The Festering Blurb: Romance

ACHERON: HALF-MAN, HALF-GOD, TWICE-BORN, ALL-CURSED

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 18:32:09 GMT

****CONTAINS SPOILERS****

For romance readers, the DarkHunter saga is our Star Trek. Our Star Wars. Our Ring Cycle. Harry Potter for adults. Shoot, it's even our Magnificent Seven! And in August, the capo di tutti cappi of the DHs is going to finally be exposed in all his incarnations. DH lovers have been salivating, nee slobbering (myself included) over Acheron ever since he appeared in Fantasy Lover.

Acheron Parthenopaeus is 11,000 years old. And he's royalty from Atlantis!! How freaking cool is that! The phrase "been there, done that, got the toga" was coined for him. He's so old, he has sex infrequently -- 1 word/not 2. He's so old, he doesn't have crows' feet, he's got eagle's wings. He says he's 11,000 but since he was born on February 29th BBBBC, he's really only 3½ thousand years old. And frankly, he doesn't look a century over 5,000. He still has the tips he made at the Last Supper! He knew Venus de Milo when she had BOTH arms. He never goes out with girls his age -- there aren't any! He remembers when the Dead Sea was only sick! He can kick the Olympians's asses any day of the week with only the air displaced from blinking. He gave the Scandinavian gods the idea to name the days after themselves, just to piss off the Olympians. He goes surfing with a Sumerian god. Walk on water? He invented water! God calls HIM for background checks. One more rebirth and he'll be tied with Hermes, the Greek messenger god.

And talking about the old days for Ash? "Hey, remember that time that orange ball came up for the first time? I finally stopped tripping on stuff." "Remember when that fish turned into a frog? That was cool." "The blizzards that time? That's where having a dragon as a house pet comes in handy."

The inspiration for the look of Acheron, the author's own design, is an Australian actor named Travis Fimmel. He's breathtakingly gorgeous -- a divine physique with gem-like blue-green eyes, super-thick blonde hair, luscious lips that curl into a sweet smile. I could go on and on but the drool would short out my keyboard. Kenyon first mentions him in DANCE WITH THE DEVIL (Zarek's story). That was my first DH novel. After that, I read another -- loved it. Then another mentioned Travis...then another. By my third novel, it had gone beyond Travis and I was utterly hooked on the DH world. Strong men and strong women, fighting side by side, battles of wits and wills. Magnificent!!

Threaded through all of them was the presence of Acheron. He's a best friend, a father-figure, the annoying cousin you only see at holidays and funerals. Your boss after a bad golf game. The evil dentist in Marathon Man, but without the whimsical charm. The goth loner on campus. Flame and hail. Hellfire and all-encompassing love. He's so powerful, it takes 2 books to capture his essence.

He's cursed because, unlike the other gods, he lived as a human for his first 18 or so years. Gods don't fathom humans. They are simply a more fun species of animal. But Acheron lived as a human, so as a god, he has a soft spot for us. That puts him at a disadvantage because it gets used against him all the time -- even though, as an Atlantian god of apocalyptic destruction, he could take out any Greek or Roman god you throw at him. He tries to temper his true nature, but certain practices must be seen to if he wants to hang on to his compassionate side. Certain practices that involve a bitchy, red-haired "heifer goddess" named Artemis, Greek goddess of the hunt, and apparently, of intrigue. She pulls his strings and makes it hurt.

I don't know what's in store for Acheron after his book, but I'm thinking the DH saga might be played out and Kenyon might be moving on to other gods she has developed, like Savitar maybe. That's fine with me. Series do need to end sometime. With 25 books in the DH series, I sure don't feel cheated. This has been one of the greatest series in the history of romance novels.

Dark Hunters Reading Order -- Excerpt

1. Fantasy Lover, (St. Martin's Paperbacks, 2002)

2. "The Beginning", also in the back of Sins of the Night (St. Martin's Paperbacks, 2002)

3. Dragonswan, reprinted singly by Berkley (2005) (ISBN 0515140791)

4. Night Pleasures, (St. Martin's Paperbacks, 2002)

5. Night Embrace, (St. Martin's Paperbacks, 2003) (ISBN 0-31298-482-0)

There are currently 24 stories; ACHERON makes 25 -- maybe 26 because it's 2 novels incorporating his human life and his life as an Atlantean god.

