Review: Archangel's Kiss by Nalini Singh

Back Cover Blurb:

New York Times bestselling author of Angels' Blood 

Vampire hunter Elena Deveraux wakes from a year-long coma to find that she has become an angel-and that her lover, the stunningly dangerous archangel Raphael, likes having her under his control. But almost immediately, Raphael must ready Elena for a flight to Beijing, to attend a ball thrown by the archangel Lijuan. Ancient and without conscience, Lijuan's power lies with the dead. And she has organized the most perfect and most vicious of welcomes for Elena... 

For fans of: Angels’ Blood , the prequel to Archangel’s Kiss; Nalini Singh

In the Angel’s Blood, Elena is a Guild Hunter. What that means is she hunts down vampires who’ve run away and she returns them to their masters, the angels. See, in this world, angels aren’t really religious icons, but instead, basically rule the world. Angels create vampires to serve them by giving certain humans a toxin that they produce in their blood. In exchange for immortality, a human vampire-to-be signs away their freedom for a couple of centuries. Hunters are humans tasked with making sure the vampires stick to their contracts of servitude.  Elena is the best Hunter out there, which brings her to the attention of Raphael, the Archangel of New York. He’s one of seven of the most powerful angels in the world and he has a job for her. He needs her to hunt down another Archangel who has gone insane. In the process of doing this job, Elena and Raphael fall for each other, leading to massive complications and the next book, Archangel’s Kiss.

I’m a huge fan of Nalini Singh. I stalk her on her website and on an awesome urban fantasy author blog called Odd Shots. I’ve read just about everything she’s ever written.

That said, I was a little disappointed with this book. I enjoyed Archangel’s Kiss for the insight it gives us into Elena’s childhood traumas. In the first book, we were left wondering what had really happened to Elena and her family as a child. Nalini Singh finally answered that question in this, the second book in her Guild Hunter series. I enjoyed seeing Raphael and Elena’s relationship progress into more of an equal footing and watching them mature and deepen their love. I loved seeing Elena start to learn about being an angel and I loved how she dealt with all of the changes.

What I had problems with were the plot progression and climax. The plot seemed too jumpy to me. It was like it didn’t flow well when I read it. Ms. Singh had too many plot threads and she would alternate between main threads leaving me unattached to any of them. And unfortunately, the climax was completely anticlimactic. I was looking forward to the final confrontation with Lijuan and her army of the dead but it lasted for all of five pages and Elena played almost no part in it. And who destroys a city in one sentence? It was all, Beijing is no more. I just had problems with that.

I did have fun reading this. I love Elena because she’s so bad ass and refuses to take crap from anybody. I love that she’s independent and doesn’t rely on Raphael all the time, but doesn’t get into stupid situations because she’s too independent and won’t rely on others when she needs help. Raphael walks that fine line between arrogant jerk that no one likes and yummy alpha male that everyone wants. I probably will read this again, if only for the characters. I am still definitely looking forward to reading the next book in the series, which sounds like it will be set in Manhattan. I can’t wait to read about the reactions of her family and friends to her new angel wings. I hope it can come out sooner!

My Grade: B-

Review: Inked by Karen Chance, Marjorie M. Liu, Yasmine Galenorn, and Eileen Wilks

Back Cover Blurb:

Four of today's hottest urban fantasy writers together for the first time!

From today's most provocative authors come four tales of urban fantasy and paranormal romance exploring body art that is more than it seems-in a world of magic and mayhem that always leaves its mark.

This captivating tattoo theme surrounds each author's popular characters and worlds: Karen Chance's war mage Lia de Croissets, Marjorie M. Liu's demon-hunter Maxine Kiss, Yasmine Galenorn's Otherworld Intelligence Agency operative Camille D'Artigo, and Eileen Wilks's Lupi world.

I’m going to review this anthology novella by novella in order to fully cover each author’s work (mostly because I really liked some of the stories, and didn’t like some of them, so I can’t just do a catch-all review). So, on to the first novella!

