Blessed By a Demon’s Mark by E.S. Moore

Review by Kelsey O.

(Kat Redding, Bk 3)

In Moore’s third installment of his Kat Redding series, we find Kat hiding in Delai. She hopes by being here that she will overcome her compulsion to feed. Kat still does not like what she is or her kind. Unfortunately her demon’s mark that she wears is pulling her back into the real world. She must answer for the favor she asked of the crazy demon Beligral.

Back in the “real world” Kat is faced with a lot of people looking for her. The vampire Countess Baset and the hunky werewolf Adrian in particular. She also comes home to a new roommate and her old roommate’s new affiliation with the Luna Cult. One thing she discovers is that Delai is not what she thought it was. There is strange magic and she needs to break all ties as soon as possible. Kat wants to but there is a little girl there that needs saving. So even though she fulfills her first demon’s mark she decides to take on another one to save the little girl.

Kat still has her major issues that haven’t been resolved or looking to be resolved anytime soon. Story lines go every which way and the reader finds that Kat has a lot on her plate and it is no wonder she doesn’t know which way to go. At times I didn’t like how Kat treated but I guess you can be a bit of mean girl if you have all these things being thrown at you at once.

I still love this series even though this installment let me down a bit. Definitely recommend reading from the first book, To Walk the Night.

Inked Destiny by Jory Strong

Review by reacherfan1909

Series: Inked Magic, Bk 2 – suggest books be read in order to follow storyline

Published: July 2013

Ellora’s Cave, a small press that specializes in Romantica (AKA women’s erotica), was the starting place for a host of popular authors who transitioned to mainstream or large press erotic romance. Lauren Dane, Shelly Laurenston, Christine Warren, and many others began there as did Jory Stong.  She developed a certain style and rhythm in her stories even then, whether paranormal, fantasy, or contemporary, which includes ménage à trois mixed with m/m and some kink.  She isn’t the storyteller that Lauren Dane has become, but she has a loyal following among erotic romance readers and some of her stuff is excellent – though every series seems to have weak links.

Of all the writers emerging from the erotic small press industry, Jory Strong has stuck most closely to her original Ellora’s Cave style, heavy on the sex and a good story that sometimes gets more interfered with, than helped by all that sex, turning interesting characters one dimensional.  It gets a bit tedious.  I keep feeling there should be more to the characters than just intense horniness.  And how many dripping body parts is enough?  Seriously?  I’d say she beat it to death, but that’s a whole other double entendre.

Etaín is more than just a tattoo artist, she’s an elf changeling, but she’s also something that’s rare even among elves – Etaín is a born ‘seidic’ a feared and honored gift of taking memories from others and the art of giving them tattoos of great power.  Usually turned over to the queen, they end up living in isolation, the gift of their tattoos given by the queen’s favor.  Even more, Etaín has a strange link to a dragon, one her mother bargained with for protection.

Once you get past the sex, you have about 2/3^rd’s of a book – an interesting story that gets washed out by all the ‘white noise’ of tangled bodies and screaming climaxes.  Eamon, the elf Lord and one of her lovers balks at her father still asking for Etaín’s help ‘reading’ memories of crime victims.  Cathal Dunne, son of the crime boss who disdains the family business is her human mate (Story told in Bk 1 and far better done).  Is what he dragged her into with his father and uncle’s search for vengeance what caused the latest threat on her life and that of her old friends from back in the day when she was a street kid herself?

Eamon, being ‘Lord’, is unaccustomed to having his orders disobeyed.  Etaín long ago developed a disdain for anyone’s orders.  Eamon is also concerned that Etaín has not yet ‘claimed’ him as a mate, as she has Cathal.  Cathal has an instinctive dislike for following anyone’s orders but his own.  He would not be part of his father and Uncle’s criminal empire and resents the fact that Etaín seems to need and love Eamon as much as she does him.  And the whole world of Elves and magic still seems surreal to him, but recognizes she needs these people to be safe.  So two men, each resenting the other’s place in Etaín’s life, but Eamon more willing to accept the need she has for them both.

Etaín’s ‘father’ – the man who raised her when her mother abandoned her as a child even though she was not his, wants her help in the gangland killings that took the life of a man she knows well.  Eamon resents ‘the Captain’, the way he wields guilt to get Etaín to do things he knows will cost her dearly – and tries to take her away from Eamon and Cathal.  Eamon is worried.  Changlings can suddenly draw so much power they are out of control, then he, as Lord, must have them killed.  Etaín is even more feared for being a ‘Mind Thief’, a talent that terrifies Elves under the best of circumstances.