If you're looking for accounts of Atlantean civilization, there's Timaeus and Critias and The Atlantis Dialogue: Plato's Original Story of the Lost City, Continent, Empire, Civilization, both written by Plato.

"Dark Hunters: Mad, Bad & Immortal"

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Technorati Tags: Sherrilyn Kenyon,Dark-Hunters,Acheron,romance,Atlantis,mythology,Plutarch,Thoth,Travis Fimmel,Calvin Klein,Tarzan,Harry Potter,German opera,James Levine,Sir Georg Solti,vampires,werewolves,New Orleans,Goths,Godsmack,Elmer Bernstein,Seven Samurai,Yul Brynner,John Sturges

Travis Fimmel links:

VISITATION, WELCOME CTY., N. CAROLINA: SUBTLETY IS THE HARDEST THING.

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 18:02:42 GMT

**SPOILERS**


THE WINSTON BROS.	WILD	SAY NO TO JOE?

THE SECRET LIFE OF BRYAN	WHEN BRUCE MET CYN

JUST A HINT, CLINT	JAMIE

A while back, I posted a list of how you can tell that a sequel is in the works. Well, here's another way -- naming a town "Visitation." You just know everyone and their brother is going to find their way there. In the case of Lori Foster, she makes it all okay. I love the Visitation series. I especially like that it's a spin-off of another series. I don't know why -- probably it's that the characters are very loveable.

It all started with the indescribably yummy Winston brothers [Rule #1: the hero/heroine has lots of close friends/relatives who figure prominently in the story ] of Thomasville, Kan-tuck-ee. Whoo, that lot! The oldest brother Cole makes shyness quite sexy. The second brother Chase is into mild domination -- scarves and being extra bossy -- very softcore. The third brother, Zane, is a total man-whore -- until he gets his own book. The youngest brother Mack is, to hear him tell it, spilling out of his g-string big time. So they have this cousin, Joe, and he shows up in Zane's story. He meets Zane's wife's best friend Luna, thereby fulfilling sequel clue #6: F/Rs of hero/heroine are thrown together. Zane's story has a very flexible, downright stretchy, brand of logic. But the characters are so likeable you really don't mind so much. Zane is mouthwatering, and his brothers continue to be so as well.

VNC series starts with Luna going to Joe for help with some relatives who live in Visitation. Foster describes Joe in mouthwatering terms. Well done! So in Visitation, Joe teams up with Adonis twin Bryan on a case. Joe's sister comes to town and immediately becomes a thorn in the side of the sheriff -- clue #6 again. Then Bryan comes to town again to hide out and protect a "prostitute". Their story is like something out of As You Like It -- the hero and heroine pretending to be someone vastly different from who they really are. Then Bryan's twin Bruce shows up and Bryan's woman accidentally exchanges tonsils with him.

So that's about where the family angle ends, but Foster picks up the two loose ends -- Julie Rose, the schoolmarm and Jamie the buff psychic. Julie falls for a ruthless detective, Clint Evans, who probably has Krohn's Disease, and psychic mountain man Jamie (I really don't like that name for a man. To my ears, it's too foo-foo. It's a name for a kid, not a man.) meets up with a woman who knew him before he went into hiding. She's been biding her time to establish a connection with him.

Foster likes using families -- brothers -- as a canvas. She does it often, and well. There's the 4 "Buckhorn" Brothers -- 4 brothers, 3 last names, 1 son, 2 of them married to sisters. Then the 4 Winstons, then the Adonis twins Bryan and Bruce. Familial constructs work well because the audience is built in, captive even. Dialogue and body language between family members is more riveting and drives a story more interestingly than standard narrative exposition. The Winston brothers and Buckhorn brothers are the polar opposites of Lora Leigh's August brothers. If you need a break from the non-stop sturm und drang of Leigh's books, Foster's books are relaxing and happy and funny and ain't nuthin' wrong with that.

