but in the midst of a personal meltdown. Danny is taking risks like never before and seems to have a death wish until he teams up with Anne to find the fire starter. But Danny may be more than a distraction, and as Anne narrows in on her target, the arsonist begins to target her.

From the creator of the bestselling Black Dagger Brotherhood, get ready for a new band of brothers. And a firestorm.

The Longer Answer
Ward doesn't pull any punches in this book. Bad stuff happens to her characters, and miracles don't save them. There's a brutal edge to the plotting that feels true to the style she has developed with her various paranormal books. (I confess I did not finish Bourbon trilogy, so there may be echoes there as well, but I can't comment.)

One of the threads that I really enjoyed is that as a firefighter, Anne is the only woman in her precinct, and as much as she wants to be treated as one of the guys, she gets a certain "little sister" treatment. While her work is respected and she isn't coddled, it's more about her place in the social constellation of her team. I thought Ward did a great job of threading that needle. Anne's status changes after the "risky decision" mentioned in the blurb, and the way she adjusts is one of my favorite things about the book.

Danny... well, Danny. Readers who are allergic to the physically uber-alpha should know by now to give anything by J. R. Ward a pass, and Danny is no exception. He's physically tough, ridiculously stubborn, carries a bunch of family baggage, and loves with his whole heart or not at all. And by "not at all," I mean "turns it into a stream of self-loathing." Usually I feel like Ward's books are all about the hero with the heroines hovering in "accessory" territory, but it's reversed in Consumed. Danny is a worthy foil and gets a decent hero's arc, but Anne is for sure the star.

I've noticed a definite trend in Ward's book about characters seeking therapy for their issues and I think that's a great thing. Love cannot conquer all, and the rise of the angsty hero also created this trope where the expectation of the Happily Ever After kind of included some magical love-heals-all-wounds subtext. I'm glad to see explicit inroads on that subtext. Love doesn't mean finding the perfect person, and love can be healing for sure, but finding a partner does not equate to fixing a person, and that's a message that deserves repeating.

I think this author is incapable of writing a book without multiple arcs, and in my opinion, it's very well done in this book, though there is plenty of disagreement across the reviews on that point. There's a mystery, a complicated romance, family baggage galore, an ensemble cast being introduced, and they all get a decently tidy wrap-up in this book. I look forward to getting to know the rest of the cast and their stories.

Around the Web
Book Binge didn't like it all, and makes a fair point about some questionable decisions on Anne's part (this is why I don't read other reviews before I do mine, heh)
The Reading Café - Two for the price of one reviews! Generally positive
Romance Reader liked it too.
Random Book Muses - short and sweet

GIVEAWAY and Review for Phoenix Unbound, by Grace Draven

noreply@blogger.com (Nicola O.) — Fri, 14 Sep 2018 06:08:00 +0000

Title: Phoenix Unbound

Series: The Fallen Empire (1)

Author: Grace Draven

Publisher: Ace (Penguin)

Release Date: September 25,2018

Reviewing: eARC

Reason for reading: I'm on a fantasy romance binge right now, and I really enjoyed Draven's holiday novella last year, part of a limited edition collection entitled "Amid The Winter Snow."

The Short Answer

If you love a slow burn, enemies-to-lovers road romance, with mayyyybe a couple who will bring down an empire to be together, this is the fantasy romance you've been waiting for. Wanna read it for yourself? Penguin is offering a massive fantasy romance giveaway ! The only way to join is to click through. I've read every single book on this list and they are amazing! if you're not hooked on fantasy romance, you will be before you're done with that list. It's worth noting that the other five titles I would call more urban fantasy. Draven's contribution is a little different, being more in the tradition of swords-and-sorcery. Good luck! (and if you win, please come back and tell me!)

The Blurb

Every year, each village is required to send a young woman to the Empire's capital--her fate to be burned alive for the entertainment of the masses. For the last five years, one small village's tithe has been the same woman. Gilene's sacrifice protects all the other young women of her village, and her secret to staying alive lies with the magic only she possesses.

But this year is different.

Azarion, the Empire's most famous gladiator, has somehow seen through her illusion--and is set on blackmailing Gilene into using her abilities to help him escape his life of slavery. Unknown to Gilene, he also wants to reclaim the birthright of his clan.

To protect her family and village, she will abandon everything to return to the Empire--and burn once more.

The Long Answer

To be perfectly honest, I tried an earlier Draven title and wasn't into it. Radiance involved an interspecies political marriage and I just can't. However, as I mentioned above, this author combined forces with a few of my favorites last December for a holiday anthology and I loved it a lot. Combined with some buzz on this title, I was keen to get my hands on it.

And I'm so glad I did! All the sweep and grandeur of your favorite epic fantasy, and none of the misogyny, although I'll add a trigger warning for rape. (It happens, but it is not a key part of the plot and is not described graphically.)

