» Urban Fantasy

Let’s Talk About Nightshade by Michelle Rowen

K.C. — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 03:58:59 +0000

Genre: Urban Fantasy/Paranormal Romance

#1 Nightshade Series

352 Pages

I bought this book based off a 2 star review from Fiction Vixen Blog, a blog that I really trust. Now, why would SHB buy a book when a trusted source didn’t care for it…..curiosity my friends. The review was written so well I thought, ‘hey’ I kind of what to know what the reviewer is talking about. To me, this is a sign of a good review – either you think ‘hey no way jose’ or hmmm maybe I should give it the ole college try.

Nightshade is Michelle Rowen’s latest release in what I like to call Urban Fantasy/Romance (I’m making this up, but roll with me here). Jillian is having what is supposed to be an average workday, when she is taken hostage in her work building by some crazy mo-fo in a white lab coat. Injected with an unknown formula, Jill is kidnapped by a one-eyed bastard, Declan, who wouldn’t bat an eye by killing her. Declan isn’t a nice guy, he isn’t your typical hero either. Some of you might even check the blurb to see if this is who Jill is supposed to end up with. I’m not sure if my reading self likes assholes or what, but I was immediately drawn into Declan’s mysterious personality.

His lips thinned. “Jillian?”

I nodded eagerly. “Yes.”

“Shut the fuck up, Jillian.”

Jill isn’t your typical heroine, she’s not outgoing, she doesn’t kick ass and wear leather; she is just your average woman. This is kind of refreshing and to me, she didn’t come off as a whiny-I only- need-a-man-to-help-me-type heroine.

As the story progresses Jill finds out that Declan is a damphyre, half vampire, half human. I liked how the author slowly unraveled their relationship – until Jill finds out what Declan’s is she despises him. She even thinks about killing him when they both are attacked and the woman gives Jill a knife to ‘take care’ of her kidnapper.

I liked how gritty Nightshade was. This is no light contemporary romance; there is violence, vampires, and forced seduction. Now, let’s chit-chat about the whole reason SHB bought this book…forced seduction through mind control. I won’t go into details because this is kind of a spoiler, buuuuuuut let’s just say I didn’t mind this scene at all (quick, somebody call Dr. PHhl). Jill doesn’t want to have anything to do with Matthias, actually up until this point he is a known vampire enemy (the King) and is thought to be a rapist. Let’s just say he almost gets’s to home base with her, but pulls away because he wants her willingly. Yes, I think author could have expanded a bit more on Jill’s recovery from this scene instead of jumping back into the action, but, as a whole, I didn’t mind there was a little forced seduction. Hell, I confess I thought that scene was kind of sexy. I could kind of see how the author used this since he ‘might’ become a potential love interest. I’m guessing here folks this isn’t confirmed.

So, what has SHB learned from all this.

SHB is muy curious

A 2 star review isn’t always a bad thing, actually if written well like the one I read it can lead you to actually buy the frigging book

Although Nightshade isn’t a 5 star read, I was interested in where the story was going and I’ll be buying the second book because curiosity causes Smokinhotbooks to buy more books .

Share with SHB have you ever bought a book based on a negative review?

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Shadowfever Review – Welcome Mac 5.0

K.C. — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 04:54:02 +0000

Genre: Urban Fantasy

#4 in Fever series (final book)

Pages:594 (don’t worry, it’s a fast read)

Kindle $9.99

We Smokinhotbooks, solemnly swear (on our Kindles) that we did not divulge any spoilers.

Shadowfever IS WORTH THE WAIT. Some of us (ok, moi(s)) maybe sobbed when we read that KMM had pushed the release date to mid January but after reading SH we ask you to bow your head in a moment of silence for it’s awesomeness.

Pink Mac is dead and black, leather, kick-ass Mac 5.0 is here to stay.

We’re back in the battle of Fae versus mankind, Unseelie and Seelie. We begin with the worst day of Mac 5.0 life. IYD (if your dying), aka. the beast is dead, killed by Mac herself, and now she’s alone is the silvers. A murderer. Lost in her grief, the new Mac is formed and she’s cold, emotionless and will do anything to fix the person she killed. Even if that means teaming up with her sister’s accused murder and the man who facilitated her rape, LM (Darroc). Her only chance of bringing (who shall not be named) back to life is to find the “book,” Sinsar Dubh.

There’s so much that happened in Shadowfever that when I looked at my kindle and it said i was only 30% through I had to take a knee. Who is/was the beast, Unseelie princes, the Fae Queen, the King’s Concubine, just what the H is Barrons, why is the book attracted to Mac and oh, who Mac really is. There are so many twists and many moments that make you gasp, ‘no effing way’ all your questions are answered in SH.