Shay's sister has her own story. This takes place way before the Visitation series.

www.amazon.com :: http://www.half.ebay.com/ :: www.ebay.com :: www.betabordersstores.com :: http://www.barnesandnoble.com :: http://www.shelfari.com/o1518324450/shelf

Technorati Tags: romance,Lori Foster,Lora Leigh,Sherrilyn Kenyon,Winston Brothers,shopping,gypsies,technical writing,North Carolina,Kentucky,Tennessee,bounty hunters,SWAT teams,law enforcement

TREK MI Q'AN -- IT'S LIKE, OUT THERE, MAN; CLOTHES OPTIONAL

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 03:50:28 GMT

MILD SPOILERS. ADULT (21+) CONTENT.

Ellora's Cave -- publishers of romantica (romantic erotica) :: Jaid Black

I. Bit of a rant

e-books: Print books ordered from Ellora's Cave have a sort of appendix that explains why e-books are better. Plus, there's a few different e-readers available now where you can load the text and not have to explain away the saucy covers. This, to me, gives rise to some philosophical (?) and philological issues. For example, remember when "reader" used to mean that compact little print book you used in elementary school? It was full of fairy tales, legends, nursery rhymes, etc.? Now people are reading text messages (dull, moronic pasttime), e-mails (wonderful when they are done well), Internet-fashioned news stories so far removed from professional journalism that they are a species unto themselves, blogs (er...yeah), and anything else that is NOT printed between two covers and is portable. Fine. Whatever.

But you know what is really, really stupid? They call glancing at those lexophobic blips "reading". They think they have "read" if they glimpsed a couple of text messages, some gossip at Perez Hilton's blog (where did this piece of subterranean excrement come from and why hasn't he been flushed away?) , and checked the weather on their iPhone. And they have the nerve to be indignant if you call them ignorant. Sad, misled, ignorant, weak-minded fools. If you don't read anything -- ever -- that is what you are. It doesn't matter what you think, that's what you are. BUT, you can change your mind anytime and pick up the slack in your reading life. So there. I don't just complain about problems, I offer a solution. Whether you get your books on a paper reader or e-reader, get your book on. Get into it. You will find yourself becoming more interesting. And when you do, others will pick up the vibe.

II. Trek Mi Q'an -- Naughty, horny sci-fi

Reading Order for Trek Mi Q'an series:

The Empress's New Clothes [link to TENC]
Seized [link to Sz]
No Mercy [link to NM]
Enslaved [link to Ens]
No Escape [link to NE] 5.5 Dementia [link to Dem]
Naughty Nancy
No Fear [link to NF]

I would not be surprised to hear that this set of stories has done more to liven up dull marriages than any counselor. They're very sexy -- tremendously silly at times -- but sexy. I do not kid. Ladies, if you and the SI are in a rut, read these books to your hub. If they don't excite you, you will at least have tons of controversial topics to argue about. You can make up afterwards. *nudge nudge, wink wink*

The first story deals with the Emperor Zor. He's the capo di tutti capi of several galaxies in the 7th dimension. He's taller than Yao Ming and proportionately large all over. He discerns his "sacred mate" on modern-day earth and that's pretty much when the fun starts. His brother Dak has a crush on Zor's wife's best friend. Dak's love story is in book 2 although it overlaps with book 1.

Book 3 is Rem's love story. He's brother to Zor and Dak. He also finds his wife on earth -- modern-day Australia.

Book 4 is Kil's love story. He is the fiercest brother of the four preternaturally tall and gifted royal family of TMQ. He finds his SI in 1960s America -- during a bra-burning feminist protest. Total opposites.

Zor and Kil have black hair and blue eyes. Zor's wife is a redhead; Kil's has dark blonde hair. Both of the women are quite short so when they mate, it's awkward to imagine a 7½ foot man of almost 300 pounds getting on top of a woman who's maybe 5'5". At least the women are fleshy -- you know, NORMAL.