This hero surprised me a little. Tortured and abused for ten years in an arena strongly resembling gladiatorial Rome, he escapes with a mission, with ruthlessness, and yet also with empathy and tenderness, while Gilene is locked down under a tougher shell. Arguably, she has had an easier time, surviving an annual ritual that leaves her scarred, sick, and battered. But in between, she has a family, a home, a community, and work creating dyes (is it wrong that I want to hear more about this? I'm kind of a low-key textiles nerd). The difference is, she has no future that she can imagine, other than continuing this annual hell until she is too scarred and worn out to continue. She never expects to marry, or to bear children, and her role makes her othered in the community, with few friends. She has no hope.

What pulled me in was the gradual way that Azarion showed her a possible future. With a community that would respect and honor her gift, rather than one that would literally use her up with it. But she is the only one who can survive the annual tithe... so if she leaves her village behind for love, she is condemning her neighbors and family to death. Some reviewers have found the pacing slow, with the love between Azarion and Gilene taking a good part of the book to develop. To me, that gave some credibility to the enemies-to-lovers arc, and I enjoyed the worldbuilding so much that I didn't find pacing a problem.

There are a couple of really pivotal scenes that the author did an outstanding job on. One was a battle to the death involving feats of horsemanship, swords, and an eventual beheading. The other was a scene of intense magical power, and I won't say more to avoid spoilering, but my reaction to it was WOW!! Not every author can pull off those sorts of climaxes. I was never thrown out of the story and never lost my suspension of disbelief for a second.

Gilene and Azarion's happily ever after was hard-fought and well-earned. This book appears to be the first in a new series, but I have no insights on whether future books will feature the same couple or different ones. I have some hopes: I hope to read Halani's story, and perhaps Tamura's. Halani, a woman of uncanny healing skills, travels with a merchant's caravan reminiscent of the Romany, led by an uncle of dubious morality and including her mother, who has some sort of mental or neurological delays. Tamura is the hard-riding, hard-fighting sister of Azarion, in love with the headman's wife. None of the male secondary characters jumped out at me, but I am really, really crossing my fingers for Halani. There's also a super-creepy haunted village, a wounded but surviving super-villain, and some mysterious hints about dragon blood. There's DEFINITELY a setup for future books here, and I can't wait.

Around the Web
SuperStarDrifter
Shelf Rated
Book Twin Reviews
Books of My Heart

Darkest Heart, by Juliette Cross - Review

noreply@blogger.com (Nicola O.) — Wed, 22 Aug 2018 23:26:00 +0000

Title: Darkest Heart

Series: Dominion

Author: Juliette Cross

Publisher: Entangled: Amara

Release Date: August 20, 2018

Reviewing: eARC

Reason for reading: Big love for Juliette Cross' writing in general, and this world in particular. And also, OMG will you just LOOK at that cover??!!

The Short Answer
If angels and demons are your thing, and if you love finding the flame of romance in the midst of the gritty, apocalyptic ruins of civilization as we know it, then this is the book (series) for you.

If you know Cross, you'll be ready for her trademark immersive worldbuilding, red-hot love scenes, and tortured hero; and if you don't know her, then you should. Because see above. If it's not clear, I loved this book: I rate it 4.5 stars, Top Pick!

The Blurb

Anya—a stoic, blue-winged angelic warrior—was bitten by a demon prince in battle, and now she has precious little time to find a cure for his deadly venom. But the only archangel with the power to stop the dark poison from corrupting her body and soul is missing. She’ll have to trust her guide, the outcast high demon Dommiel, who is as handsome as he is dangerous if she has any hope.

An outcast of his own kind, high demon Dommiel stays under cover while the war between angels and demons rages on. When the only person who ever showed him kindness asks for his help, he has no choice but to try to save the angel. Venturing back into the dens he has avoided for so long, Anya makes him want and feel things he never thought possible.

But Dommiel knows there is no way an angel can ever love a demon…

The Characters
The redemption arc doesn't get much more canonical than a fallen angel turning his back on demonkind in an epic battle of good and evil, and finding love in the process. In fact, Dommiel is never revealed to be that awful; although his internal narrative tells us that he thinks he has been as corrupt and depraved as the bad guys, his actions tell us otherwise. He has a code of honor that he lives by, even though he doesn't seem to know it himself. However, being kicked out of heaven is enough to give a fallen angel a bit of a complex, I guess, and then that pesky honor gets him in trouble with the demons, to the point where he doesn't really have an easy identity.

For Anya's part, seeking out the archangel Uriel provides the engine and adventure for the story, while Dommiel engages with purported reluctance... but goes far beyond his initial obligation.

I recently met a personal goal and read (well, listened to) a whole non-fiction book about how to read for layers of meaning in literature. The very first chapter is about the quest story, and the takeaway is that the real quest is pretty much never the stated reason for the quest... in this case, finding Uriel matters, but not in the way Anya thinks it will. (I hope that's not too spoilery!) Anya is fierce and sweet; she saves Dommiel as surely as he does her, but I have to admit that for me, Dommiel stole the show.

