I’m over at Dear Author with a review of Lionheart by Thea Harrison. A lot of ground to cover; the romance felt a little underdone in the courtship department.
Tag: paranormal (Page 2 of 5)
Why I read it: I received a review copy via the publisher.
What it’s about: (from Goodreads) “My name is Mary Seymour and I am the daughter of one queen and the niece of another.”
Browsing antiques shops in Wiltshire, Alison Bannister stumbles across a delicate old portrait – supposedly of Anne Boleyn. Except Alison knows better… The woman is Mary Seymour, the daughter of Katherine Parr who was taken to Wolf Hall in 1557 as an unwanted orphan and presumed dead after going missing as a child.
The painting is more than just a beautiful object from Alison’s past – it holds the key to her future, unlocking the mystery surrounding Mary’s disappearance, and the enigma of Alison’s son.
But Alison’s quest soon takes a dark and foreboding turn, as a meeting place called the Phantom Tree harbours secrets in its shadows…
What worked for me (and what didn’t): In 1560, both Mary Seymour and Alison Banistre were at Wolf Hall together. They weren’t friends but they weren’t exactly enemies either. Alison did Mary a big favour and requested a boon in return. Alison went through a portal into the future (present day Marlborough) and Mary stayed where she was. She was tasked with finding out the location of Alison’s son, Arthur, who had been taken from her at birth. The plan had been for Alison to come back through to the past in the short term, snatch up Arthur and live happily together, perhaps in the future, perhaps not. But Alison’s way was blocked and she could not return. When the book begins, Alison has been in “now” for ten years and is desperately searching for a way back and to the answer to what happened to her son.
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Why I read it: My friend Caz recommended this series to me.
What it’s about: (from Goodreads) Gideon Frayne has spent his whole working life as a policeman in the village of Dark on Bodmin Moor. It’s not life in the fast lane, but he takes it very seriously, and his first missing-child case is eating him alive. When his own boss sends in a psychic to help with the case, he’s gutted – he’s a level-headed copper who doesn’t believe in such things, and he can’t help but think that the arrival of clairvoyant Lee Tyack is a comment on his failure to find the little girl.
But Lee is hard to hate, no matter how Gideon tries. At first Lee’s insights into the case make no sense, but he seems to have a window straight into Gideon’s heart. Son of a Methodist minister, raised in a tiny Cornish village, Gideon has hidden his sexuality for years. It’s cost him one lover, and he can’t believe it when this green-eyed newcomer stirs up old feelings and starts to exert a powerful force of attraction.
Gideon and Lee begin to work together on the case. But there are malignant forces at work in the sleepy little village of Dark, and not only human ones – Gideon is starting to wonder, against all common sense, if there might be some truth in the terrifying legend of the Bodmin Beast after all. As a misty Halloween night consumes the moor, Gideon must race against time to save not only the lost child but the man who’s begun to restore his faith in his own heart.
What worked for me (and what didn’t): I enjoyed the story very much. It was a short (novella-length) audio and, considering that the main characters had not met before it began, it managed to sell me on the budding relationship between Gideon and Lee. There is a bit of insta-lust (nothing wrong with that) and perhaps one or two narrative jumps which suprised me just a little in the romantic story but nothing I wasn’t able to go with fairly easily. Gideon’s last relationship broke down because he was closeted. It’s clear that he has enough regret about that and enough time had passed that when Lee bobs up in his life, Gideon wasn’t likely to let that happen again. So it made sense to me. Continue reading
Monthly Mini Review
Liam Takes Manhattan by Thea Harrison – C+ The last in the latest trio of novellas about Dragos, Pia and Liam Cuelebre, this one is also the shortest one, coming in at about 50 pages. Also unlike the other two stories, this one felt somewhat incomplete to me. It was more in the nature of a prequel novella, presaging what the next chapter in Liam’s life is and acting as a bridge to (what I hope will be) full length books about Liam. I was involved in a discussion with the author on Twitter recently and she was canvassing interest levels for books featuring adventures in Liam’s life – the first of which would not involve any romance because he’s too young (I picture them as something like a paranormal Vorkosigan series FWIW). The novella sets up Liam branching out on his own. The significance of the Christmas present mentioned in the blurb is a bit misleading I thought. I was expecting a kind of “miracle at Christmas” vibe but it was far more subtle than that. Continue reading
Why I read it: I received a review copy via the author.
What it’s about: (from Goodreads) Their wolves are howling at the moon. Their human halves are on different planets.
Lone wolf Shaun Stevens’s automatic response to the words “happily ever after”? Kill me now. Yet with all his friends settling down he’s begun to think there may actually be something to this love-and-roses crap.
One thing’s for sure: his dream mate will have to out-cuss, out-spit and out-hike him. So he never expected the one to push his forever button would be a blue-blooded Southern debutante with a voice as dark and velvety as her skin.
When Gemmita Jacobs steps off the plane in Whitehorse, Yukon, it’s about more than her caribou research project. It’s her declaration of independence from an overprotected upbringing. Except there’s something in the air she can’t quite define—something that unexpectedly rouses her mating instincts.
Moments after their eyes lock, the deed is done—and done thoroughly. When the pheromone dust settles, though, all the reasons they don’t belong together become painfully clear.
It’s enough to make a wolf learn a whole new set of cuss words…
What worked for me (and what didn’t): This is the first Vivian Arend shifter book I’ve read or listened to. I have a few on the TBR of Doom (TM Shannon Stacey) but haven’t gotten to them yet. I have a feeling that Evan, the Takhini Alpha and Shaun, our hero, may have appeared in a previous book/series, or at least the context in Black Gold seems to indicate that’s the case. I suppose this made me feel a little bit lost at times but it wasn’t a major drawback.
Shaun is a lone wolf who has recently rejoined the Takhini pack. I gather he has a reputation of breaking the rules and pleasing himself. He’s nice enough but not terribly reliable in the sense that he will do what he wants to do and what suits him rather than what might be good for the pack or for others. He is feeling dissatisfied however. He longs for a mate and for deeper connections. He is ready for a change.
I’m over at AudioGals with a review of Midnight’s Kiss by Thea Harrison, narrated by Sophie Eastlake. I was so glad the Carling/Julian conflict was resolved here as well.
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