Skin Deep

For fans of: Anything by Karen Chance

The first book in the Cassandra Palmer series:

Review:

Karen Chance wrote the first story, which follows war mage Lia de Croissets. Lia’s story is set in the same time period (and world) as the Cassandra Palmer series (see the link to Karen Chance’s website above), and is mostly told in other anthologies. Lia’s dad is a war mage and her mother was a high-caste Were (as in werewolf), giving Lia magical ability and a disease that prevents her from ever fully changing into a wolf. As a result, Lia has shunned the Were part of her heritage and has wholly embraced becoming a war mage, one of the best of the best when it comes to magic. At the beginning of the story, Lia is recovering from a battle that uncovered a traitor to the war mages, whom she killed. Lia is going stir crazy because she isn’t allowed to leave headquarters until her boyfriend Cyrus’s brother Sebastian, the leader of the Were clans, tells her that Cyrus has gone missing while he was doing dangerous undercover work on behalf of Sebastian. Lia sets out to find him and in the process discovers more about her relationship with Cyrus, her Were heritage, and a plot to take over the Were leadership.

I love Karen Chance’s writing, and I’ve really enjoyed following Lia’s story in all of her anthologies. I liked that, while there was a back-story that sounded interesting, I didn’t need it to read Skin Deep. The action is fun, Lia’s funny, and the romance was sweet and steamy at the same time. I really loved starting the anthology with this novella.

My Grade: A-

Armor of Roses

For fans of: Marjorie M. Liu’s Hunter Kiss series

The first book in the Hunter Kiss series:

Review:

Maxine Kiss has five demons that are tied to her life. At night, they roam around and help remove evil demons from unknowing hosts, but during the day they sleep under Maxine’s skin in the form of tattoos and make her impermeable to injury. Maxine and her boyfriend Grant are on the way home from a party for charity when they find an old man stabbed and dying against Maxine’s car. He claims to have known Maxine’s grandmother and says that whatever he helped Maxine’s grandmother with, it’s not over. Maxine has to figure out what he’s talking about and keep the other people who helped her grandmother during WWII alive.

This novella by Marjorie M. Liu is a continuation of her Hunter Kiss series, which I haven’t been able to really get into. I have read one of the Hunter Kiss novels, but I just couldn’t seem to follow along and spent most of the book very confused. Unfortunately, I had the same problem with this story. I felt like I definitely needed a back-story for the novel, and I just didn’t enjoy the way it was written. I almost gave up on the story, but I pushed through to the end because I’m stubborn like that. I’m sorry, but I just did not like this story.

My Grade: D

Etched in Silver

For fans of: The Otherworld/ Sisters of the Moon Series by Yasmine Galenorn

The first book in the Otherworld/ Sisters of the Moon series:

Review:

The prequel to Yasmine Galenorn’s Otherworld series (or Sisters of the Moon series, depending on who you talk to), this novella explains how Camille and Trillian, some of the main characters of the series, first met and fell in love. Camille is assigned to hunt down a dangerous serial rapist for the OIA (Otherworld Intelligence Agency) and along the way has some troubles with unwanted suitors.

Inked came out on the same day as Ms. Galenorn’s seventh book in the Otherworld series, Bone Magic, which also features Camille but is several years in the future. I really like the series, so I found it interesting to get a glimpse of what life was like for the D’Artigo sisters before they went Earthside. Since this was a prequel, there is no back-story necessary, but there is a ton of foreshadowing and if you’ve read the series, you’ll definitely pick up on it. I wasn’t as fond of this novella as I was of most of Ms. Galenorn’s other novels, but it was decent. It just felt a little short (compared to the other novellas, not to a full length novel) and the action that is plentiful in her other books just didn’t have the same intensity here. Also, there was a scene that introduced a new possible plot thread, and now I’m racking my brains trying to decide if that just foreshadowed something already in the series or if it has yet to occur. I’m thinking it has yet to occur. Anyway, I mostly enjoyed this novella, especially after the previous one.

