Category: Romance
Ice Kissed by Amanda Hocking
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
Bryn Aven has always longed to be a part of the Kanin world.
Though she has no social status because she’s a half-breed, she refuses to give up on her dream of serving the kingdom she loves. It’s a dream that brings her to a whole new realm . . . the glittering palace of the Skojare.
The Skojare people need protection from the same brutal rival who’s been threatening the Kanin, and, being half Skojare herself, it’s a chance for Bryn to learn more about her heritage. Her boss Ridley Dresden is overseeing her mission and wants to help. He’s always been her most trusted friend—but as their undeniable attraction heats up, he becomes a distraction she can’t afford.
Brynn is about to discover that the Skojare world is full of secrets, and as she’s drawn in deeper and deeper, she doesn’t know who to trust. As she gets closer to Ridley, she realizes she may not even be able to trust her own heart.
[Full disclosure: I requested and received a free ebook through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.]
Bryn is a complex character who has really been through so much, what with her father nearly dying at the hands of a man she looked up to, being an outcast because she’s half-Skojare and being one of the only female trackers. She’s under a lot of pressure and has been for a long time but things really don’t let up in this book. If anything, the pressure gets worse when she learns of a royal disappearance and is sent to live among her mother’s people as a bodyguard for a little while until she gets to the heart of the mystery. Unfortunately, there are some complications when she and Ridley realize and admit their feelings for each other because they are boss and underling. So not only do you have the immense political pressure, you have a forbidden attraction on top of things that could get both of them fired if they’re found out. With a forbidden attraction in YA you’d expect them to keep carrying on regardless of the consequences but shockingly Ridley and Bryn do the mature, reasonable thing: they agree to stop seeing each other when Bryn leaves on her Skojare mission. They agree that being in a relationship is too risky for both of them and that realistically they can’t. It was really a refreshing change.
Not only that, with everything Bryn goes through she matures even more. For a tracker she can be rather naive and that’s part of what gets her into trouble when she’s among the Skojare, particularly with a certain prince. At the same time, she actually learns that naivete can be dangerous in some cases and uses her naturally curious mind to think things through critically instead of accepting things at face value. She becomes rightly suspicious of a lot of people around her, particularly the Skojare king and his younger brother. Maybe the queen isn’t all that innocent as she seems to be but the royal brothers are definitely at the heart of a conspiracy that runs very, very deeply through troll society. In the end, some of the conspiracy is revealed but we’re still left waiting to learn the full explanation for the conspiracy that started with Konstantin Black almost killing Bryn’s father.
The plot isn’t always fast-paced but it is always interesting. So much happens in this book when you compare it to Frostfire, the first book. There’s a lot of travel between the tribes and it was fascinating to learn more about the Skojare and about Bryn’s heritage. You can kind of see why Bryn’s mother wanted to get out of the palace and give up her title for love rather than staying in the rather repressive Skojare society. Part of the plot is about the rigid hierarchies present in both tribes and the tension coming from the lower classes that seem to be gently agitating for reform. The Kanin are better than the Skojare in a lot of ways but the inequalities are always evident and Bryn as a tracker (a half-breed no less!) really feels the brunt of this. It’s also another source of tension during Bryn’s investigation into the queen’s disappearance because at every turn she’s reminded of her low status and her utter lack of power.
All in all, Ice Kissed was an excellent second book. I’m sure some people found the inter-personal tension a little boring in the beginning but if you’re at all invested in the characters or even just interested in them you’ll love it. Then things really heat up in the last third of the novel as some of the conspiracy Bryn’s mixed up in comes to light and Bryn has to make one really tough decision. By the end of the novel, you’ll be like me: almost begging for the next book.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
Starlet’s Man by Carla J. Hanna
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
“If you live courageously, you have scars.” -Beth, Starlet’s Man
From the award-winning author of the Starlet Series, comes Starlet’s Man, a story about a boy becoming a man amidst the mixed-messages in Hollywood culture. Discover why the Starlet Series took Gold and Silver medals in the Readers’ Choice 2014 International Book Award Contest.
Lights, Cameras, and Lies. High school student athlete, Manny Biro, is caught between the boy he should be and the man he wants to become.
Everyone around him accepts the Hollywood life. He doesn’t. Manny wants no part of acting. On the surface, his childhood best friends seem to have it all: money, power, success. Between the lines, they are all confused. Alan is a messed up want-to-be director focused on pushing scenes to their sexy potential. Beth is an athlete driven to escape from a dark past. Janet is Manny’s kid sister caught up in fashion and trends. And Marie is a lonely actress exhausted by the culture that makes everyone’s favorite stories.