The World
While Darkest Heart is a continuation of the world from The Vessel trilogy and bridged by The Deepest Well, it stands alone just fine, as long as you are OK with not having a lot of context for the supernatural war that forms the backdrop of the book. The Dominion books (Deepest Well, Darkest Heart) are set in modern times, though there is a timelessness to the setting. Most modern conveniences are destroyed, and the usual focuses of post-apocalyptic fiction like establishing a food supply line and dealing with the breakdown of infrastructure are downplayed in favor of the supernatural battle raging between the two angelic factions. Plus, many of the characters in the series, including both Anya and Dommiel, are centuries or even millennia old. No one expects these characters to speak middle English or archaic Sumerian, or whatever would be historically accurate for a biblically-originated character, but Cross does a good job of eliminating obvious contemporary slang and colloquialisms , and using a gently formal diction for these characters, which adds to the feeling that the story could be taking place any time in the last few centuries.

Favorite Quote

Never before had I thought to have someone care for me like this. To crave me on a primitive, savage level. Never before had I thought to return those raw emotions. The fact that it was Dommiel, a demon, who'd cracked through my independent resolve and showed me that my perfect black-and-white world didn't exist somehow seemed poetic. He showed me that even the darkest heart yearns for the light.

Hard not to zoom in on that, given that it's the likely inspiration for the title.

Around the Blogosphere
Here's what other reviewers are saying!
Edgy Reviews
Books of my Heart
Musings of a Bookish Kitty
Feeling Fictional
Suey Library (wow, this blogger's style really made me smile -- she is all in!)

Mercy Thompson Read-a-Long: Grand Finale

noreply@blogger.com (Nicola O.) — Thu, 28 Dec 2017 05:55:00 +0000

Once upon a time, I thought that I would never get the hang of Twitter or enjoy it in any way. 140 characters you say? Yeah right. Have you seen my blog posts?

But then I tried it, and it is sooo much fun. It's definitely different than blogging but the short form encourages so much interaction, and so much cleverness! So OK. Blogging, Facebook, and Twitter. But that's definitely it. Vlogging? nuh-uh. Podcasting? nuh-uh. Bookstagramming? nope.

Turns out, I'm eating my words on at least one of those... vlogging and Instagram (OK, I have a feed; there are exactly 2 entries in it) remain to be seen, but 2017 is the year I became a podcaster!

More accurately, 2017 is the year that I subbed in to an ongoing series with Tamara at ShelfAddiction, who is an AMAZING podcaster, blogger, and vlogger, and Casey from HeartFullofInk to talk my head off about Mercy Thompson.

December is a time for finishing things up, and this series is no different: the three of us are finishing up Patricia Briggs' fabulous Mercy Thompson series, and just to keep it all tidy, you get a double dose this month: Silence Fallen as well as Shifting Shadows, which is an anthology of short stories across the entire timeline of the series, include a few hundred (thousand?) years of prologue. Find the podcasts at ShelfAddiction/podcast.

But wait, there's more: Tamara, Casey and I are so pleased to let you know that the Penguin/Random House, publisher of the Mercy Thompson series as well as the related parallel series, Alpha and Omega, has partnered with us to give ONE of our US listeners the ENTIRE Alpha & Omega Series in PRINT! Head on over to the Rafflecopter link to enter for your chance to win.

Not Dead Yet...

noreply@blogger.com (Nicola O.) — Sun, 19 Nov 2017 21:42:00 +0000

So 2017 has not been a great year for this blog, clearly. I've been scarce on Twitter, too. It really is a different world than it was a year ago. If it hadn't been for the Rust City conference, I probably wouldn't have posted since May.

It's hard to pin down exactly why--there's no one reason. Family, career, and current events have been consuming a lot of energy lately, and while I've still been reading (you only have to worry about me if I'm NOT reading), I don't seem to have much left for blogging or engaging in the online book/romance community.

Why today? What changed? I dunno, but I'm glad for it! Maybe it's because I just passed up my ten-year 'bloggiversary'... I know, I can't believe it either. But hey, here I am with three cups of coffee on a Sunday and I have the time, the inclination, and the words under my fingers to blog, so let's do this thing. What's new? Well, quite a bit, actually!

Rust City Debrief
Shoot, I really should have done this a long time ago. I always have fun at conferences and Rust City was no exception. As much as I love online interaction, it's great to really connect with book-lovers in person. I made some new friends, connected with old ones, and also touched base with my mother-in-law, so I get good-person points for that.

Also, I really love the Five Words stories. I'm thinking about running a game or two in 2018 that won't be tied to a conference. And glancing over the blog, I realize that I never posted the Stunning Conclusion to our Immortal Hunters story, so I'll put together a couple of posts to finish off both of those, so you can read them beginning to end without jumping through a bunch of links.

Podcasting!
Speaking of Rust City, that's where I met Tamara Ford, host of the Shelf Addiction blog and podcast. She also came out to Casey's Reading Until Dawn conference last June where we further cemented our commitment to books and alcohol. One thing led to another and now I'm involved in a three-way with her and Casey. Um. Three-person podcast series, that is. The "Three Bloggers One Series" is Tamara's brainchild, and I was super-flattered to be invited along when their original third person had to drop out. If you love book-related podcasts, check it out--look for the hashtag #3Bloggers1Series.