Dak and Rem are blonde Adonises. Dak fell in love with an African-American woman, tall, but still.... Rem's woman is a redhead with freckles, and man, does their book really work the freckle-fetish angle. It's totally believable though, in a weird, sci-fi, freaky, unbelievable sort of way.

The sex scenes are frequent, frantic, and freaky. Here's an index of sorts:

exhibitionism: 1, 2, 3, 5.5
non-consensual: all
orgies: 1, 3, 4, 5.5
non-human: ALL
mind control: 1, 5
seeing your kids have sex: 3, 4
self-pleasure: all
menage: 1, 3, 4
romance: all
voyeurism: all
public sex: all
adultery: all
frottage: 5

Sometimes, they even do it in a bed. Picturing it leads to all sorts of head-scratching as you try to figure out how a 7.5 foot man and a woman who only comes up to his belly can get certain body parts to reach other body parts. At that point, you just give up and go with the flow, because seriously -- 75% of that stuff is just not possible even if you're limber. Your reach is your reach and no more.

Now, EC is a fine establishment who are doing interesting things in romantica. I think they even made up that word just for their product. But c'mon! Who the hell is editing these bluelines?! The series note at the beginning of the paperback lists ENSLAVED as the 4th book, but the blurb on the back says it's the 3rd. I'm confused. How did that get past the eds.? Errors in grammar abound in the worst way! Spelling, word choice, subject-verb agreement, missing words. Oh My God. I can't sell these books as new because I have circled mistakes on so many pages. Hey, if I have to proof these damn books, at least lower the price. Or pay me. Trust me, these are not ignorable mistakes. They stand out like a pork chop at a Hadassah luncheon.

To be fair, THE EMPRESS'S NEW CLOTHES is one of the best books of its kind -- romantica, that is. It's a trend-setter. You get to like Zor and his wacky family after a while. The world Jaid Black created is consistent throughout the series. Except in NO FEAR, she starts to spread it out a bit and the language rules run amuck among the galaxies. She starts a lot of threads that go nowhere, and I find that irritating. Most importantly to someone like me, the lexicon stays consistent throughout the series. It consists of some old-fashioned English public school vocabulary with heavy use of articles like in Spanish. Although, they use "moon-rising" and "night" but they don't seem to be interchangeable. Consistency of specialized vernacular is very important in this genre, and that is the strongest characteristic of these books. Oh, and most of the sex is pretty cool, too.

Technorati Tags: sex,romance,erotica,Jaid Black,Ellora's Cave,Trek Mi Q'an,voyeurism,menage,exhibitionism,adultery

NEW SERIES BY LORA LEIGH -- ELITE OPS (UNDER DEEP COVERS)

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 17:25:28 GMT

WILD CARD

The story of Nathan Malone's recovery from his year-long ordeal at the hands of Diego Fuentes and his partner in corruption Jansen Clay. He first appeared in HIDDEN AGENDAS, then a short scene at the beginning of KILLER SECRETS, and now it's a couple of years later. He was so weak physically and mentally that he was hospitalized for a long time (several months?) And, apparently, he has had facial reconstruction. Word on the street is that he had to do it because Diego is still alive and might come after him again.

So not only is this his anxiously-awaited story, it's also the beginning of a new series. We'll see Nathan try to reconcile with his wife. He'll be drafted into a new team of commandos, run by his uncle, with a worldwide reach.

I don't know that it's been mentioned much but Leigh can create some really scary women. Fuentes's dead wife Carmelita sounds like a scary-ass beyatch from the bowels of Hell. And Clay's wife sounds like a psycho-dominatrix-nympho-lesbian. Jeez. Vicious, much? It reminds me of when I was a kid. I grew up around women who seemed quite innocuous, but they ran offices and classrooms, politics and marriages with iron fists while their men got all the attention and credit.

Here is an excerpt from www.loraleigh.com

The Elite Operations, ELITE OPs was created to fight against that terror. A six man force working independent of government protocol or oversight, created to do what the others can’t do. They have only one directive. Success of the mission. No matter what it takes.

