Tagged: masq1
When Forever Died by Mia Darien
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
Forever is a long time.
The life of a hunter is a lonely one. Perhaps more for Dakota than others in her line of work. Not only is she better than anyone else at chasing down the things that go bump in the night, but her past chases her with the same tenacity.
She’s built walls around her solitary existence and that’s the way she likes it, but the past never sleeps. When she’s hired to hunt an ex-lover for murder, it’s just the first in a string of memories that will bring Dakota’s past, present and future into a collision course.
And when she agrees to take on a second case and hunt down an Ancient, a vampire over one thousand years old, it unleashes circumstances onto that collision that will shake the foundation of everything she’s built and force her, for the first time in a long while, to look to others.
Can she survive it, like she’s survived these past four centuries? Or will the weight of it all finally crush her?
[Full disclosure: I received a free ebook in conjunction with the blog tour in exchange for an honest review.]
Dakota was one of the secondary characters that really intrigued me in the first book of the Adelheid series, Cameron’s Law. That was from Sadie’s point of view and in When Forever Died we learn that Sadie has hired Dakota as a freelance hunter to work on a job-by-job basis. But what happens when a job comes across Dakota’s desk that brings her long-suppressed past back to the surface?
Even though we met Dakota briefly in the first book I was extremely excited to read about her adventures in this second book and I certainly wasn’t disappointed. Dakota has had a hard life as we learn through various flashbacks and her powers have not made life easy for her. Even though it would be pretty cool to morph into anything or anyone you’d like it doesn’t solve all of your problems—sometimes it even causes them as she learns when she starts tracking down a rogue Ancient. When she discovers that a former lover of hers and someone even closer to her are involved with this Ancient and his mysterious but clearly nefarious plans, things definitely get interesting. It’s very gratifying to see Dakota change throughout the course of the story as she learns more about herself and her past but also begins to look more to the present and begins to appreciate the people around her. She’ll never be the life of the party by any stretch of the imagination but it was nice to see her begin to realize that maybe people aren’t so bad at all.
Even if the plot sucked, Dakota would have carried the day and still made this a good book. However, the plot was awesome as well. Tracking an Ancient isn’t easy, particularly when they don’t want to be found and they have immensely powerful beings helping them. Add into that a seemingly insane secret society of supposedly reincarnated figures from Norse legends and you’ve got a very interesting and extremely fast-paced plot. Nothing is as it seems and of course nothing is simple in Adelheid’s supernatural community.
Speaking of the supernatural community, I absolutely love Mia Darien’s world-building. In Cameron’s Law we mainly see the world of vampires and werewolves as well as the human opposition to the fact that they are now considered human beings with full legal rights. Here in When Forever Died we see Dakota’s extremely rare species of shapeshifter, one that can turn into whatever they like whereas normal shapeshifters are restricted to one animal form like Sadie’s weretiger boyfriend Vance. Just because almost a year has passed since the events of the first book doesn’t mean that humans are more accepting of the supernatural community, though. And just because the supernatural community is ecstatic that they’re allowed to live in the open doesn’t mean some of them bear any less hatred of humans than before. Mia Darien is good at not only creating unique species of supernatural creatures but also creating complex and believable political systems within and without the supernatural community.
Even if you haven’t read the first book, you can certainly start the series at When Forever Died or any of the other books in the series because each stands alone quite well. They’re all interconnected in fascinating ways but you don’t have to start right at the beginning because they all feature different characters. It’s a great way to go about a series like this and I have to say that I can’t wait to read the other three books.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
Blood Blossom by Daryl Hajek
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
After having been separated for twenty-two years, Vivian wants to reestablish ties with her younger sister, Christine. Instead, she is met with hostility and resistance. Christine wants one thing and one thing only—revenge. Fueled by rage and having a sadistic sense of humor, Christine will stop at nothing to go after their mysterious mother, Rose. No one better stand in Christine’s way—or else!
Julia Windom, a wealthy woman with selfish motives, concocts plot after plot to ensure her personal goal is achieved.
They all become embroiled in a battle of wits to stay one step ahead of the other. Lives are further complicated in a whirlpool of diverse events as they occur at breakneck speed. Overwhelming crises develop, strengths and weaknesses are tested, truths overcome lies, and shocking secrets are revealed that could push some to the brink of insanity.
[Full disclosure: I requested and received a free ebook through Masquerade Tours’ Reader Round-Up in exchange for an honest review.]
Only one word can really adequately describe Blood Blossom: predictable.
The plot was so ridiculously predictable, especially in the beginning. Spoiler alert, Julia Windom is Vivian and Christine’s long-lost mother who abandoned them twenty two years ago! I had already guessed that by the blurb but even after you get past the beginning the plot is so predictable that it’s actually boring. It shouldn’t be boring because the premise of the book is actually quite interesting. However, that does not help the fact that Daryl Hajek always seems to go for plot ‘twists’ that you’ll find in pretty much every thriller novel. So if you’ve ever read a thriller novel or even watched a movie in the genre you’re pretty much guaranteed to guess the ending.
