Archive for paranormal romance books
In the mood for unrequited vampire love, torture, and a vicious battle to destroy an entire race? Then pick up J.R. Ward’s Lover Revealed, the fourth book in the author’s Black Dagger Brotherhood vampire romance series. The tale of the Brotherhood, an elite group of vampire warriors, continues as they fight for survival against slayers determined to eliminate the entire race.
The six testosterone-fueled vampires with huge libidos that make up the Brotherhood are constantly fighting to save their civilian vampire counterparts from the lessers, bound to an evil master called The Omega and determined to stop at nothing to carry out his orders. The only human to ever be made privy to the inner workings of the Brotherhood, Butch O’Neal is a tough ex-homicide detective who helps the vamps with their investigations from time to time but longs for more.
He’s also hopelessly in love with the blue-blooded vampire Marissa, although the potential romance has never come to fruition. His love was revealed in the first book in the series, Dark Lover, although a misunderstanding tore them apart.
After saving a vampire civilian from the lessers one night, Butch is captured by the enemies and tortured mercilessly. After The Omega realizes that Butch is not about to reveal the Brotherhood’s secrets, he cuts him and places some of his own evil inside, hoping that it will spread and destroy the rest of the vampires.
But Vishous, Butch’s friend and vampire roommate, finds him and is able to cut most of the evil out of him. He’s still dying, however, and Vishous calls upon Marissa to come to his aid. In her haste, she forgets to protect herself, and she and Butch end up being quarantined together. As Butch begins to get better, the two make peace with the past and begin to build their relationship.
Ward’s aptitude for writing erotic love scenes comes into play here, while also making clear to the reader that the two have genuine affection for one another.
An interesting twist in Lover Revealed involves Vishous and his growing romantic feelings for Butch. While the two have always been close friends, this new affection is confusing to Vishous and makes for a unique love triangle.
This vampire romance book is a great read, more erotic and romantic than previous installments, and fans of the series will not be disappointed by this latest adventure into the dark world of the Brotherhood. Get Lover Revealed at your favorite bookstore.
Also, check out the next installment in J.R. Ward’s vampire romance books series, Lover Unbound!
The first book in the Night Huntress series, Halfway to the Grave by Jeaniene Frost, has always been one of my favorite urban fantasy novels, so I was thrilled to see the latest in the series ready for purchase - Destined for an Early Grave. We all know that awesomely excellent feeling you get when you see that the next book in a series - a series that you know is a good one - is available. I bought it immediately! This ire book series has some of the hottest sex scenes I’ve read - and I’ve read a lot! Ms. Frost does such a good job of making you want to be Cat. She is vulnerable, sexy, strong, unsure, and wanted - wanted by Bones in a major way that’s still believable after four novels.
In Destined for an Early Grave, we have Cat and Bones still comfortably head over heels for each other. Cat is a part vampire/part human vampire killer and Bones is a several hundred year old Master Vampire. You don’t doubt him and his feelings. I’ve not felt that a man’s emotions were so genuine since Noah told Allie in The Notebook, “I want all of you, forever, you and me, every day.” Of course, this was right after Noah built a house for her.
Unlike Bones, Cat is still harboring some trust issues. Who wouldn’t, considering the fact that she’s the daughter of a vampire father and a human mother who was raped by that very same vampire. As such Cat is unable to show Bones any vulnerability; what if Bones knows how much he could hurt her? We’ve all been there - you duck and cover. And as you can imagine, Bones is astute enough to sense that Cat is holding back a piece of herself from him – something he has a hard time understanding.
But, I digress, sorry. Back to the book review.
In this installment, Cat is starting to have nightmares which trouble Bones. At first, she keeps them to herself, unaware of the danger inherent in having another vampire state that she belongs to him during her dreams. The “dream vampire”, Gregor, claims that he and Cat were married before she married Bones. Huh? How could this happen? I won’t give that away but it’s certainly worth the read. While the plot could have become confusing with memory replacement and timeline issues, I have to hand it to the author, she kept me reading.