Captain Jordan Malone (from Tempting SEALs) will lead the first five agents into the missions that will test their abilities, their loyalties, and their belief in themselves.

The heroes from the new series are:

Nathan Hawke nee Malone
Travis Caine (MI-5/English)
John Vincent (Aussie Intelligence)
Nikolai Steele (Russian Special Forces)
Micah Sloane (Mossad/Israeli)

One of the things I love about Lora Leigh is that she does her homework. She's writing plots that used to be the sole property of male writers. And she does it damn well. The thrill is in the details with these international military intrigue plots. It's the getting ready, the gathering of weapons and intel, the strategizing, the action. She's great with details and so ends up writing fantastical stories that sizzle in the brain. They're exciting and noisy and kick-ass.

Amazon lists the street date as August 26. But the larger bookstores might have it a few days sooner. Get all of the Tempting SEALs books while you are waiting for Nathan's story.

SEALs Series Order:
Honk If You Love Real Men                     Reno Chavez
Dangerous Games (Tempting SEALs)     Clint McIntyre
Real Men Do It Better                                 Joe Merino
Hidden Agendas (Tempting SEALs)       Kell Krieger
Killer Secrets (Tempting SEALs)              Ian Richards
Rescue Me                                                   Macey March

What Women Want

Hunters: Dark-, Dream-, and Book-

Technorati Tags: Lora Leigh,Romance,Romantica,Military Action,MI-5,CIA,Mossad,NCIS,JAG,Tom Clancy,covert operations,Tempting SEALs series,Elite Ops series

PRE-ORDERS: THE WAITING IS THE HARDEST PART

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 18:14:38 GMT

******MILD SPOILERS RE: LORA LEIGH'S SEALs********

The Breeds' saga of survival continues. THANK GOD!! I'm getting a bit burned out on series romances, but these are soooo good! Mercury Warrant. Such a cool name for a half-man/half-lion. The Breeds are literally an army unto themselves. They have to be. It's bad enough we have racist organizations, but now with the Breeds assimilating into the general population, racist organizations have morphed into "pure blood" societies. HUMAN RIGHTS FOR HUMANS ONLY!

Remember when the Nazis were making everyone see Jews as rats? When they convinced them that they weren't human, so it was okay to hurt them? Remember that? Well, these characters are hybrid humans -- created with animal DNA. It's hard sometimes to tell where the human ends and the animal begins. Well, it's hard until someone pisses them off. Then you find out the hard way that animal DNA doesn't allow for mercy. Loyalty? Yes. Love? Check. Instincts? For sure. Mercy? Ha! You wish.

It's not nice to F*#@ with Mother Nature.

This is the follow-up to KILLER SECRETS (an awesome book, btw!!!). Too bad it's an anthology. This one contains the story of Macey March. He was very close friends with Ian from KS. He was actually betrayed twice: once when he found out Ian was "Judas" (Hidden Agendas), and again when he found out Ian only joined the cartel to bring down his father and Sorrell, the French terrorist.

So in this story, Macey finds someone to love. But as is typical, the course of true love doesn't run smoothly. The sex, yeah, for sure. No second guessing there. But love is a scarier proposition. Apparently.

SHERRILYN KENYON ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After waiting for 10 books to get this guy's story, I find myself suddenly of two minds. Over the course of the Dark-Hunter novels, Acheron is mysterious, gorgeous, libidinous, generous, and several other -ous adjectives. But now that his story is going to come out this summer, I'm thinking, maybe it's better to keep him as mysterious man/god/sex-god. That's why he's interesting, right? It's just like with Jonas of the Breeds books. He's interesting because he's a puppetmaster, behind-the-scenes manipulator. Acheron is someone everyone wants to get close to, but extremely few manage it and still live. In fact, if you want to be invited to his house, you have to DIE. How freaking goth is that!!!