While the characters were not absolutely terrible, they were severely under-developed. Vivian could have been interesting because she’s a widow living alone coping with the loss of her husband and the fact that her mother was an absolutely terrible human being. The problem is that she doesn’t seem to own a personality; all she does is react to events in ways that are the most convenient to the plot. Christine absolutely should have been an interesting character if not a likeable one but she was just as boring as her drab sister. She goes from the Queen’s English to cutesy four-year-old in just a couple of sentences of dialogue and acts like a total jerk only to make up with Vivian, who stupidly continues to forgive this high-strung, clearly unstable stranger just because she’s her sister. And Rose herself? Well, she’s just a cartoonish villain with no real motivations other than a vague ‘get everything I want’. Even though we get to see many scenes from her point of view, we never actually feel like we get to know her at all.
The most painful aspect of Blood Blossom was the dialogue. As I mentioned, some characters like Christine go from proper upper-class English to cutesy four-year-old in just a few sentences or pages. But all of the characters have hugely unrealistic dialogue that exists solely to forward the plot. That in itself would not be a bad thing if it wasn’t done in such an obvious way, stiff way in great big long speeches: “I admit that I am selfish and I will say that I had been robbed of the finer things in life, thanks to you-know-who. I refer to you-know-who the way I do because I absolutely refuse to utter that ol’ dame’s name.” I could understand if one character spoke that way as part of their characterization but every character does the same thing. They will say something and state their reasons for saying it which is completely unrealistic.
Essentially, while the concept for Blood Blossom showed a lot of promise it certainly failed on its delivery. It was incredibly predictable even though I don’t read many novels from that genre and the characters were under-developed. Not only that, the dialogue was stiff to the point of being unreadable and the points of view were all so similar that I had to check the names several times to make sure I was thinking about the right characters. Like I said, although it certainly showed potential I can’t in all honesty recommend it to anyone.
I give this book 1/5 stars.
The Witch of Painted Sorrows by M. J. Rose
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
Possession. Power. Passion. New York Times bestselling novelist M. J. Rose creates her most provocative and magical spellbinder yet in this gothic novel set against the lavish spectacle of 1890s Belle Époque Paris.
Sandrine Salome flees New York for her grandmother’s Paris mansion to escape her dangerous husband, but what she finds there is even more menacing. The house, famous for its lavish art collection and elegant salons, is mysteriously closed up. Although her grandmother insists it’s dangerous for Sandrine to visit, she defies her and meets Julien Duplessi, a mesmerizing young architect. Together they explore the hidden night world of Paris, the forbidden occult underground and Sandrine’s deepest desires.
Among the bohemians and the demi-monde, Sandrine discovers her erotic nature as a lover and painter. Then darker influences threaten—her cold and cruel husband is tracking her down and something sinister is taking hold, changing Sandrine, altering her. She’s become possessed by La Lune: A witch, a legend, and a sixteenth-century courtesan, who opens up her life to a darkness that may become a gift or a curse.
This is Sandrine’s “wild night of the soul,” her odyssey in the magnificent city of Paris, of art, love, and witchery.
[Full disclosure: I requested and received a free ebook as part of the blog tour in exchange for an honest review.]
A while back in May 2014 I was on the blog tour for M. J. Rose’s book The Collector of Dying Breaths and I absolutely loved it. The characters were fantastic, the writing was so beautiful it was hard to describe and the plot twisted and turned so much that I just had to keep reading. Needless to say I had high expectations for this stand-alone novel The Witch of Painted Sorrows.
My high expectations were absolutely exceeded and this book is one of the rare cases where the cover is just as good as the actual content. It gives away the atmosphere of the novel just wonderfully: beautiful but haunting. It’s so rare that an author can keep that atmosphere up throughout the novel even if it’s only in the background during some scenes but M. J. Rose certainly managed to do that. Throughout Sandrine’s journey we experience her hopes, her joys and her sorrows as her life in Paris goes from fairly regular to extraordinary. I’m not generally a fan of Gothic novels in part because few authors can keep up the haunted atmosphere but Rose definitely did. Through her beautifully descriptive writing I experienced everything from the bustling streets of Paris to the hidden corners of an ancient and seemingly cursed house. I know I keep using the word beautiful to describe her writing, but there really is no other word that does it justice. She’s able to evoke complex emotions in the simplest of phrases, to appeal to all your senses at once, particularly smell. I can honestly say that I’ve never had an author describe things so vividly before.
Sandrine is a wonderful main character. At first she’s a lonely woman escaping a loveless marriage and the knowledge that her father’s death was the fault of her hated husband. She’s lived a life of immense privilege but has never really known happiness until she comes to Paris to reconnect with her grandmother, a famous courtesan. When she meets her grandmother’s architect Julien and discovers that her grandmother intends to turn the Maison de la Lune into a mere tourist attraction, things start to get weird. First she discovers that she’s actually attracted to Julien and possibly even loves him, something she’s never experienced before in her entire life. Second, her grandmother starts acting weird when she learns that Sandrine is spending her time at La Lune’s house and tries to nip her growing attraction to Julien in the bud. Then, when Sandrine discovers the secret room in the maison, the tension starts to ratchet up in ever increasing notches. Throughout the novel Sandrine really grows as a character but when she discovers the secret of La Lune she really comes into her own, bucking society’s expectations of her spectacularly and asserting her independence. But there’s of course a more sinister reason behind Sandrine’s personality change that starts to spiral out of control as Sandrine spends more and more time in the secret room with La Lune’s paintings.