My Grade: B-

Human Nature

For fans of: Eileen Wilks’s World of the Lupi series

The first book in the World of the Lupi series:

Review:

I have never read any of Eileen Wilks’s novels, so this was a pleasant introduction. Former-cop-now-FBI-agent Lily Yu travels to California at her boyfriend Rule’s request in order to investigate the suspicious death of his friend. The thing is, Rule and his friends are Lupi (another word for werewolves) and his friend was killed in an anti-Lupi stronghold. Lily has to determine whether this was a hate crime or something else, hold her relationship with Rule together, and try to avoid a political minefield.

I’m kind of excited to try reading this series now. I keep seeing the first book in the series though I haven’t yet tried it. This definitely makes me want to read the rest of her books. While I wish I knew the back-story, I don’t feel like I needed it to understand what was going on, although some of the terms were a little confusing. It sounds like the novella also introduced a new power of some sort to Lily, which could be an interesting plot thread in the next full-length novels of the series.

My Grade: B+

Overall Anthology Grade: B-

Review: Gentlemen Prefer Succubi by Jill Myles

Back Cover Blurb:

Who knew an angel could get a girl in so much devilish trouble?

Jackie Brighton woke up in a dumpster this morning, and her day has only gotten weirder. Her breasts grew overnight, her sex drive is insatiable, and apparently she had her first one-night stand ever . . . with a fallen angel.

Of course, she only remembers gorgeous Noah’s enormous, er, package. And their steamy shower sex. Hmm . . . and the dark stranger whose bite transformed her into an immortal siren with a seductive Itch.

With help from Noah and fellow succubus Remy Summore, Jackie adapts to her new lifestyle—until she accidentally strikes a deal that sends her lover into the deadly clutches of the vampire queen and lands Jackie, Remy, and the queen’s wickedly hot right-hand man into the middle of a fierce battle for an ancient halo.

But how’s a girl supposed to save the world when the enemy’s so hard to resist?

For fans of: Undead and Unwed by MaryJanice Davidson

Ever since I started following the blog Odd Shots, I’ve been looking forward to reading this book. Jill Myles has a great sense of humor, and I was looking forward to seeing it translate into her first full length novel. After a slight mishap at my local bookstore involving misplaced books and forty minutes spent searching the shelves, I finally got a copy and immediately took it home to read.

I wasn’t disappointed. The humor is fantastic. The main character, museum-tour-guide-turned-succubus Jackie, does wonderful things with sarcasm and self-deprecation that had me laughing out loud and causing my family to look at me like I was nuts. And the leading men in the love triangle, oh la la! They’re both fatally good looking. I’ve decided I’m more of a Zane fan (Zane being the vampire queen’s hot right-hand man). He’s one of the kindest (and sexiest) bad boys I’ve ever read about; what he says (think rude jerk-isms) doesn’t always mesh with what he does. He does seem to genuinely care about Jackie, though, which meets one of my requirements for bad boy love interests: He shalt truly care about the female lead and protect her from all other dastardly villains though he may behave abominably in the process. While Noah is protective and sexy, I got the feeling that he’s just interested in Jackie in a carnal way and isn’t too keen on an actual relationship. And yes, the sex scenes are all steamy and well written and definitely yummy. ;D

Remy, Jackie’s new mentor and friend, is another interesting character. Remy has a questionable job, questionable taste in clothes (and men), and a potty mouth. Remy’s saving graces are her loyalty to Jackie and her friendliness from the moment we meet her, and she makes a perfect foil to Jackie, who is clueless about men, pretty naïve, and slightly prudish. The contrast between Remy and Jackie leads to some funnily awkward moments between the two of them.

And this brings me to Jackie. I was disappointed by Jackie. I love her humor and was excited to see that she’s intelligent (she has at least one degree and runs tours in a local museum). I like that she gets to have that Cinderella-esque makeover that every girl fantasizes about and gets the body of her dreams by becoming a succubus. I also like that she has real self-esteem issues, which any woman would have after being a size fourteen most of her life and suddenly finding herself a size six and the object of men’s desires. Those are portrayed realistically and well. My problem with Jackie is that she’s supposedly intelligent, and yet she has occasional moments where she’s just too stupid to live (TSTL). The first thing Remy does when instructing Jackie in her new way of life is to warn her not to do certain things. What does Jackie do? She manages to go out and immediately do what she was warned about. And though she’s a museum docent (her actual job description), she seems a little clueless at times when dealing some of the historical information, which I couldn’t find entirely believable since she works in a museum and has a degree, probably in Archaeology, judging by what she says about her job. Jackie is mostly believable as a normal, slightly prudish woman who just found herself turned into a succubus with an insatiable sex drive. I just wish she had evidenced her intelligence a little more consistently.