At this point, we're almost finished with Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thomson series, but you can listen to all the episodes from that link. If you want to jump on the bandwagon for the next series (and you should! It's a really fun wagon with a great band... or something like that?) then click on over to this short and sweet rundown of the two series we are considering for our next read-along, and give us a vote!

Book Club
Just about a year ago, I posted a review of Circling the Sun, which is way outside my normal type of book, as chosen by the workplace bookclub I joined. We choose a different genre every month (I made them put Romance in the rotation!) Since then we've read Path of the Fury, In a Dark, Dark Wood; SevenEves; The Bollywood Bride; 11-22-63; As I Lay Dying; Good as Gone, and most recently, The Eyre Affair. I feel like I deserve adulting stickers for keeping up.

Find Me on RT Book Reviews
I typically do 2-4 reviews per month at the RT Book Reviews site, mostly in contemporary. If you really want to find my stuff specifically, you can find most of them by searching on my last name, Onychuk (good thing I'm not a Smith or Johnson or Roberts...) I will occasional tweet some real-time reactions to these and other books with the hashtag #amreading or #reviewerlife.

Standout Reads
I read 6 or 8 books a month, and it's been a while since I've posted, sooooooooooo this could get really long. But generally it appears that I'm deep in a paranormal groove this year, because some of the series I've been loving on are: Jeffe Kennedy's Uncharted Realms as well as the Sorcerous Moons series; a long-overdue summer binge on Jeaniene Frost's Night Huntress series; Nalini Singh's Psy-Changeling entry for the year of course; a fun new series from Kathy Lyons called "Stone Men;" and a recent fave, the Irin Chronicles from Elizabeth Hunter. Oh, and did I mention Ann Aguirre's Ars Numina series? She started it off and hooked me and now she's off on some other series, boo. But the two that are out are amazing.

In contemporary I'm fangirling all over Julie Anne Long as always, and Alisha Rai; and then I've fallen hard for Kerrigan Byrne on the historical side. In short, I have no lack of great reading. I owe reviews for a few of these mentioned, and others; I hope to get a few of those posted at a more-than-6-months frequency too. If any of the titles or authors I've mentioned have you really wanting a review, leave me a comment and I'll see what I can do!

Lastly...
I feel like no blog post is really complete without some sort of image. Since this post is kind of a hodgepodge of what I've got going on, here's a visual -- my desktop this morning. The pile of books is a tiny bit staged but everything else is just how things are -- girl scouts and books and crafts and chocolate and coffee and the internet and earbuds for this morning's podcast and... well, lots of stuff. IDK why the light is so weird but that's the best it's gonna get today.

RustCity Flash Fiction: Sage Spelling

noreply@blogger.com (Nicola O.) — Sun, 30 Jul 2017 20:36:00 +0000

Please welcome Sage Spelling for her Alpha Heroes debut! Sage agreed to wrap up our Contemporary Realistic story and I must say, I think she delivered a wonderfully satisfying ending, despite being swamped with crazy (and just possibly, maybe, more important) deadlines than our fun little game. Thanks so much Sage!

Given all that, we decided to cut through the chit-chat and get straight to the story. Sage's challenge words are: Banana, Wrench, Wood, Sterile, and Peacock

Doll-Face

Part 1, by Rue Allyn
Part 2, by Azriel Johnson
Part 3: by Robin Nadler

Part 4:

There is nothing like seeing the love of your life covered in bandages and surrounded with the steady rhythm of machines to put life in perspective. Arielle loved Van and yearned for the small things she’d taken for granted now that they were apart. Exhaustion washed over her and she’d realized she’d slept very little since before she’d gone home to visit her family. She missed falling asleep to the warmth of his body wrapped around hers and the comfort his arms provided after a long day.

She'd spent the evening watching a documentary about peacocks on the Animal Planet channel while Van slept peacefully in the hospital bed. The room was the typical depressing hospital room with white washed walls and sterile equipment. They’d been at the hospital for nearly six hours, but she’d kept her post at his bedside waiting for him to walk up. She’d been terrified of losing him and hadn't left his side from the moment they’d let her see him. She’d forgiven him. Yes, he’d cheated with some random girl, but she wasn't an angel. She’d kept her friendship with Baxter even after he’d made his intentions to get her back clear and enjoyed every second of the attention he bestowed. Her heart heavy with guilt, she remembered the kiss that Baxter laid on her when they’d taken a walk in the woods. She’d secretly hoped for that kiss and always wondered if there was more between them. But she’d felt nothing when their lips finally met. No spark. No fireworks. No toes curling or girly parts melting. She’d would have probably felt more if she’d kissed a bark of wood.

“Hey, beautiful.” Van’s groggy voice awakened her from her thoughts.

“Van.” Arielle leaned in and caressed the stubble on his cheek. “How do you feel?”

“I’d be better if you were still shirtless.” His lop-sided grin melted her heart. “Is that a large banana... wearing shades? on your shirt?”

She’d laughed despite the uneasiness in her chest. “Officer Dan had this t-shirt in his truck.”

“Arielle, I’m sorry. Sorry for everything.” His hand covered hers.