Simply put, The Witch of Painted Sorrows is a book you’ll never really be able to put down until you finish it. Not only does M. J. Rose know how to keep up the Gothic novel atmosphere, she also knows how to slowly introduce tension and gradually increase it until you’re unable to put the book down. You’ll think to yourself: “one more chapter, just one more” and then it’ll be three in the morning and you’re just finishing the book twenty chapters later. It’s incredibly hard to put down not only because her pacing is good and the suspense is constant but because the plot twists and turns quite spectacularly. Just when you think you know what’s going to happen in the end, Rose puts another twist in the plot. By the last few chapters I was fairly certain what the ending was going to be but the rest of the book was fairly unpredictable and I have to give her credit for that.
Basically, this novel will suck you in and not let you go until you’ve finished. You’ll be drawn in by the suspense and the beautiful writing but it’s the fantastic and dynamic characters that will keep you reading on into the early morning hours. It’s hard not to fall in love with a novel like this, that’s for sure. And that’s also why I can’t recommend this book highly enough: if the blurb has in any way intrigued you, go and buy the book on March 17 of this year. You won’t regret it.
I give this book 5/5 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.
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*Not available.
Eternal Neverland: Steps Before the Fall by Natasha Rogue
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
Helena K. Sharpe was raised by a man who had sympathy for supernatural creatures, for the vampires his bloodline hunted for centuries. She was too young to understand how he tried to help them, but she knew it was important. Her father made her promise never to hunt them and she would do anything to keep that promise.
Until he is murdered by the very things he dedicated so much of his life to.
Orphaned and alone, Helena takes to the street, afraid for whatever’s left of her life. Without her family, she doesn’t know how–or even if–she can go on. Until a vagrant takes her under his wing and gives her a purpose. Revenge.
For six years she learns about the monsters, studies their habits, until, at 15 years old, she feels she’s ready to find the ones responsible for her parent’s death. All she has to do is become one of them. She’s cute, young, innocent…
They’ll never see her coming.
[Full disclosure: I requested and received a free ebook through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.]
I really had high expectations for this book when I started it because of the blurb. A girl who has trained for years to hunt vampires becoming a vampire to seek vengeance for her family’s murder? That sounds pretty darn cool, especially when she’s only 15 years old.
The problem was that the main character, Helena, was totally uninteresting in addition to being unsympathetic. Things start out pretty good with her becoming a vampire, albeit with two sires. Then she gets into the heart of a vampire coven and starts adjusting to vampire life, learning to go by the name Kitt because apparently vampires can read minds if they know your real name. I could get past that weird world-building if Kitt was actually interesting, but she’s not. Throughout the novel she’s supposed to be this master Machiavellian manipulator but all I really saw was a smart mouthed 15-year-old who screwed up pretty much every single thing she tried to do. And yet every single man in this book is attracted to her. Yep, I can totally see all of these decades old vampires being attracted to a naive if beautiful fifteen year old who seems intent on manipulating them all (unsuccessfully). It just makes absolutely no sense and Kitt never really gets past her initial awfulness. In fact, she seems to get worse as the book goes on.
As you’ve probably guessed, the world-building was pretty weak when you take a good look at it. I can believe fantasy stories where knowing someone’s ‘true’ name gives you power over them, but just their first name? That doesn’t really make any sense and Natasha Rogue never really explains it adequately. The vampire hierarchy within the city, however, was actually pretty good. I like the idea of different covens having different territories but ultimately being interested in keeping the general peace in the city for fear of discovery. However, it’s not really explained why/how Kitt suddenly breaks the peace. She does a bunch of really, really stupid stuff but why David (one of her sires) never lets her go to Charlie (another of her sires who actually wants to take care of her) is just left out. So it somehow starts a war between the covens and other factions get involved. It had a lot of potential but never really lived up to the promise in the blurb.
While the world-building was weak and the characters were generally intolerable, the strength of Rogue’s novel was in the plotting and the pacing. Even though the plot doesn’t always make sense it is fairly interesting in the beginning and the whole novel is actually well paced to keep readers turning the pages. She can do suspenseful scenes fairly well and her writing style isn’t actually all that bad but the different elements of the plot like the world-building and characters really did sink this novel. It was a big disappointment and yet I have to say that I didn’t actually ‘hate’ the book. The little intrigues were well written and with a little work, the characters could have been fantastic. To be honest, it just felt like the whole book didn’t reach its potential. Disappointing to be sure, but not a completely unenjoyable book.
I give this book 2/5 stars.