The plot is actually quite strong and interesting, but the telling of the story gets choppy as it’s interrupted time and again for another sex scene.  I found myself skipping pages so I could get on with the story without losing the thread of plot.  (Honestly, are those the only functioning organs they own?)  While some of the sex scenes have a purpose in the storyline, most don’t.  One of the best and most interesting characters to be introduced in Inked Destiny is Cage.  The other major storyline shift concerns Etaín’s mother and the being who helped her – the green dragon.  With so many different plot elements going with major and secondary characters, Ms Stong needed to focus on weaving them together in what could have been an enthralling and complex whole, but was all too often an uneven series of loosely related vignettes held by the slenderest of threads.

Books of this genre are meant to leave questions that can only be answered in the next book, but overall story arc was obscured by all the side plots with secondary characters and sex scenes, leaving a rather messy trail for the reader to follow.  Perhaps my expectations were set too high after Inked Magic, where the strong story line and sex merged into a cohesive whole.  Regardless, I found Inked Destiny less satisfying and not as well told a tale.  Having waited nearly a year for this book, I was disappointed.

No question, it is difficult to seamlessly combine erotic romance and urban fantasy.  The two genres do mix easily.  Only a few writers seem to really master that gift.  Inked Destiny left me with a ‘been there, done that’ feeling through too much of the book and frustrated me with rushed events happening concurrently.   Overall, Inked Destiny got a C (3*) from me.  It was a less satisfying second act after an excellent start in Book 1, Inked Magic.  The language and romance are at the erotic level and will certainly appeal to erotic romance readers more than paranormal/UF readers.

Recommend in addition or instead – Lauren Dane’s Witch’s Knot, de la Vega Cats, Cascadia Wolves, and Bound by Magic series, Kalayna Price’s Alex Craft series, Jennifer Ashley’s Shifter’s Unbound series, or Jenn Bennett’s  Acadia Bell series.

A Dram of Poison by Charlotte Armstrong

Review by Matt B. (BuffaloSavage)

In this 1956 suspense mystery, a crime may occur. The protagonist and his merry band must prevent the crime. Otherwise, the protagonist may lose his wife and his freedom. The ending delivers the satisfying emotional release that we look for in a suspense novel. But on the way to the climax this story also provides the intellectual pleasure that we want from a mystery.

Like Shirley Jackson, Armstrong was a keen and cool observer. Of a wedding procedure between a middle-aged poetry prof and a girl young enough to be his daughter: “It was an ugly, dreary wedding. It made Mr. Gibson wince in his soul, but it was quick, soon over. He was able to take it as just necessary, like a disagreeable pill.”

Armstrong had a dab hand at constructing a plot that dragged her characters through the mill until the very last moment. In this novel, she examines the physical and psychological effects of a bad car accident. Now lame and feeling old and unsure, the protagonist goes into a depression that his unhelpful sister worsens with her cheap cynicism and amateur Freudian psychoanalytical mumbo-jumbo.

When the post-World War II anxiety is reaching a pitch, however, Armstrong twists the plot and changes the tone from somber to comical and philosophical. With lesser writers we would wonder about the wisdom of sudden changes in plot and tone and the introduction of a five new characters half-way through.  But Armstrong pulls off these audacious moves. She was truly a surprising, enchanting writer.

Christopher Pym in the Spectator wrote: “Nobody gets hurt in this pleasantly sentimental, good-natured version of the `psychological study’ sort of crime story, but there is plenty of suspense, and a good chase after the poison bottle. Full marks for the fresh approach.”

This novel won the 1957 Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America. I read another of her suspense novels, a ‘howdunnit’ called The Unsuspected (my review is here), which I also highly recommend though it is as unclassifiable as this one.

Heart of Obsidian (Psy-Changeling, Bk 12) by Nalini Singh

Review by Cynthia F. (frazerc)

This is a book I’ve been waiting for. The author has been teasing the readers with glimpses of Kaleb Krychek for some time. Is he a good guy? A bad guy? Does he only have his own agenda or does he have a moral compass? In this book, you find out the answer to all of the above is ‘yes’…

If you’ve been following this series, you start the book knowing some things about Kaleb. He is an incredibly strong telekinetic cardinal. He is a member of the Psy Council. He has a tentative alliance with the Arrows. He was raised, if that is the right word, by counselor Enrique – the serial-murdering villain from Slave to Sensation. And he’s looking for someone—someone from his past—someone who seems to have been erased…

And he finds her. Mostly. She’s tortured, starved, and abused but alive. But her mind? Her shields have been stripped and she seems lost within her own mind. As the story progresses you find that while her shields were ripped from her, she created the labyrinth herself. Created as a self-defense mechanism, she believes she built in a method to escape – now if she could only remember what it was…

The story arc of the series has been exploring the possibilities of rebellion, the collapse of the PsyNet, and the fall of silence. We discover that much of this hangs on the ability of Kaleb to heal his lady. If she falls, the world will fall with her – Kaleb will see to it.

This is an incredibly moving love story between a woman who considers herself broken and a powerful man who considers himself Silent. Both of them are wrong…  And the sex? Let’s just say that when they make love the earth moves – literally. And there is no question, it IS love. Everything he has done has been to find her, heal her, and protect her.