“Lets not talk about it now.”

“No, I have to say this.”

She nodded, too afraid to speak and not brave enough to voice her own feelings.

“I’ve been such a wrench.”

“Wrench?”

“Yeah, like the kids say.”

“You mean tool?” She suppressed a laugh.

“Whatever.” He grinned. “Anyway, I was so afraid of losing you, I pushed you away. I didn’t think you would ever think I could compare to Baxter. But I love you. Baby, when I saw you fall, my whole life flashed before my eyes and I know that I’d be nothing without you.”

“Van.”

“Please, Arielle. Forgive me.”

Her throat tightened. “I forgive you, but you might not forgive me.”

“What are you talking about?” His blue eyes darkened.

“Baxter kissed me and I let him. I wanted to see if you were right and I’d really been in love with him.”

“And?” His voice was barely a whisper.

“I don't love him. I love you. Only you. It's always only been you, Van.”

He reached for her and groaned in pain. “Kiss me,” he whispered.

“Sure thing, Dollface.” When their lips finally touched, she’d moaned and he deepened the kissed by cupping her face within his hands.

“Marry me?”

“Ask me again, when you're not high on pain meds.”

“I already have the ring.”

“Still, ask me again when we're not in the ER.”

“Will you say yes?”

“Yes.”

-------------------------------------------

I love that! Despite some unconventional twists and turns, Sage gave us a romantic happily-ever-after, and I have to say it took mad skillz to do that. I would read the hell out of a full-length romance based on this story. Three cheers for Van and Dollface!

For more from Sage, please check out her website.

Con Information:

Don’t miss your chance to meet some amazing authors at Rust City Book Con next week! Come join us as we celebrate the authors who write the stories we love to read in the Motor City! Walk-ins are welcome.

RustCity Flash Fiction: Marie Piper

noreply@blogger.com (Nicola O.) — Wed, 26 Jul 2017 21:27:00 +0000

Please welcome veteran of both the Rust City Book Con and our Five Words game, Marie Piper! I loved what she did with the steampunk story last year, and I have to say, our readers are in for quite a treat today.

If you're just joining us, our authors are building on the previous story, using five challenge words from the previous player. Then they pay it forward by giving five words to the next player. Marie is building on our "anything goes" story, where Our Hero, Rick Who is Somehow Immortal, having defeated a pair of Mongolian Deathworms and a random demon, is now battling the recently possessed Tommy.

Marie's challenge words: sulfur, concrete, split, char, owl... and GO!

The Hunters

Part 1, by Stacy McKitrick
Part 2, by Suzanne Sabol
Part 3, by AJ Norris
Part 4, by Jillian David
Part 5, by Stephen Osborne
Part 6, by Azriel Johnson
Part 7, by Nancy Northcott

Part 8:

Suzie punched Rick hard, right in his healing bicep. “My brother is not a demon!”

“Ow! Don’t be mad at me, look!” Despite the discomfort of his healing body, Rick managed to wave in Tommy’s direction, and there was no mistaking—the boy, who had before looked as gangly and awkward as any 14 year old, shook. He vibrated, and he changed.

“Tommy!” Suzie called from where she knelt, but her words got cut off. Tommy shook apart. He split in half, and from the dissolving skin he’d worn emerged a creature like something Rick had only ever seen in nightmares and legends, a being so ugly and horrible no Hollywood crew could have made it up. Demon Tommy was massive, four armed with skin black and ashy as char and dark eyes that dripped with what looked like oil. The air stunk with sulfur.

“Tommy?”

“That’s not Tommy anymore,” Rick said, struggling to his feet. “Get out of here, Suzie.”

“I’m not going—he’s my brother…”

“And if you stay here, you won’t live to see him again, do you understand me?” Rick pointed to the car. “Get out of here now. I can’t be worried about keeping you safe.”

Was it with love, the way she looked back at him? Those gorgeous eyes of hers lit up like stars, then turned hard as concrete, and she nodded. “Save him, Rick. Save him and I’ll forgive you that god awful pink shirt.” She tried to keep her words lively, but he saw her fear.

“It’s fuschia,” Rick replied, just as scared himself.

Suzie rose on her tiptoes and kissed him, fast and soft. Then, like the smart lady she was, she ran off in the direction of the car. When he heard the car start, he turned back to his foe. This was no matter for mortals. “Give me back the boy.”

Demon Tommy raised all four of his hands in the air and screamed a blistering cry. The ground shook. Even though Rick knew what was coming, felt it in every part of his entire being, the actual sight of the Mongolian Death Worms—so many of them he couldn’t count as they all burst from the ground at once, stunned him.

“Shit,” he muttered. He had no weapons left, and he was covered in mustard. He was, for lack of a better word, screwed. And then he heard a hoot. Something brown blew past him, and his eyes followed it into the fog.

It was an owl. But it couldn’t be--

Peering, trying to see anything in the dense fog, he made out a shape. The shape got closer and grew clearer, and at the exact moment every worm locked their attention on Rick, he saw someone he’d never expected to see again. His throat closed, his eyes watered, and he beheld the magnificent sight.