The plot was engaging. I am automatically a fan of any book that portrays ancient mythologies in a modern setting (think Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Dark-Hunter series) because I’m a history buff, so tossing in elements of Ancient Egyptian history gets a thumbs up from me. I wished the fight between good and evil was a little more pronounced; it felt slightly laissez faire and rather mellow. There weren’t any apocalyptic battle scenes, and the ending is somewhat anti-climactic, but overall, the plots flows smoothly and is interesting enough that you are curious about what happens next.

I’m looking forward to the next book in the series, Succubi Like It Hot; hopefully, the love triangle and the action will heat up and Jackie will exhibit more common sense and intelligence. Gentlemen Prefer Succubi is a great debut by a first time author and a hilariously fun read. Would I read this book again? Probably.

My Grade: B-

Review: Divine Misdemeanors by Laurell K. Hamilton

Back Cover Blurb:

You may know me best as Meredith Nic Essus, princess of faerie. Or perhaps as Merry Gentry, Los Angeles private eye. In the fey and mortal realms alike, my life is the stuff of royal intrigue and celebrity drama. Among my own, I have confronted horrendous enemies, endured my noble kin’s treachery and malevolence, and honored my duty to conceive a royal heir—all for the right to claim the throne. But I turned my back on court and crown, choosing exile in the human world—and in the arms of my beloved Frost and Darkness.

While I may have rejected the monarchy, I cannot abandon my people. Someone is killing the fey, which has left the LAPD baffled and my guardsmen and me deeply disturbed. My kind are not easily captured or killed. At least not by mortals. I must get to the bottom of these horrendous murders, even if that means going up against Gilda, the Fairy Godmother, my rival for fey loyalties in Los Angeles.

But even stranger things are happening. Mortals I once healed with magic are suddenly performing miracles, a shocking phenomenon wreaking havoc on human/faerie relations. Though I am innocent, dark suspicions of banned magical activities swirl around me.

I thought I’d left the blood and politics behind in my own turbulent realm. I had dreamed of an idyllic life in sunny L.A. with my beloved ones beside me. But it becomes time to wake up and realize that evil knows no borders, and that nobody lives forever—even if they’re magical.

For fans of: Laurell K. Hamilton (LKH)

A little background on the series: Merry is a faerie princess, one of the sidhe, the high royals of the Fey. When she didn’t show signs of immortality or powerful, deadly magic as a child, her aunt, Queen Andais of the Unseelie throne, blames the lack on her part human heritage and tries to kill her. Repeatedly. Eventually, Merry is forced to flee to LA to save her own life from the assassination attempts and hides out by pretending to be human. Her cover gets blown in the first book, A Kiss of Shadows, and the Queen’s captain of the guard and deadliest assassin, Doyle, takes her back to the Unseelie Court where, surprisingly, she is announced co-heir to the throne. Andais has now made Merry and Andais’s sadistic son Cel equals and vows to step down from the throne on one condition: one of them has to get pregnant first. Merry is given her choice of the Queen’s Guard, an elite and incredibly good looking group of men who have been celibate for about 1,000 years due to Andais’s cruel commands. The series pretty much follows her attempts to get pregnant (read: lots and LOTS of sex with many different men), find a husband, or rather, the lucky man who gets her preggers, and oh, yeah: survive. Cel wants Merry dead really, REALLY badly, and so do a quite a few of the other sidhe because she’s mortal and isn’t considered “pure” enough racially to rule. There’s a ton of politics, some crime solving, and did I mention the SEX?