2008 IS THE YEAR OF ACHERON

Previous post re Dark-Hunters

Previous pre-order post

Omigah! I LOVE the B.A.D. boys. Compared to Durango Team, these guys know how to laugh and have a good time. Joe and Tee are hilarious together. As much as I adore the Tempting SEALs, they stress me out. So do the Dark-Hunters. But these guys are fun. I want more B.A.D. boys.

Technorati Tags: Lora Leigh,Sherrilyn Kenyon,Dark-Hunters,romance,Acheron,Mercury's War,Killer Secrets,Hidden Agendas,books,writing,Navy SEALs

WHAT WOMEN WANT

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 03:17:39 GMT

-- IS TO GET REALLY, REALLY, REALLY CLOSE TO A MAN -- WHO WILL LEAVE US ALONE!!!

[Elayne Boosler, 1986]

Moving Violations § Lora Leigh, Veronica Chadwick

Moving Violations: Law enforcement officials and military men, especially special forces, are the new erotic idols of popular romance. The new phallic symbols, if you will. I don't create these trends; I just bring them to your attention. Tell you what, we could do worse.

MEN

stewardesses
secretaries
nurses
maids
dancer
debutantes
foreign sexpot (esp. in combination with any of the above)

WOMEN

millionaires
billionaires
moguls
tycoons
landowners
royalty
secret agents
Navy SEALS/Army Rangers/commandos
Pilots
playboys (esp. in combination with any of the above)

So I haven't started reading the book yet, but it has a solid pedigree so it's bound to be good. Bound! Oooh, naughty!

Technorati Tags: Lora Leigh,Veronica Chadwick,Romance,military,armed forces,law enforcement,Ellora's Cave

HUNTERS: DARK-, DREAM-, & BOOK- [Part 1]

Sat, 08 Dec 2007 23:12:33 GMT

Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark-Hunters series -- action and romance, mythology and mischance

This has to be one of the best series ever! It has all the ingredients of a swetergrl favorite:

mythology
romance
action
intrigue
characters you want to be friends with
danger
strategizing (this is what makes facing the danger so much fun)
superpowers
psychic powers
what? All that ain't enough?

Tons of blog and forum space is devoted to this series, so here's my turn. There's a reading order to these but you can get that at Amazon.com. The whole series is one of the more popular list topics. That's one thing that sort of bugs me about Amazon. So many lists are repetitive and there's nothing tangible to distinguish them. Weird nicknames, I guess. Or saucy titles.

The first one I read was DANCE WITH THE DEVIL. I read on tarzantheseries.net (now defunct) that it had a reference to Travis Fimmel in it, so I hustled over to my local book shop and surprise! surprise! It was there. I was a good girl. I did not hunt for the reference, but read the whole book. It was cute. Simi is just the coolest character. Her banter is hilarious.

It's been a couple of years so I don't remember exactly which came next, but I was sufficiently interested to get more books from the series.

NIGHT PLAY

NIGHT PLEASURES

FANTASY LOVER

I flirted with the idea of getting a paperback cover as the titles are shamelessly panderous. Title notwithstanding, the art is quite discreet. FL is the "beginning" of the series. Some of the greatest inventions of romantic novels have to be the Devereaux sisters. Half Romanian Gypsy and half Louisiana Cajun.

The dark-hunters are ex-humans who have been granted eternal life, unbelievable wealth and supernatural powers. They're an army -- literally. Many of them were warriors in their past lives. And their past lives...WHOAH! Celts, Romans, Greeks, Vikings, and pirates. The whole series is a testosterone buffet. Not because of the love scenes. As nice as they are, if it wasn't for the stories of mythological beings mixing with humans, I would not buy/keep these books.

Kenyon has put out a concordance to the series, but if you're a reader like me, it's more fun to discover the characters book by book.

Take this cool dark-hunter quiz!