[Full disclosure: I received a free paperback in conjunction with the blog tour in exchange for an honest review.]
One of the things I really didn’t like about Manny in the beginning of the first book (this is a prequel) was his self-righteousness. He criticized everything about Hollywood but proceeded to act like he was a part of that culture by fooling around with different girls and such. I wasn’t really sold on him being Lia’s love interest at first but he did grow on me as the books went along. However, in this prequel we get a really good look into his mindset while he was transitioning from boy to man
In the beginning, Manny is a pretty confused young man. He sort of likes his friend Beth, who he trains with in the mornings. At the same time, Liana Marie will always hold a special place in his heart even though she seems to be in love with her current costar Evan. And all of this takes place in a catty environment where publicity is more important than doing what you actually feel like so even if he and Liana finally admitted their feelings for each other, Lia’s bosses would not be happy with her dating a no-name. This, understandably, puts Manny in a very brooding mindset and leads to some of the stupid decisions I’ve alluded to as well as some of his hypocritical self-righteousness. Do I particularly like him at this point in his life? No, but he is an interesting character and it really does make me appreciate how much he’s changed by the second and third books in the series.
My only real complaint about this prequel is that the plot is a little disjointed. Sometimes it feels like there are random scene changes that I had a hard time keeping up with and it certainly wasn’t because of formatting issues or anything like that. I think that sometimes Carla Hanna pared down her writing a little too much and should have left in some more descriptions of the different locations and the transitions between locations. It does make for a fast read but I really would have appreciated a little more description so I wouldn’t have to deal with the occasional confusion.
The plot, however, is pretty good. It starts out with Manny learning about the kerfuffle over Lia’s last movie and it goes through her filming of Constantine’s Muse and all the screwed up things that come along with it as I saw from her perspective in Starlet’s Web. Her trials and tribulations are always at the forefront of Manny’s mind but he has his own things to worry about: money, Alan’s gossip blog spreading lies about his love life and his growing willingness to admit to Lia that he really does love her. It’s by no means a straightforward journey but that’s probably in part why I loved Starlet’s Man so much. Life isn’t a straightforward plot line and neither is this book. Manny has his ups and downs but finally comes through as a caring young man who is no longer the messed-up, self-righteous boy we meet in the beginning. It’s a satsifying journey.
Since this is a prequel you can absolutely read it before you read the main series but as a matter of personal preference I’d recommend reading Starlet’s Web first because I just like Liana more as a character. Manny is interesting enough and grew to be a better person, but being introduced to his self-righteous younger self so soon could turn you off a wonderful series. But if you like reading the prequels first, go ahead! This is a good book.
I give this book 4/5 stars.
Frostfire by Amanda Hocking
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
Bryn Aven is an outcast among the Kanin, the most powerful of the troll tribes.
Set apart by her heritage and her past, Bryn is a tracker who’s determined to become a respected part of her world. She has just one goal: become a member of the elite King’s Guard to protect the royal family. She’s not going to let anything stand in her way, not even a forbidden romance with her boss Ridley Dresden.
But all her plans for the future are put on hold when Konstantin– a fallen hero she once loved – begins kidnapping changelings. Bryn is sent in to help stop him, but will she lose her heart in the process?
[Full disclosure: I asked for and received a free ebook copy from Amanda Hocking’s publicist after I realized I had been approved for the second book on NetGalley without reading the first. This is, as always, an honest review.]
One of the things that really intrigued me in the Trylle series was the trackers. More specifically, why the lowborn trolls with few talents would ever want to protect the rich and ungrateful nobles of their world and bring back their changeling offspring. What drives them to become trackers when they could probably quite easily assimilate into the human world? And what about the inner workings of tracking? How does one go about it? What’s a good success rate? What is the training like? These weren’t questions that made the ending of the Trylle series unsatisfying but they did leave Amanda Hocking a lot more room for expansion, which is how this spin-off series came about.
If you’re expecting to see lots of the characters from the original trilogy, you’ll probably be disappointed. We meet Flinn briefly and there are mentions of the reforms of Loki and Wendy in their tribe but they don’t feature at all. Instead, we focus on the Kanin tribe of trolls which are of course the same species but have a very different culture while keeping the same essential troll traits: changeling children and a ridiculously rigid societal hierarchy. Trackers are employed to find changeling children once they come of age and yet they’re still looked down upon. The only real difference in Kanin society is that there’s an elite group of trackers called the Hogdragen that guard the royal family specifically. It’s a great honour to become one and that’s really where our story begins.