I was a little surprised when I saw that Hamilton’s Meredith Gentry series was continuing after Swallowing Darkness. I thought that Swallowing Darkness had done a great job of wrapping up loose ends and didn’t really feel the need for a sequel. So when I saw Divine Misdemeanors, I was curious. What was Merry going to do now? In Swallowing Darkness, she is pregnant, she’s won and then rejected the Unseelie throne, which has been her goal from the beginning of the series, kills her cousin Cel, the main antagonist, saves all of her husbands (she was impregnated by six men and thus marries them), and is supposed to be living Happily Ever After.

Apparently, LKH was setting the stage for a new period in Merry’s life. Merry and her harem have gone back to LA and are trying to support themselves and the 100 plus people Merry has won to her side over the course of the series by returning to work for the private detective firm Merry used as her cover in A Kiss of Shadows. The lesser fey, or in other words, anyone NOT sidhe, are getting murdered in ways that resemble children’s book illustrations and Merry and her men (does anyone else think of Robin Hood when they hear that?) are called in to consult with the police.

That’s the only thing the back cover is really right about. I mean, yes, Merry confronts Gilda, and yes, the people she healed are doing amazing stuff, but those incidents were not the focus of the book as the blurb would have you believe. Rather, the focus is on the murders, Merry, her men, and the repercussions of the choices she made in giving up the throne.

Most of the book deals with the conflicts brought up when Merry gave up the Unseelie crown. Some of her followers don’t like that decision and it causes rifts in previously solid relationships. Andais has gone crazy over the loss of her son and is torturing people left and right back in Faerie, which creates guilt for Merry and adds more stress to her life. The pregnancy has all of the men in a tizzy and they’re being a little overprotective. Merry’s fame is starting to get in the way of her ability to do her job, not to mention her life. New responsibilities are cropping up and lead to even more problems. Her allies are suddenly looking for ways out of their alliances, and Merry has to contend with that, too.

There’s some politics in this novel, but nowhere near the amount in previous books in the series. The action is almost nonexistent, too, which is a huge change of pace from the earlier books. I was a little thrown off by the change, but I enjoyed the slower plot and the fact that in Divine Misdemeanors we got to see more of the romantic side of Merry and the interplay with the men. The sex scenes, while still there, aren’t as BDSM as previous ones and now that there’s no rush to get preggers, it’s a lot more relaxed and sweet, too. Plus, some of the guards I wanted her to share some sweet lovin’ with in previous books finally get their turns.

One of my only complaints is that it barely mentions Merry’s rapist uncle in passing, and I wanted to see that sucker SUFFER. Another complaint I had was that, as is typical with LKH books, there are so many well done characters that have appeared in other books, she can’t do justice to them or even fit face time for some them into Divine Misdemeanors. The focus on crime and romance reminded me of LKH’s Anita Blake series more than the Merry series, but they weren’t overwhelmingly similar.

Overall, I really enjoyed the book. I liked seeing Merry’s life head in a new direction and I loved seeing the men in a different light. I liked that the book went back to LA and had a more modern setting that I could relate to a little better. Would I read the next in the series? Yes, I’m looking forward to the next book more than I was for some of the previous releases. Would I read this again? I already have. ;D

My Grade: B+

Review: Fallen by Lauren Kate

Back Cover Blurb:

There's something achingly familiar about Daniel Grigori.

Mysterious and aloof, he captures Luce Price's attention from the moment she sees him on her first day at the Sword & Cross boarding school in sultry Savannah, Georgia. He's the one bright spot in a place where cell phones are forbidden, the other students are all screw-ups, and security cameras watch every move.

Even though Daniel wants nothing to do with Luce--and goes out of his way to make that very clear--she can't let it go. Drawn to him like a moth to a flame, she has to find out what Daniel is so desperate to keep secret . . . even if it kills her.

Dangerously exciting and darkly romantic, Fallen is a page turning thriller and the ultimate love story.

For fans of: Twilight, Blue Bloods

Fallen starts out with Luce, the main character, getting sent to a prison-like reform school called Sword & Cross because her old crush died in a suspicious fire. Unfortunately, due to Luce’s past history of mental health issues, no one believes it was an accident and they all suspect that Luce killed him. The thing is, Luce doesn’t have mental health problems. Luce sees Shadows, inky black entities that have a malevolent feel to them, and since no one else has ever seen them, she was labeled mentally unstable for a while. She knows the Shadows were there the night her crush died, and though she can’t really remember how the fire started, she knows the Shadows had something to do with his death.