Nalini Singh has managed to keep her Psy/Changeling series alive and thriving.  Her characters are strong, people you would like to know. Her plots manage to advance the series story-arc while still accomplishing a satisfying end to each book. Each book brings new material to light without violating any of the previous books. (I hate it when authors call their books a series but don’t bother to maintain consistency from book to book.  But maybe that’s just me.)

I loved this book but don’t start here if you’ve never read any of the earlier ones.  This is a series best read in order.

Below is the chronological reading order according to the author’s website, www.nalinisingh.com:

1. “Beat of Temptation” in Wild Invitation

2. “Whisper of Sin” in Burning Up

3. Slave to Sensation

3.5 “The Cannibal Princess” – free short story

4. Visions of Heat

5. Caressed By Ice

5.5 Movie Night – free short story

6 . “Stroke of Enticement” in The Magical Christmas Cat

7. Mine to Possess

7.5 “A Conversation” – free short story

8. Hostage to Pleasure

8.5 “A Gift for Kit” – free short story

9. Branded By Fire

9.5 “The Party” (deleted scene from Branded By Fire)

10. Blaze of Memory

11. Bonds of Justice

12. Play of Passion

12.5a “Wolf School” (deleted scene from Play of Passion)

12.5b “Declaration of Courtship” in Wild Invitation (overlaps with Play of Passion)

13. Kiss of Snow

14. “Texture of Intimacy” in Wild Invitation

15. Tangle of Need

16. Heart of Obsidian

(The free short stories are available on the author’s website)

Blunt Darts by Jeremiah Healy

Review by Matt B. (BuffaloSavage)

Widows we accept as part of the natural order of things. We’ve even seen widows who flower after their hubby settles into that big barcalounger in the sky. But widowers, we fear they’ll fade by turning to the bottle and nineteen-year-olds with ex-con boyfriends.  And unfortunate things do indeed happen to John Francis Cuddy, a Boston PI, after he loses his wife Beth to cancer.

Cuddy quit jogging and took to bending his elbow on nightly drunks. He also loses his job as an insurance investigator because he rejects signing off on a fake claim.  He goes on relief, tries to manage his drinking, and sets up as a PI. His first case is through the recommendation of Valerie, an old friend of Beth’s, who casts a romantic eye Cuddy’s way.

Cuddy often goes Beth’s grave and talks to her about what’s going on in his life and his cases. The graveyard chats weird-out the teenaged groundskeepers, which makes Cuddy observe, “Too young to know anything.  Especially anything about cemeteries.” Too right, we middle-aged readers agree.

In this mystery, Cuddy tells Beth about his search for a missing genius kid whose father, a hanging judge, doesn’t seem to care if his son is found.  The characters are original, with the heavy being particularly repulsive. The settings and situations are realistic without provoking too much anxiety about going out at night in the big bad city.

This book was the first of a series of about 14 novels. It was selected by The New York Times as one of the seven best mysteries of 1984. Critics and fans regard the Cuddy series was one of the better ones during the Eighties and Nineties. Fans of Robert Parker and Stephen Greenleaf would probably like this book.

The Confession by John Grisham

Review by Cheryl G. (Poncer)

I admit it, I have loved reading John Grisham for years. I have read all of his books, some more than once. A few of them, many times.

Before I found PaperBackSwap, newly released hardcovers were way out of my reach. I would wait for months for his books to come out in paperback, and devour them.

Now I usually have the luxury of reading his books fairly soon after their release dates, thanks to a little research and getting in on the wish lists early.

This was true of The Confession. I was offered this book just a month or so after it was released. But this time it sat on my shelf for a long time. It was the perfect length though for a recent trip to visit friends, and once I opened it, I couldn’t put it down.

The Confession is fiction, but could very well be non-fiction. And I have no doubt that what happened to the young protagonist in the book happens way more times in this country than is acceptable.

The book follows a death row inmate and his attorney through the nightmare of a wrongful conviction. It reveals what power is wielded by prosecutors, detectives and judges who are all too prone to their own human weaknesses. And what can happen to real human lives when that power is combined with a stubborn will to convict someone. Anyone.

Some parts of the book are raw, and my emotions ran high through most of it. I was drawn in to the plight of the characters, the accused, the attorney, the minister who got drawn into the fight to keep this young, innocent man alive. And even drawn into the not so heroic characters, an author following the case to write a first-hand account, the witness who lied at trial placing the accused at the scene of the crime, the warden of the prison, and even a really unsavory ex-convict.

Grisham is a master of character development and this book is no exception,  the mother of the victim, the family of the accused, the attorney’s staff, I felt as if I understood them all, from their own points of view.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys courtroom dramas, anyone who is concerned with the death penalty, and anyone who is concerned that we in the United States may be putting to death innocent people. And to anyone who wants to read a really good book

5 Stars