The woman who came from the fog carried two swords as long as she was tall, and she was tall. Tall and lean and ethereal, with dark chocolate skin and hair so blue it seemed to glow. With one nod in the direction of the worms, their movements slowed to no more than a crawl. She had those abilities, those time-bending tricks. She also had very little patience for Rick. “Do I want to know why you’re covered in mustard?”

The first words she’d spoken to him in a hundred years, and of course they were meant to sting.

Rick groaned. “Do you mind if we talk about condiments later?” He pointed to the Demon at the center of the chaos before them. “That ugly bitch has the brother of…a friend of mine. He snatched his soul or something, and I need to get him back.”

“Certainly,” she replied, swinging her swords in a circle. “Have you learned anything of use in the past century?” “A couple things.”

With one nod of her head, swords appeared in Rick’s hands. “Then make yourself useful.”

He gave them a swing, pleased to see they felt familiar in his grip. “Yes, Mother.”

-------------------------------------------

Oof. ALLLL the heart-eyes for that twist!!! Come back in a few days to see how it all wraps up!

For more information about Marie Piper, please check out her website.

Con Information:

Don’t miss your chance to meet some amazing authors at Rust City Book Con next August! Come join us as we celebrate the authors who write the stories we love to read in the Motor City!

RustCity Flash Fiction: Nancy Northcott

noreply@blogger.com (Nicola O.) — Mon, 24 Jul 2017 20:08:00 +0000

Please welcome Alpha Heroes first-timer Nancy Northcott to the blog! Nancy writes in a number of genres, including paranormal romance, historical fantasy, space opera, and romantic suspense. There's something for everyone!

Glad to have you here, Nancy! Are you ready to play?

I sure am, Nicola!

Alright then! Your challenge words from Azriel are: real, mustard, backpack, tape, and demon; bonus points for using "hirpling" - which I had to google, I'm not gonna lie.

The Hunters

Part 1, by Stacy McKitrick
Part 2, by Suzanne Sabol
Part 3, by AJ Norris
Part 4, by Jillian David
Part 5, by Stephen Osborne
Part 6, by Azriel Johnson

Part 7:

Shocked froze everyone. Pain gnawing its way up Rick’s arm jerked him out of it.

“Mustard,” he snapped, shrugging out of his backpack. He fell to his knees beside it but couldn’t open the zipper with his left hand alone.

Suzie dropped down at his side. “Let me.”

Timmy stood still, staring down at his hands. “This can’t be real. I couldn’t have—I didn’t mean to.”

“We know, buddy,” Rick said. He gritted his teeth. His arm was black above his elbow, the pain already blazing in his shoulder.

Suzie flung aside duct tape, stakes, silver cross, jacket, camera, holy oil. Despite her steady, quick hands, fear tightened her face. “Rick, I can’t find—”

He rarely used the stuff, so… “Try—bottom.” Hurry, he thought but didn’t say. She was doing her best.

“Why mustard?” she asked, coming up with it at last. She popped the cap on the yellow, hourglass-shaped squeeze bottle.

“Squirt—on my arm,” he ground out. “Don’t…touch.” He had no idea what would happen if she touched that black, rapidly withering flesh, and he didn’t plan to find out.

“Don’t be an idiot.” She applied a wide, zigzagging strip up his arm. As he reached to rub it in, she grabbed the tape. “Wait. Just a second.”

Wait? When the pain was clawing into his chest, his arm turning black around his biceps? Compared to that, the pungent odor stinging his nose was nothing. Why wait?

Tearing the heavy tape with her teeth, she yanked off four strips, each four or five inches long and three wide. “Give me your hand.”

When he did, she slapped the strips across his palm and fingers, each overlapping the one before it.

“Go.” He rubbed desperately, spreading the yellow stuff. She taped her left hand and helped him.

“Your chest,” she gasped. She grabbed the rounded neckline of his worm-stained tee and yanked down hard, ripping it to the hem. More mustard went onto his chest and shoulder. Suzie spread it up his neck with great, sweeping strokes.

“Your neck’s not turning black.”

Good. The mustard had stopped the progression.

“Back,” he managed, acknowledging her with a nod.

The pain in his hand might be easing. He couldn’t tell with it roaring into his neck. His jaw.

Suzie muttered something emphatic, squirted mustard onto both hands, and slathered him with it, front and back.

“That’s all there is,” she said, frantically spreading the stuff. “I wish we had an old-fashioned jar. I can’t get the dregs out of this. Opening’s too narrow.” Again, he nodded. “’S okay,” he choked. The pain was throttling back, though slowly.

“Rick—”

“It’s better,” he choked. “It’s better. But Suze, your left hand. No tape. You shouldn’t have.”

“There was no time. Besides, Timmy’s magic has never hurt me.”

In the haste to spread the mustard, Rick had forgotten Timmy. He looked up. The boy’s crafty expression turned to distress. Tears welled in his eyes.

Too late, sucker. I saw you. Rick pushed himself to his feet. The blackened skin was flaking off of his hand. New, pink, healthy skin now lay beneath it.