Dark-Hunter QUIZ

FearTheDarkness Site

Technorati Tags: Sherrilyn Kenyon,Romance,Amazon.com,Dark-Hunters,Dream-Hunters,Kinley McGregor

<a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Dark-Hunters" rel="tag"><img style="border:0;vertical-align:middle;margin-left:.4em" src="http://static.technorati.com/static/img/pub/icon-utag-16x13.png?tag=Dark-Hunters" alt=" " />Dark-Hunters</a>

Romance Pre-Orders for Early 2008

Tue, 27 Nov 2007 03:06:41 GMT

Technorati Tags: romance,Amazon.com pre-orders,Lora Leigh,Sherrilyn Kenyon,BDSM,Dream-Hunters,Tempting SEALs series,Feline Breeds series,Ellora's Cave

Breathless with anticipation, waiting on 2008

My original premise is to write about books I have at home, BUT, I absolutely CANNOT WAIT for KILLER SECRETS by Lora Leigh! It's a continuation of the Tempting SEALs series -- Ian's story. If you read HIDDEN AGENDAS, Kell's story, you know KS is bound to be thrilling.

And, God bless her, she also has a new Breeds book out -- DAWN'S AWAKENING. Back in the day, Dawn was one of the original group of feline breeds, sister to Shera and Callan. She was very much in the background. But through succeeding books in the series, she has grown up -- to a point. Of all the breeds, she seems to fight her destiny the most -- the fact that one day, she'll mate with someone. Her time has come. Wow! This is gonna be good.

Sherrilyn Kenyon's B.A.D. series is pretty cool. It's less frantic than the SEALs stories, more romantic where the SEALs books are more "wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am". I love the characters. Between the Dark-hunters, the BADs and Leigh's SEALs, it's too much excitement to be contained between paper covers. Phantom in The Night is the new BAD book.

The one area where Kenyon's books have it over Leigh is simple revision. Leigh's books, some published by Ellora's Cave and some by Berkeley, have an astonishing amount of grammatical and spelling mistakes. Using adjectives to describe verbs and all that. It's annoying. Yet, sadly, I don't think too many people are noticing and/or caring.

If you don't care, you should. But that's another argument for another day.

Killer Secrets
http://www.amazon.com/Killer-Secrets-Tempting-SEALs-Leigh/dp/0312939949/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196047868&sr=1-12
Dawn's Awakening
http://www.amazon.com/Dawns-Awakening-Breeds-Book-4/dp/0425219755/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196047868&sr=1-8
Dream Chaser (A Dream-Hunter Novel, Book 3)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0312938829/ref=ord_cart_shr?%5Fencoding=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&v=glance
Phantom in the Night (Bureau of American Defense - B.A.D., Book 6)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1416503579/ref=ord_cart_shr?%5Fencoding=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&v=glance

Are walls the new beds?

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 03:57:10 GMT

Against the Wall

Rhyannon Byrd

Beauty & The Beast -- feminine lady and hulking male

Pride & Prejudice -- hot, popular guy falls for smart shy girl

This book isn't touted as a comedy, but it's pretty damn funny. It sort of follows the Beauty/Beast/Pride/Prejudice combo formula. Hot, hunky alpha male Ryan McCall falls in love with shy outside/adventuress inside librarian Shea Dresden. Librarian? Didn't Brendan Frasier and Rachel Weisz play out these parts already? In a movie called...THE MUMMY? How tired is that. Still, it's a cute story. For all that I'm blustering about the lack of originality, it's modern and fun and had a surprise or two up it's sheer sleeve. Not the least of which is the couple who enthusiastically emboss Shea's spinal column into the drywall. No, seriously. Like 4 times. It's brilliant.

PLUS-- if you read my post of November 01: Context clues that a series is in the works, you will have noticed some blaring clues that a sequel might be in the works. Shea's friend Hannah and Ryan's friend Derek were thrown together and made a lot of noise about hating each other. I love secondary plots. I don't know why.

The bookstore scene! Blimey!

Another interesting thing about this book is the erotization of certain male-oriented careers. We know that firefighters and cops and spies have the hero/hunk thing going on, but there's others to consider: FBI agents, detectives, Navy SEALs, Army Rangers, military pilots. They are to us what stewardesses, nurses, geishas are to men. In this case, we have Ryan and Derek as ATF agents (Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms). And it works just fine. Good with guns. Ready for action. {{{fanning self}}}.

