It's been a long time since I've posted one of these - since May, in fact. Truth is, I haven't been reading so many of these books since then. But I polished off three on my holiday and there were a few still waiting in the wings to be posted (which is why there are seven instead of six - though of course there's no rule says there has to be six, unless I make that rule, and that would just be silly and oh dear rambling again), so here they are, good and bad and fantastic and absolute drivel.

For archived paranormal romance, click here.



Halfway to the Grave by Jeaniene Frost
Night Huntress Book 1
Avon 2007
358 pages
Paranormal romance/Urban fantasy

This is one of the best ones I've read all year. If you enjoy Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse books I think you'd like this too. It has the same small-town (Middle America?) setting, and a great heroine. Catherine "Cat" Crawfield is half-vampire - her mother was raped twenty-two years ago and harbours an obsessive hatred towards them. Growing up, Cat was aware she was different from the other kids but not until she was 16 did she learn the truth. Now she spends her weekends hanging out at bars picking up vampires, letting them take her to secluded places and then staking them through the heart.

One night, though, she picks the wrong vampire: Bones is a great deal older than the others she's picked off, and sees through her instantly. As a vampire assassin and bounty hunter after some big vampire, ah, fish, he thinks she's working for someone and doesn't at first believe her story. When he does, though, he figures that with some training she could be very useful to him as bait and killer.

Naturally, what starts out as a business arrangement soon gets close and personal - Bones falls for Cat first, while she has a lot of hang-ups to work through; and oh my, isn't he dishy? Sometimes the colonial British voice is a tad overdone, but at least Frost is consistent, and it could certainly have been more hamy. The pacing is excellent, and the character development superb. Written in the first person, you still get a very clear perspective of Bones - which isn't common, actually, unless the author is particularly good, but there are some lovely lines in this that capture Bones and Cat's changing attitude towards him. I found it quite subtle. I also loved the plot device Frost is using to keep them apart - which is what makes this more romance than fantasy: a main character who swaps bed partners is not a romance character.

For a debut in this genre, you can't get better than this. Well worth it, no complaints (unless I've forgotten them). I'm already hopping to get the second book.

Pleasure Unbound by Larissa Ione
Demonica Series Book 1
Forever 2008
359 pages
Paranormal romance

Highly enjoyable debut novel, also the first in the series, which leans more towards the Jennifer Arminitrout, Jeannine Frost type of book than the Gena Showalter, Christina Dodd style. If anything, it sits somewhere in the middle with JR Ward, though it's very different.

There are a great many species of demons, some evil, some kinda bad, some good, some harmless. All are hunted indiscrimantely by the Aegis - slayers, as the demons call them. Eidolon is a seminus demon, a type of incubus, approaching his change and not happy about it either. He's a medical doctor and created the first ever demon hospital somewhere underground, protected by spells from demons and Aegis alike. When a young, unconscious slayer with abnormal anatomy is brought in along with the demon she was trying to off, Eidolon is intrigued by her - and very aroused.

Upon waking in a demon hospital, Tayla finds herself strangely reluctant to kill the demon who saved her life - though he's just a demon, an evil beast, a monster. Isn't he?

Unlike many paranormal romances, the two start shagging pretty much from the beginning; it's only the emotional attachment that takes so long in coming. They slowly learn trust and end up fighting side by side as they try to figure out who is kidnapping demons and carving them up, selling their organs and dumping them afterwards.

There's real tension here, and the Aegis were scary - much scarier than the Hunters in the Lords of the Underworld books or the baby-powder smelling lessers of the Black Dagger Brotherhood. I was often in a state of anxiety, perhaps because of their unpredictability, and their ignorance.

I loved Eidolon, and Tayla wasn't too annoying - often not annoying at all, though there was some lip biting. The premise isn't entirely new but it is fresh, and the characters are lively and dynamic. I'll definitely be reading more in this series.