When Luce arrives at Sword & Cross, her miserable life becomes even more unbearable. Sword & Cross is located on the edges of a swamp, and once inside the grounds, the students are watched at all times by cameras and are not allowed to have cell phones, just a fifteen minute, once-a-week call. They all have to wear black uniforms and are expected to attend long, demanding classes until the early evening. The only good part of the school is the other students.

Upon her arrival, Luce is befriended by Arriane, a quirky, spontaneous girl who takes her under her wing and shows Luce the ways of the school. Cam, one of the other students, is clearly interested in Luce and begins a campaign to win her affections. Luce, however, has already fallen with a strange intensity for a student named Daniel, who flips her off the first time he sees her and avoids her like the plague. Daniel has a big secret, and that secret seems to be shared by almost everyone at the school. Luce is determined to find out what Daniel is hiding, and, hopefully, win his heart.

Luce spends most of the book stalking Daniel and trying to solve the mystery with the help of another new friend, Penn, a girl who has been at Sword & Cross most of her life. At the same time, Cam keeps trying to get her to fall for him and you’re never really sure whose side Arriane is on. Worse, the Shadows have followed Luce to Sword & Cross and appear to be getting deadlier. When the secrets are finally revealed, Luce could lose her life.

Firstly, I enjoyed Fallen much more than I was expecting to. I adored the beautiful cover (props to the cover artist) and that was what originally attracted me to the book. That gorgeous gothic feel was continued into the story, and I really enjoyed the darker aspects of the book. The imagery was beautiful and well written.

Luce was a decent protagonist. She knows her immediate attraction to Daniel is ridiculous, since he’s a jerk to her and rarely friendly or kind. She tells herself Cam is better for her, and actually tries to end her fascination with Daniel. She is believably upset about the death of her old crush and worries that she really did somehow bring about his death. While Luce does overcome her issues too quickly at times for it to be completely believable, and has a few moments when she doesn’t make the best decisions or acts defeated, she does try to make the best of the situation and isn’t a gloomy character.

The other characters are interesting with their shared secret, and I wanted to know more about them. Arriane was funny and wild and reminded me of one of my own friends, while Cam was sweet and charming, and frankly, I liked him better than Daniel. I loved Penn’s character, mostly because I could picture myself in her shoes.

However, I did have some problems with the narrative. Apparently, everyone at Sword & Cross has ninja-like abilities when it comes to circumventing the rules. The students are constantly sneaking out, having crazy dorm parties with alcohol, and skipping class without repercussion or getting caught by the cameras that are supposedly everywhere, Big Brother style. It’s one of my pet peeves when things are unbelievable outside of the fantasy aspect of the novel. If you are writing a fantasy, it has to have some base in a logical reality or I can’t take it seriously, and this almost crossed the line for me.

Another problem I had was that there are several questions left unanswered at the end of the novel. While you are given a few (very few) hints throughout the novel about the mysteries and secrets, too many of them are left hanging at the end for my taste. I can understand leaving some mystery for the sequel(s), but really? I need a little more to go on.

Also, Daniel is supposed to be the main love interest, but Cam gets much more face time than Daniel does. I actually preferred Cam up until near the end, when Daniel made a great come back to capture my interest again. I would have liked Daniel to appear a little more earlier in the novel.

I am not a huge fan of predestined love, and Fallen didn’t really change my impression of that. I need, at the very least, a suggestion of why Luce and Daniel have been predestined to love each other and why they stay in love. I’m sorry, but I just couldn’t believe the romance between the two of them.

Overall, I enjoyed it. I liked the story, I liked the characters, and I loved the gothic imagery. It was a great dark romance without suffering from too much angst. While it could have been improved by a little more revelation, the story wasn’t harmed too badly and still made sense without the answers I would have liked. I’ll probably read the next book in the series, though I probably won’t reread Fallen.

My Grade: B-