Bryn wants nothing more than to become a member of the Hogdragen. She always has to work extra hard to prove she’s worthy not only because she’s a female tracker (and that’s exceptionally rare) but also because she’s half Skojare, a more water-loving breed of troll. Even amongst the lowly trackers there’s a hierarchy and half-breeds are definitely at the low end of it, even if her parents were both high-ranking members of society who gave up the titles of Markis and Marksinna out of love. When the tracker she admires, Konstantin, tries to kill her father the Chancellor quite randomly and then disappears. Several years later, Bryn meets Konstantin while out to bring back another changeling. He’s not quite the villain she always thought he was but she’s still hungry for vengeance. And that’s really what I love about her character: even when she is attracted to someone she doesn’t let it get in the way of her mission. Yes, she does start to doubt whether or not Konstantin is the awful traitor that everyone (including her) thinks he is, but that’s because she’s never blind to reason and she’s very good at reading people. Konstantin is ambiguous, not evil and it’s really that mystery about him that sets the events of the story in motion.
What I really loved about Bryn as a female lead is that she’s capable of lying and of actually keeping her mouth shut. Sometimes her emotions overrule her but in general she actually keeps her mouth in check when it’s necessary. No popping off state secrets willy-nilly or anything like that, as some YA heroines seem to do with alarming regularity. She’s so focused on being professional that even when she’s attracted to her boss Ridley she tries her best to keep things platonic. Of course it doesn’t always work but she recognizes that any relationship between them would be stupid and improper and so she really does struggle to keep her feelings in check. What a novel, mature idea! She actually acts like she’s a 19 year old, not a 13 year old.
The pacing isn’t always the most fast-paced but in general the intrigue within the different courts and between different people is more than enough to make you keep turning the pages. And when there’s not intrigue, there’s plenty of action. Although Frostfire isn’t constantly exciting in an action movie way, it is always interesting. So much so that this “I’ll just read a couple of chapters” book became a one-sitting book. At just over 300 pages it’s not a particularly long book but it suits Amanda Hocking’s relatively fast pace quite well. When you think about it, she does pack a lot into this little book and the cliffhanger at the ending is satisfying but definitely leaves you wanting the next book, Ice Kissed.
Even if you haven’t read the Trylle trilogy, you will enjoy Frostfire if you’re intrigued by the blurb or this review. I’m not a big fan of some of Amanda Hocking’s other series, but when it comes to trolls she’s definitely a master. She’s clearly put quite a bit of effort into world-building and that really shows in the Kanin Chronicles even more so than it does in the Trylle series. I really can’t wait to see what happens when Bryn encounters some of the other tribes of trolls in the second book.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
Electrify Me by Bibi Rizer
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
All Gloria Falcon wants is to have a nice New Year’s Eve with a nice man. Is that so much to ask? But after seven disastrous New Years in a row, this year she’s trying something different. Committed to spending her New Year’s Eve manning the phones at a suicide crisis phone line, Gloria is sure the karma she earns will break her New Year’s curse. But when a blackout cancels her night of philanthropy, rather than spend the night moping in the dark, she goes on a ride along with the cute electric company lineman who failed to fix the power.
Charlie Zhang is not much of a New Year believer either. He’s coasting through life after being discharged from the army and trying not to let his cynicism of pretty much everything define him. When Gloria Falcon climbs into Charlie’s life, and his repair truck, neither of them expect this to be the New Year’s Eve that changes their minds, and their fate, forever.
[Full disclosure: I requested and received a free ebook through Masquerade Tours’ Reader Round-Up program in exchange for an honest review.]
I picked Electrify Me because I was looking for some light-hearted reading. I didn’t really expect much and unfortunately the book didn’t deliver all that much.
The characters are okay. Gloria herself is much more realistic than Charlie. She’s a down on her luck 24 year old woman who was born on New Years and seems to be cursed to have bad things happen to her. In the beginning of the novella you can really feel her exasperation with her situation but also her sense of humour about the whole thing. She has a “How could it possibly get worse?” attitude that sees her through some pretty awful mishaps on that cursed day. What I really didn’t like about her character was that she was volunteering to man a suicide crisis phone in order to help her karma. That’s rather a glib attitude to take toward suicidal people and their problems; it really didn’t feel like her heart was in it. However, it was a part of her character and didn’t really affect my enjoyment of her character.