Who is the Beast

Who did Mac kill at the end of Dreamfever

Who killed Mac’s sister Alina

Who is the 4^th Unseelie prince that participated in making Mac a priya

Where is the King

Where is Christian McKelter

Who is the concubine and why the eff does Mac dream about the White Mansion

I have to hand it to KMM she brought her awesome stick when writing this final book. I like how she weaved in the twists and still left some things a bit of a mystery. I did think, towards the end there were so many ‘OMG moments and twists that it overshadowed what I would have liked Shadowfever to focus on. I wish we could go more into detail, but it might spoil it. If you’ve been waiting to start this series, now is the time people. Shadowfever is one of the best books I’ve read so far this year (yes it’s only January) and SHB is still reeling after finishing it. I hope to God, we get a spin-off series with the King and his concubine, Ryodan, Christian, and Dani.

What did you think of Shadowfever? If you haven’t read it, do you want to now that we used phrases like awesome stick…?

Dreamfever Review

Other Reviews

Fiction Vixen 5/5

Katiebabs A-

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A Very Different Kind of Love Story – Haunted Lily The Nightmare Ball by Sidney Fox

K.C. — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 04:28:25 +0000

Genre: Fiction/Urban Fantasy

284 Pages

Kindle

book given for review

Haunted Lily is not your usual run of the mill paranormal/urban fantasy romance. I’m not sure what my expectations were other than I read Wicked Lil Pixie’s review and thought ‘what a coincidence, I was asked to review this.’. Book fate? I think so.

Darby is a successful film documenter who is on cloud nine, as he has fallen in love with a gorgeous young woman. On his wedding day, tragedy strikes and she dies in a fatal car accident in her wedding dress. (Hold’s hands together in a vertical and horizontal T) Now, normally I’d be calling a time-out as usually when tragedy strikes this early on in the book I’m a bit skeptical on how the main hero/heroine can find love so quickly. This is also irrefutable proof that I am a stage five clinger, and have problems with ‘change’. However, I give this author kudos for not allowing you to become too attached to the couple so that it opens your book heart to other possibilities.

Reality is shattered for British filmmaker, Darby McGregor, when his beautiful fiancée is tragically killed on their wedding day. After a dark time of mourning, Darby is tormented by a horrifying phantom bride in the eighteenth-century church he recently renovated. Is this the spirit of his beloved fiancée or something more sinister? Darby’s sanity is in question, when fate steps in.Her name is Lily, an enchanted young woman, who vibrantly shines through the darkness like a beacon of light for lost souls. Lily has been surrounded by the dearly departed since she was born, and has the gift/curse to penetrate the shadowy veil separating the living and the dead. Feeling an immediate connection, Lily agrees to be the subject of Darby’s new documentary. However, Darby and his unsuspecting crew are not prepared for this chilling journey through the “spirit world”.

As they spend time together, their bond grows. And when Darby learns of Lily’s tragic upbringing and dealings with dangerous apparitions; he wants nothing more than to protect her. But it turns out he is the one in need of protection, when Lily’s horrifying childhood nemesis returns from the afterworld to claim her. Ghosts, thrills, and chills drive the action in Haunted Lily, a tale sure to scare.

The suspense of the story really starts to unfold during the hauntings, which fondly reminded me of the TV show Ghost Adventures (minus the main stud Zack, aka. The Ghost Douche as my hubs likes to call him). One of the creepier and suspenseful aspects of the story revolves around Lily’s past with a ghost who has been haunting her since she was a child. This phantom’s relentless hauntings not only traumatize young Lily, but ultimately lead to her stay in an insane asylum. Lily and Darby’s tragic pasts lends a richness and vibrancy to the story that appeals to the sentimentalist in us all. This book is jammed packed with thrilling ghost experiences, and violent paranormal encounters, but it by no means detracts from the character’s love story.

My only ‘Say What!!!” moment happened at the end of the book. I was a bit perplexed as the story jumped from Darby being in danger and almost turning into… (HA! And you’d thought I would tell! ) to the end and now we are reading the epilogue. I would have liked the scene to unfold a bit more but other than this teensy oddity I felt that this story was a refreshing break from the typical book I tend to read and offered a chilling spookiness and tension that has been absent in reading repertoire. Haunting Lily is your after Halloween delight and is a perfect blend of the preternatural and the phenomenal.

PS This is self published and I have to say how impressed I am with the writing and story development.

Other Reviews

Wicked Lil Pixie 5/5

Smexybooks 4/5

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G to the I to the N is baaaaaack – Review Venom by Jennifer Estep

K.C. — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 03:28:57 +0000

Genre: Urban Fantasy

Elemental Assassin’s #3

Pages 389

Amazon

received a copy for review

Venom is Jennifer Estep’s 3rd installment in her Elemental Assassins series where we meet back up with assassin Gin Blanco. Gin’s ties to her family thought to be lost during a horrific massacre, reappear in the face of Detective Bria, aka Gin’s sister. Although retired Gin’s new personal mission is to take down fire elemental and murder Mab Monroe…

This is one series where each book is just as solid and awesome as its earlier predecessors. What I liked the most(est) about Venom was her interest with Owen who actually ‘gets her’ and the a-c-t-i-o-n. At times you are wondering if Estep will have Donovan make a come back (and no I can’t tell you because that’s CLASSIFIED). I’m always amazed on the author’s ability to merge well-written character development and suspense that makes my heart literally go ba-da-dump. I could go on and on about my favorite scenes but I won’t because KC is not supposed to put spoilers in her reviews.