This story could kick-start a honeymoon!

Against The Wall is availalble through its publisher Ellora's Cave or I-should-buy-stock-here.com

A Little Less Conversation is pretty good. Also has a hint of a secondary relationship.

Context clues that a series is in the works

Fri, 02 Nov 2007 03:18:06 GMT

Here's a list of clues that let you know a series is a strong possibility -- or a least a sequel.

Sherrilyn Kenyon (Dark Hunters) Lora Leigh (Feline Breeds, Wolf Breeds, Coyote Breeds, Tempting SEALs), and Lori Foster (Visitation, Buckhorn Brothers, Winston Brothers) are the current queens of this mode d'emploi.

the hero/heroine has lots of close friends/relatives who figure prominently in the story
comments about friends'/relatives' love lives are interspersed throughout the story
sometime during the story, a gauntlet is thrown down about how the F/R will fare when they (3a) meet their soul mate; (3b) meet their match
F/R declares that they will never fall in love then become sappy and swoony about it
F/R declares that they want someone completely different from the person their friend fell in love with
F/Rs of hero/heroine are thrown together
F/Rs of hero/heroine have a history
F/R is due to do business with someone who will turn out to be a love interest
hero/heroine inform on one F/R to another F/R
hero/heroine take on yenta duties
an elder character or authority figure character takes on yenta duties

Honk if you love that real men do it better!

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 04:26:08 GMT

Ooooookkkkkaaaayyy. God, I hate that I get my writing ideas at the same time I should be going to bed. It's not like I'm on summer vakay or anything. So I caved and bought Honk if You Love Real Men and Real Men Do It Better. Lora Leigh, a writer I enjoy, but take with a golfball-sized grain of salt, has a story in each that are part of the Tempting SEALS series that includes:

Dangerous Games

Hidden Agendas

Killer Secrets (coming soon)

I blogged about anthologies on 7 October. In a nutshell, they're the equivalent of writing an essay the night before as opposed to taking 2 or 3 days to really set it out in depth. Plus the fact that the more stories that are included, probably the more you'll regret spending money on it. And I really think that series are being done to death. Tempting SEALS is one of the best series I have read. Lori Foster's Fighters of the SBC is quite popular, but I've only read Simon Says.

At the end of the day, though, anthologies are good for people like me who have an inconsistent attention span. Being that it is almost midnight and I have a quite good day job, I'll save my brilliant idea for tomorrow. It's so brilliant, it has a PhD in Brilliance from Cambridge University. Not only that, but on its roof is a huge billboard that can be seen from Canada... and Neptune.. that says "THIS IS A BRILLIANT IDEA! Spelled out in blinking lights, of course.

"Books are, let's face it, better than anything else."

Nick Hornby~The Polysyllabic Spree

[This blog is a hobby. I have no business or personal connection with amazon.com other than being a customer. I am not making any financial profit from any of this. These are just books I have around the house.]

Anthologies -- a good way to sell crap stories

Mon, 08 Oct 2007 02:54:55 GMT

This week I was reminded of why I should not waste good shekels on anthologies. You buy the book for 1 story; the other story is halfway decent; then there's the one that's complete freaking INCOMPREHENSIBLE. WTF?! I've read a handful of these and the best/decent/rubbish formula is a given. I should have bought the book on eBay or from an Amazon alternative seller, except that sometimes they poke your eyes out with s&h fees.

So in this anthology -- HOT SPELL (excuse me while I die laughing), the BEST story is "The Breed Next Door". I'm not satisfied with the ending, but overall, very pleasant. "Falling For Anthony" and "Blood Kiss" are long-winded with glimpses of interesting vampire and paranormal stuff. "The Countess's Pleasure". Omigah! There's an hour and a half of my life I'll never get back. I read on, imploring the story to make some sense. But no. It was a crapfest from beginning to end. If I decide to keep the book, I'm tearing out the 3 waste-of-time stories and keeping the Lora Leigh. Really, what else can you do? The cover is on my book list if you want to check it out.