Charlie, however, was rather dull. You could exchange him for pretty much any other romantic interest in any other erotica or romance novel and you wouldn’t notice a difference. (But to be fair this is a little more multicultural than usual because he is Asian.) He’s boring and polite and although he’s physically attractive he has the sort of personality that induces drowsiness because he’s so boring and perfect. He’s hot because he’s training to be a fireman, he volunteers for shifts on New Years for extra pay and credit at work and he always helps out whenever he can. Those are awesome traits and would be kind of refreshing because I hate the whole ‘bad boy’ trope but at the same time, he doesn’t have much in the way of anything interesting. His conversations with Gloria are pretty predictable and he really just comes off as bland. Nothing really stands out about his character.
The writing was generally okay but some of the sex scenes caused me to laugh out loud because sometimes Bibi Rizer gets a little creative with her descriptions and strays into purple prose territory. Most notably: “Kissing Charlie feels healthy. Nutritious even. As though I’m getting vitamins and minerals and will wake up with thicker, shinier hair and skin that’s twenty-five percent more luminous.” It kind of killed the mood for me. But the rest of the sex scenes were generally okay, if a little boring.
As for the plot, well, it was a little predictable. Usually awesome writing would make up for that but since the writing was ‘meh’ the plot came across as ‘meh’ as well. From the time Gloria and Charlie meet you pretty much know what’s going to happen but the other plot events are just as predictable. I know you don’t generally read romance or erotica for the plot but it just left me bored.
Basically, this book was ‘meh’. It wasn’t terrible but it doesn’t stand out from the crowd.
I give this book 3/5 stars.
Curing Doctor Vincent by Renea Mason
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
One kinky doctor + one indecent proposal = one life-changing week in Paris
Elaine Watkins, Public Relations Advisor, is surprised when she receives a summons from the very attractive and enigmatic Dr. Xavier Vincent. She worships the talented physician and company icon responsible for developing the cure that saved her sister’s life and isn’t immune to his charm. Even though puzzled by his request, she is excited and eager to get started on his latest project.
But Dr. Vincent has other ideas. Instead of discussing cures, drugs and marketing strategies, he asks Elaine to join him in Paris to indulge his unique sexual appetites.
Torn between gratitude for saving her sister, her attraction for the powerful man and compromising her pre-conceived notions of sexuality, she must decide if it’s easier to feed his desires or walk away. Until she devises a plan of her own.
[Full disclosure: I requested and received a free ebook through Masquerade Tours’ Reader Round-Up in exchange for an honest review.]
When I read erotica, I generally don’t review it because most of it isn’t really worth reviewing. When I read Dr. Vincent I knew I’d have to do a review but my expectations were still very low. I certainly didn’t expect to find anything resembling a story, let alone an interesting story with a decent plot, plot twists and realistic characters.
Elaine Watkins is a complicated woman. She hasn’t had an easy life what with her sister nearly dying of cancer and her love life not exactly being great. Elaine feels that she owes a great deal to Dr. Xavier for developing the cure that actually saved her sister’s life but that’s not really why she accepts his ethically questionable proposal. (You do have to ignore the ethical dilemma of a client asking for an employee from the company he’s dealing with.) She does it in part because of her attraction to the man but also out of curiosity because of her previously boring love life. What she doesn’t expect is that throughout the week in Paris she actually begins to fall in love with the enigmatic yet damaged man.
This is where I was kind of surprised because Curing Doctor Vincent has a plot. As Elaine begins to fall in love with Dr. Xavier she realizes that he has reasons for being very secretive about his childhood and his first marriage and that maybe he isn’t all that he appears to be. No one is perfect and even an insanely rich and powerful man has his own insecurities. I don’t want to give anything away but let’s just say that the good doctor’s first wife was far from the angel he makes her out to be. Some of the plot twists surrounding his mysterious past and personality I saw coming but a lot of them were fairly unpredictable.
What impressed me the most was Renea Mason’s writing. Some erotica just makes you laugh out loud with how cheesy it is even before you get to the sex scenes. But Curing Doctor Vincent was surprisingly well-written. I thought some of the secondary characters were just a little too perfect to believe but on the whole I never really had an “Are you kidding me?” moment. The sex scenes were quite steamy and they were balanced out with the regular scenes where Elaine and Xavier’s attraction to each other grows as they spend time together touring Paris or just talking. It was a perfect balance, really.
So while this wasn’t the greatest, most believable book I’ve ever read it was surprisingly good and I think Renea Mason definitely deserves credit for that. If the blurb has intrigued you, go ahead and buy it!
I give this book 4/5 stars.
Amazon Barnes and Noble* Goodreads
*Not available.