Lower lip trembling, Timmy backed up. “I’m sorry, Rick. Sorrysorrysorry.”

“Rick?” Suzie, too, stood. “What is it?”

“Mustard’s a powerful herb, Suzie. Funny thing, though. Its only use to immortals is as protection against demon magic.”

“Demon? But…” She turned to her brother.

Timmy scrambled backward, the hirpling, or limping, gait another giveaway. Rick hadn’t noticed that earlier, thanks to savoring his private moment with Suzie. And now that he thought of it, the kid’s sudden appearance was a giveaway, too.

“Timmy?” Suzie asked.

“Don’t let him hurt me,” the boy wailed, still backpedaling.

“I’m not going to hurt Timmy,” Rick said. “The demon inside him is another matter.”

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I have to admit, between the blackened skin and squirting mustard, I can't help but think of the last wiener roast I took my scout troop on... but demons are no laughing matter, am I right? Come back soon to see what our next contestant makes of all this.

To read more from Nancy, check out her website - but brace yourself for a TBR influx, there's a lot going on!

Con Information:

Don’t miss your chance to meet some amazing authors at Rust City Book Con in less than two weeks! Come join us as we celebrate the authors who write the stories we love to read in the Motor City!

RustCity Flash Fiction: Azriel Johnson, Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Nicola O.) — Thu, 20 Jul 2017 11:00:00 +0000

Azriel Johnson is back for an encore presentation of Five Words, this time for the Hunters story. I think he's getting the hang of this!

As it turns out, Mr. Johnson isn't the chattiest of players so we're going to jump right into the story, which, admittedly, is pretty exciting. So here we go!

Challenge words: Furnace, Silver, Schoolyard, Drumming, and Chili. Bonus points if you can work in the word kumquat.

The Hunters

Part 1, by Stacy McKitrick
Part 2, by Suzanne Sabol
Part 3, by AJ Norris
Part 4, by Jillian David
Part 5, by Stephen Osborne

Part 6:

Tommy’s face illuminated in kumquat shaded fire. He barely heard his sister call for him to turn around, rather, something instinctual moved him, like drumming in his crappy garage band. A rhythm beat in his chest, and even with the furnace fire heat, he wasn’t afraid.

Before the two of them stood a scaled, spiked-skinned demon. Rick ran at the short wall of the grave, bounding off of the mud wall and landing on the grass behind Tommy and Suzie. He recognized the beast’s form immediately as a Jikininki, a Japanese corpse-eating ghoul, but the coloring was wrong. Typically, they presented with purple skin and no fire surrounding them. Rick had never seen this variety.

“Tommy, get away from that!” Suzie yelled. She rushed forward, almost as if in slow motion. Rick, too, felt a sluggishness he had not felt before.

The beast had no hindrance whatsoever. With a roar it brought its huge, clawed hands down towards Tommy. The boy, instinctively, punched forward into the chest of the ghoul. The roar caught in its wretched throat. The beast crumbled to dust, like silver staking a vampire.

Rick and Suzie stopped in their tracks. Tommy brushed off the ghoul dust. He coughed a little. It tickled a little, like chili powder. “So, that was weird, huh?” Tommy said, to slack-jawed Suzie and Rick.

“Tommy,” Suzie asked. “How did you learn to do that?”

“Learn to do what?” Tommy asked. “I don’t even really know what I did.”

Rick asked, “So Tommy, those stones you were talking about over by the crypt. Take us to them.”

Tommy lead his sister and her mentor to the crypt. Surrounding it were a few different tombstones which did, indeed, look like they mottled with holes. Rick said, “Let me see your hands.”

Tommy held up his left hand. Rick grabbed it and held the boy’s pointer finger up to the holes. Each hole matched the size of Tommy’s finger. The one tombstone Tommy started to mention looked like it had been reduced to dust. “Tommy,” Rick asked. “Were you poking these tombstones?”

The boy looked sheepishly at Rick. “Yes, sir.”

Rick looked at Suzie. Suzie was baffled. Rick turned back to Tommy. “I need you to poke them again.”

“Okay,” Tommy said quietly, ashamed. He pressed his pointer finger into a tombstone. Immediately, the stone his finger touched turned to dust.

Rick examined Tommy’s clothes, none of them looked burned. “Are you wearing cotton or polyester?”

“Cotton, I think, why?”

Rick looked at Tommy’s shoes. They were sandals and looked leather.

“Rick,” Suzie said. “What’s going on?”

“I think Tommy...” Rick paused, “has the ability to break down dead objects and creatures by touching them.”

To Tommy, Rick pointed off to the left and said, “Go put your hand on the tree.”

Tommy looked nervous. “A-are you sure? I don’t want to hurt it.”

“Trust me,” Rick said. Tommy walked to the tree and lightly laid his hand on the bark. Nothing happened.

“That explains a lot,” Rick said. “If something is living, it’s safe. If something’s dead, it turns to dust. That explains why Suzie was okay when you pulled her out.”

“I’ve touched, not… alive…, things before,” Tommy said. “Monkey bars in the schoolyard, for example.”