Fangs But No Fangs by Kathy Love
Brava 2006
306 pages
Paranormal romance

This is the sequel to Fangs For the Memories, part of a trilogy about vampire brother Rhys, Christian and Sebastian. This is Christian's story, whom we left at the end of the previous book very messed up and thinking he'd killed Rhys's true love Jane. As punishment he isolates himself, driving as far as he can before sunrise - which is how he ends up in Shady Forks trailer park. He's given himself a 12-step program to "being human" and has stopped drinking blood directly from humans. He hasn't really changed though, he's still haughty, superior and self-serving. Until he meets his neighbour Jolee, struggling owner of a karaoke bar.

Christian's one of those great romance heroes: he's adorable. Part of it is Love's writing style, though there's less humour here than in the previous book. He's been so out-of-touch with life in general for such a long time that he's quite clueless about a lot of things. His character is written very well, and is a perfect match for Jolee, who's strong, independent and determined without being stubborn and difficult - all too common traits among romance heroines ugh.

If there's one thing Love really excels at, it's writing chemistry and desire. This book sizzled along very nicely. Recommended.

Dark Seduction by Brenda Joyce
Masters of Time Book 1
Harlequin 2007
372 pages
Paranormal romance/time travel

This book is so bad I got halfway through and then skimmed the rest, merely to find out if the bits at the beginning would ever make sense, and just to see if what I'd predicted would happen, happened. Surprise surprise, it did.

The premise is interesting enough but what book am I talking about here: An American woman called Claire goes back in time to the Scottish Highlands and falls in love with a big Scottish warrior? Yes, it does sound awfully like Outlander, doesn't it? Joyce could have at least given her a different name. The Scottish warrior in this case, Malcolm, is a Master, an immortal-ish member of an ancient brotherhood that answers to ancient Gods (older than Christendom, though bizarrely enough Malcolm says he's Catholic) and seeks to protect Innocence from Evil. Alright, fair enough, though I'm really not a fan of black and white labels like Evil.

The biggest problem with this book - apart from the plotholes, inconsistencies, amazing leaps of reasoning, conveniently forgotten details and weak, repetitious characterisation - is Claire herself. I don't think I've ever read a more annoying heroine (and having read as much paranormal romance as I have, that's saying something). She's whiny, clingy, slow, poorly defined, agonises over things even after she's come to a resolution about them, internalises everything, goes on and on in her head over the same tired old points, and I honestly don't get the attraction between her and Malcolm.

The story itself is slow and uneventful, the Evil character is laughable, and the plotholes so deep I tripped numerous times. Just note the early chapter when Claire first encounters Sibyll and Malcolm at her bookshop, and what they say when they meet her. Keep it in mind. It won't make sense later, and that's just one of the many frustrating things about this book.

The sex scenes were awful, icky, emotionally-uninvolved/detached things. I've never been so put off. But really, Claire? Talk about utter drongo. And she's supposed to have a Masters degree in medieval history!

Give this one a BIG MISS - and I'm not going to bother reading anything else by this author either. HQN's paranormal romances are more often duds than successes, it seems.

My Wicked Enemy by Carolyn Jewel
Forever 2008
347 pages
Paranormal romance

This is another debut, and a rather confusing one at that. The premise is interesting enough: there are human mages and witches who possess magic, and several kinds and levels of demons, and the mages enslave the demons to their will. Carson is a witch but doesn't know it - raised by a mage, Magellan (whom she thinks is some kind of scholar and rare artifact dealer) who stunted her powers, she witnesses him perform a bloody and violent ceremony and flees. Out on the streets of San Francisco, a demon warlord called Nikodemus hunts her down, intending to kill her but discovering her complete ignorance instead. So begins a series of battles between demons and mages - and we're on the demons side, by the way.