With this book, you’ll get lots of great action and see all the other characters from the previous novels - Vlad, Tate, Spade, Ian - plus a few new ones to love and/or hate. And, there are quite a few surprises that keep things hopping. Whether you’ve read any of the other Night Huntress vampire books or not, you can read this as a standalone novel since it’s complete and interesting enough to stand on its own. As usual, Jeaniene Frost does not disappoint.
First things first: If you haven’t been following J.R. Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood series, where have you been? Secondly: start with an earlier book in the series. You’ll have a better appreciation for the storyline of Lover Avenged, Book #6 in the series, if you do.
For those of you that have enjoyed the previous books, Lover Avenged doesn’t disappoint. It’s the story of Rehvenge, a pusher and nightclub owner and all-around badass vamp who’s also a sympath. He hooks up with a vampire nurse, Ehlena, who’s a bit of a recluse and spends her time either working at her clinic or nursing her schizoid father.
As a patient of the clinic, the other nurses steer a wide path around Rehv because of his menacing attitude. I mean, unless you’re attracted to the dark brooding type, wouldn’t you? On top of that Ehlena’s got her own problems, and at first is oblivious to Rehv and his attraction to her.
However as Rehv and Ehlena draw closer, he still must keep his true identity as a sympath a secret. If he reveals it he faces exile to a colony full of crazies. But when Rehv is asked to murder the Blind King Wrath, leader of the Brotherhood, the only person he can turn to is Ehlena.
The story follows a handful of other intriguing characters, like Wrath struggling with his new role. Tohrment, John Matthew and Xhex (characters from previous books) make appearances too. A large part of the book deals with Lash, a really unpleasant creature who’s a lesser, beings who have devoted their lives to ridding the world of vampires. This time he has a sexual appetite, and it makes for some really creepy and fun reading.
The intricate storyline and the relationship between Rehv and Ehlena work together to make Lover Avenged a strong addition to the Black Dagger Brotherhood paranormal romance book series.
Looking thorough my pile of unread books for the next “good one”, I was immediately intrigued by the title of the book Red Headed Step Child by Jaye Wells. Since I was getting into the bath, I took it with me and got so into it, my bath turned into a two hour soak because I could not put it down. Great book! The story is fun and full of mythical creatures like fairies, vampires, mages, nymphs, and demons who have all been living on Earth undetected since the Garden of Eden. This book does an excellent job of explaining the origin of vampires and the author makes it easy to see how these creatures could not possibly get along without a few problems.
The main character, Sabine Kane, is a mixed-blood, magical vampire assassin. She was raised by her grandmother after her mother, a vampire, and her father, a mage, fell into a tragic love affair that ends in their deaths. Her grandmother, a cold, hard woman who is the leader of the vampires, has always treated Sabine as an outcast. So Sabine, wanting to fit in, will do anything to please her grandmother - including even killing close friends when ordered.
In Red Headed Step Child Sabine is assigned a mission by her grandmother to infiltrate a cult that is threatening the vampire community. The problem for Sabine is that this assignment is not going to be easy. She learns that the cult leader, the charismatic Clovis Trakiya, is preaching love and harmony between the human and supernatural races.
Sabine’s grandmother demands that she kill Trakiya, and Sabine, not one to question her grandmother’s orders, begins putting a plan into action. This particular job is made more difficult because she must endure a cult initiation ceremony in order to get close to Clovis; this requires letting him feed from her. In Sabine’s world, no self-respecting vampire would ever allow themselves to be forcibly fed from. On top of that, she has to try and get rid of a hairless cat demon that some mystery enemy has sent to kill her!
To add to the mix, she meets a handsome, mysterious mage who wants to show her the unknown universe that comprises the realm of magic. The problem: he’s got a hidden agenda.
This was a thoroughly enjoyable debut novel. With a lot of light humor that draws you in, it gives you non-stop fantasy action and amusing character interactions that keep you reading – I read and read until I finished it in one sitting: proof positive that it’s a great find. I had the distinct impression that the author had a lot of fun writing it. It is definitely a page-turner and if you are looking for an action-packed book that’s a good read and has a distinctive female lead; this is the book for you. And I’m quite pleased to see that there is a sequel coming out titled “The Mage In Black”. I plan to be the first in line to buy it. Jaye Wells has me hooked!
Red-Headed Stepchild can be purchased from online retailers like Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