“Maybe this is a recent development, sometimes puberty can be a trigger for latent abilities. When did you start noticing weirdness when you touched objects?”

Tommy kicked at the ground. He wasn’t exactly comfortable with puberty talk.

Rick let the matter drop for now. “Tell you what, we’re going to find out what exactly is going on and we’re going to learn to control it. Maybe even harness it. Who knows, Tommy, you might become more welcome on our hunting trips than you ever imagined.”

Rick reached forward to shake hands with Tommy, his previous annoyance dissipated with this new conundrum. Tommy smiled and extended his hand to meet Rick’s. They clasped hands, and Rick’s almost immediately turned black.

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Well that seems awfully inconvenient, now doesn't it? Is this the end for Rick the Worm Hunter? You'll have to come back here to find out!

For more information about Azriel Johnson, check out his webpage.

Con Information:

Don’t miss your chance to meet some amazing authors at Rust City Book Con next August! Come join us as we celebrate the authors who write the stories we love to read in the Motor City!

RustCity Flash Fiction: Stephen Osborne

noreply@blogger.com (Nicola O.) — Mon, 17 Jul 2017 11:00:00 +0000

Today I'm welcoming a newcomer to Alpha Heroes, one Stephen Osborne! Stephen is going to take on the next installment of our Anything Goes story, and I promise, you guys are going to like it!

Hi Stephen! So can you tell us a little about yourself, and what you like in a fictional hero?

Hi. Stephen Osborne here. The mystery continues! Me, I like snarky heroes with a sense of humor. And dogs. I really like dogs. And playing board games with friends, and Broadway shows. And Doctor Who.

I absolutely cannot resist a snarky hero. OK Stephen, here we go -- your challenge words are: Flamboyant, Pumice, Chipmunk, Fuchsia, and Staggered. And Jillian says you get bonus points for using spleen. I have to confess that I'm not really sure how I'm going to account for bonus points. Perhaps they might be turned into alcohol at the con. Let's see what you've got, Stephen!

The Hunters

Part 1, by Stacy McKitrick
Part 2, by Suzanne Sabol
Part 3, by AJ Norris
Part 4, by Jillian David

Part 5:

Rick’s lips were dangerously close to Suzie’s. Okay, he had worm slime all over his hands and some worm blood had splashed onto his brand new shirt, so perhaps this wasn’t the best time for romance. But one doesn’t always get to choose the moments in life, so…

Rick leaned in to kiss Suzie, but she chose that moment to look down at his worm-stained shirt. “You wore the shirt I bought you.”

The moment was gone. Perhaps it was for the best. After all, what chance did an immortal like Rick have with a sweet girl like Suzie? Rick knew how Suzie felt about him, and he knew she knew how he felt about her. And they both knew the impossibility of the situation. So they discussed Rick’s shirt. “Probably not the best color to wear for a night of hunting. Pink’s a bit…flamboyant.”

Suzie frowned. “That’s not pink.”

“Oh, it’s so pink.”

“That,” Suzie said, stepping back and eying Rick’s chest with a discerning eye, “is definitely fuchsia.”

“If you say so.”

A voice came from above them. “Always go by what she says, bro. Suzie’s always right.”

Suzie smiled. Rick tried to hide the annoyance he felt as he recognized the voice. Tommy was Suzie’s younger brother, and she treasured him more than anything in the world. To Rick he was just a bratty kid with chipmunk cheeks and a horrible taste in clothing. In moments, Tommy’s grinning face showed at the head of the open grave.

Suzie gave him a little wave. “Hi, Tommy!”

Tommy returned the wave. “Hey, sis!”

Rick hoped Suzie couldn’t hear the anger he felt. “You followed us!”

Tommy help up the stake he held in his right hand. “Well, yeah! Who doesn’t want to kill Mondasian Death Worms?”

Rick was glad the night foggy now. Maybe Suzie couldn’t see the anger in his face. “Mongolian! Mongolian Death Worms!” Was it wrong that he wanted to rip out Tommy’s spleen?”

Tommy tilted his head to one side, as if deep in thought. “Oh, yeah. Mondasian are the Cybermen on Doctor Who. ”

Suzie staggered a little as she held a hand up to her brother. “Help me up. I don’t want to spend all night in an open grave.”

“Yes,” Rick agreed. “We’ve still got work to do.” Although he preferred to do it with only Suzie as company.

Tommy gripped Suzie’s arm with surprising strength for a 14-year-old. As Suzie braced herself for the climb up, he said, “Yeah, speaking of which, did you guys see those tombstones?”

“We’re in a graveyard,” Rick noted. “There’s a lot of them about.”

“Yeah, but I mean the ones over by that big crypt. They look…weird. All mottled with holes. Like the granite had been turned into pumice. They’re real brittle, too. I touched one and…”

“Tommy!” Suzie screamed. “Look out! Behind you!"

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Man, Rick just cannot catch a break, can he? What now?? You'll have to wait for the next installment to find out!
>

Con Information:

Don’t miss your chance to meet some amazing authors at Rust City Book Con next August! Come join us as we celebrate the authors who write the stories we love to read in the Motor City!