The writing really needed a lot of work. There were a lot of inconsistencies, body parts were suddenly in different places/poses, characters knew things that hadn't been revealed in their presence (and no one had told them, they just knew because the other characters knew?) and the sex was just weird. Honestly, first rule of romance fiction: don't cut the first sex scene short, you gotta continue to completion. Dear me! I don't think I've read a sex scene that's quite this confusing, either. It was all over the place, I couldn't even picture it because the descriptions made no sense, so it really fell flat. And later - what was that weird scene in the attic?? Nikodemus practically gives her to Iskander and has her himself afterwards. Ick. Could've been erotic... wasn't. Why Iskander and none of the others Carson had helped? Didn't make sense.

There were some parts that had me pretty engrossed, but all in all it was too much of a mess. And I was really disturbed by the portrayal of women - all three of them: clueless and submissive and seeking to please Carson (who offers her mind up to Nikodemus with little qualm, knowing that he could and would take possession of her - control her, in effect); the traitorous Fen who willingly sided with the mages, and the female warlord who was the only one who attacked them, irrationally, it seemed. I kinda expect this kind of thing from some of these authors, to be honest, but Jewel has a Masters in English! Honestly, this is the kind of thing you learn to analyse in first year! So she either knew it but wrote it this way deliberately, perhaps to try to fit in with the genre's formula? or she didn't notice which makes me question the worth of her degree. That sounds pretty narky I know but really, this is basic stuff, and it's very blatant in this book.

Not sure that I'd bother reading more.

Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris
Southern Vampire series Book 2
Ace 2002
291 pages
Urban fantasy/mystery

By all rights this one shouldn't really be here, but it does contain some romance and it definitely is paranormal, and since I'm making the rules, this is where I'm putting it!

Another wonderful Sookie Stackhouse outing, fast-paced and never flagging. This one sees Sookie and Bill sent by Eric to Dallas because he's "rented" her out to the nest leader there, Stan, so she can use her telepathic gift to find out what happened to a missing vampire. This leads to the Fellowship, a truly scary psuedo-Christian cult that's very anti-vampire. There's also a scary Maenad hanging around the woods at home, demanding tribute, and poor Lafayette, the flamboyantly gay cook from the bar where Sookie works, turns up dead in Andy Bellefleur's car and Sookie's determined to find out who killed him.

Mystery, excitement, a bit of violence, some steamy make-up sex and new additions to the eccentric and ecclectic cast don't throw Sookie off her stride. As a character she's great, not the least bit annoying and totally understandable, despite being in an alien situation. As long as Sookie keeps it up, I can't see myself getting bored with these books.

Lover Enshrined by J.R. Ward
Black Dagger Brotherhood book 6
Signet 2008
534 pages
Paranormal romance/urban fantasy

The series is taking an interesting direction further into urban fantasy, and while it might be a bit cluttered with subplots and supporting cast, I still really enjoyed it. Phury's drug addiction wore thin pretty quick (in the previous books, you don't get such a close-up as here), and the dithering got pretty frustrating too. But it made it more believable. Some of the other characters - especially the ones who've already had their "turn" - are becoming less substantial because you don't get to spend any time with them, like Rhage and V, and nothing much is added to their story. Mary didn't make an appearance in this book at all.

Even though the women do make efforts to strike it on their own and all, I still wince at the whole sequestering thing that pops up a lot in paranormal romance. The women become almost like prisoners, unable to leave the building or, sometimes, a single room. They get more freedom by the end but still, what's with that? That's not my fantasy ;)

I would love to see JR Ward do full-on fantasy after this series - something like Jaqueline Carey's Kushiel Series kind of fantasy (as opposed to the more "traditional" kind), but the jumping around is getting as bad as Robert Jordan's later books, without enough reward.

Still, for all the phonetic prose (read: atrocious grammar that makes it really hard to read at times) and "spelling mistakes" (does no one know how to use present perfect anymore?? lie, lay, lain, laid - drives me insane), and the incredible volume of product placement, not just of brand names but actual chains that are getting some whopping free advertising here, I enjoyed this book and I liked what Phury did at the end, and his words to the Scribe Virgin - they should be obvious, but parents the world over still repeat that mistake. Gods aren't infallible after all.