The bastards never would have even got ten close to me if I hadn’t had the flu.

Coughing, sneezing, aching, wheezing. That was me. Gin Blanco. Restaurant owner. Stone and Ice elemental. Former assassin. And all-around bad-ass. Laid low by a microbe.

One second, I had my face buried in a tissue blowing my sore, drippy nose for the hundredth time today. The next, I looked up to find myself surrounded by three giants.

Oh, fuck.

I stopped, and they immediately closed ranks, forming a loose triangle of trouble around me. The giants were all around seven feet tall, with over sized, bug-like eyes and fists almost as big as my head. One of them grinned at me and cracked his knuckles. Someone was anxious to get down to the business of beating me.

I was also one of the rare elementals who could control more than one element. Stone and Ice, in my case. Until recently, my Ice magic had been far weaker than my Stone power. But thanks to a series of traumatic events, I could do much more with it now. Like create a wall of Ice knives to fling at the men. I’d sliced through a dwarf’s skin doing just that. Giants weren’t quite as tough as dwarves, at least when it came to cut ting into them. Even if they did have more blood to spare that their shorter compatriots.

But the odds or how to go about killing the giants wasn’t what was holding me back. Not really. It was the consequences, what would happen after wards when their boss, Mab Monroe, got involved.

All that left me with only one option tonight—I was going to have to let the giants hurt me, beat me. That was the only way I could keep my cover identity as Gin Blanco safe, along with who I really was, Genevieve Snow.

Fuck. This was going to hurt.

If you liked Spider’s Bite and Web of Lies what the h-e-double-hockey-sticks are you waiting for? Venom is a fast-paced urban fantasy adventure, that takes us deeper into the life of assassin Gin Blanco. For those romance lovers out there, (“K-Khan put your hand down”), we do see Gin have a little somethin’ somethin’ with SOMEONE in this latest installment. Jeez, if you don’t have a little naughty-time K-Khan starts to have withdrawals.

Tomorrow author Jennifer Estep is stopping by and she is bringing gifts people.

Other Reviews

Smexybooks 4.5/5

Wicked Lil Pixie 4 1/2/5

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Double Cross by Carolyn Crane – The Disilusionists Are Back

K.C. — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 05:21:24 +0000

Genre Urban Fantasy

#2 in Disilusionists series

326 pages

Amazon

received copy for review

I’m thinking about that afternoon you came to the empty restaurant, that day after the Alchemist. You were so alone. Nobody saw it, but I did. I always see you. [Packard]

Warning, this book contains an uberhanger. Translation, a cliff-hanger that makes you obsessed with what the hell is going to happen next (in a really good way, we swears!)

SOME SECRETS COME BACK TO HAUNT. OTHERS COME TO KILL.

Justine Jones lived her life as a fearful hypochondriac until she was lured into the web of a mysterious mastermind named Packard, who gifts her with extraordinary mental powers—dooming her to fight Midcity’s shadowy war on paranormal crime in order to find the peace she so desperately craves.

But now serial killers with unheard-of skills are terrorizing the most powerful beings in Midcity, including mastermind Packard and his oldest friend and worst enemy, Midcity’s new mayor, who has the ability to bend matter itself to his will.

As the body count grows, Justine faces a crisis of conscience as she tests the limits of her new powers and faces an impossible choice between two flawed but brilliant men—one on a journey of redemption, the other descending into a pit of moral depravity.

At the close of Mind Games I was myself a little disillusioned as to why Justine would go for a beret-wearing tool like Otto aka Hinjii (proudly displays her Team Packard t-shirt). Yes Packard was a naughty boy for telling some monster fibs that took away Justine’s freedom to choose, but who’s without some faults? But Otto over Packard…really Justine, what were you thinking! Crane definitely leaves us gasping and saying ” Oh no he didn’t”, at the close of Double Cross and I can’t wait to pick up the next book in the series.

Double Cross is another exciting installment in Crane’s gifted urban fantasy series that details the triumph of the anti-heros against the Dorks killing off citizens and Hichcaps of Midcity. The interaction between Packard and Justine really makes this 2^nd part of the series shine…maybe even brighter than Mind Games. There are many twists and ‘Oh. Em. Gee.’ moments where super secrets are revealed and an ending that may have you online stalking Amazon for the 3^rd book. Crane’s fantastic mixture of both humor and action make this a must read for those looking for a quirky urban fantasy.

Other Reviews

Fiction Vixen 5/5

Buckeye Girl – Loves Romance 5/5

Katiebabs B+

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