Storm's Heart by Thea Harrison - A Review(-ish)

Earlier this year, I had the pure delight of reading Dragon Bound by Thea Harrison. If you hang out online in the romance community, you've heard of this book. It was almost universally well reviewed, and I, like many other readers loved it. Storm's Heart, the follow-up to Dragon Bound, is another highly entertaining entry into what is quickly becoming a favorite paranormal romance series for me.

We met Tricks in Dragon Bound, when she was introduced as Dragos (the Lord of the Wyr)'s PR person. Tricks came to the Wyr at age 17, fleeing her murderous uncle, Urien, the King of the Dark Fae. It's not a spoiler to tell you that Urien met his fate in Dragon Bound, and Tricks, or Niniane Lorielle, is now the heir apparent to the Dark Fae throne. She's decidedly unhappy about it, but departs New York for Chicago, where she'll meet with the Elder Council, made up of all of the non-human races, and receive their blessing and verification that she should claim her birthright, the Dark Fae throne. Niniane has declined a protective detail from the Wyr for her trip to ascend the throne. Turns out, that was a very bad idea. Almost immediately upon arriving in Chicago, Niniane's cousin attempts an assassination, and Niniane kills him in self defense. Dragos, who has raised Niniane as his own, immediately dispatches one of his Sentinels, Tiago, the Thunderbird, to locate her and protect her.

This assignment suits Tiago just fine. Despite the fact that he and Niniane lock horns constantly, he's deeply attracted to her and is willing to do anything to protect her. He loves her fiestiness, her fight and determination to claim her birthright, despite her belief that she won't be good at it. But as Tiago and Niniane begin to deal with their attraction to each other, they must also deal with multiple attempts on Niniane's life and navigate the court intrigue and alliances of the Elder races.

This is a really fun book! Tiago is all kinds of alpha: bossy and dominant. And all kinds of discombobulated by the feelings that Niniane is constantly evoking with him. Niniane is sassy and smart, and girly and wily -- all the things I love in a heroine. She never overestimates her abilities and yet is hard headed enough to get what she wants. The couple has terrific chemistry and they are very entertaining together. While I didn't love, love, love this book as much as Dragon Bound (which I've probably re-read 10 times), this book is serious fun, a book paranormal romance readers will love. Overall, Storm's Heart is a worthy entry into Thea Harrison's terrific Elder Races series.

Final grade: B+/A-

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Breathe Again by Bonnie R. Paulson - A Review(-ish)

Maggie Lachlan is still trying to cope with the death 10 months agoof her husband, Dean. Dean committed suicide in their living room, leaving no note, no hint as to why. He'd served three tours in Iraq and was more distant each time he came home. Maggie struggles with the fact that their 12 year relationship really wasn't all that happy, and her profound anger at Dean for doing what he did. By day, Maggie is an x-ray technician at a local hospital. The job suits her because she can really just get in and out of a hospital room without having to have too much interaction with people, which is a good thing, because Maggie is almost completely shut down. But the hospital suspends Maggie after a traumatic day at work and she's now at loose ends. She has no relationships, with her family or Dean's family. Nor does she have any close friends. Until she meets Ryan Stewart.

Ryan suffers from cystic fibrosis and is in and out of the hospital. He's a sweet, funny guy with a VERY protective big brother, Broden Steele. Broden dislikes Maggie on sight. He thinks she's pushy, plain spoken and frankly, she unnerves him. But Ryan loves her, and he wants to be her friend. Given that Ryan is living on very borrowed time, Broden allows Maggie into their lives. For her part, Maggie is completely discombobulated by Broden. He's gorgeous, gruff, non-communicative and she can't stop staring at his ass. Her attraction makes her more and more agitated, which makes her more plain spoken, and less likable. But Ryan likes her, and she really likes him, so she perseveres, despite the fact that her attraction to Broden is making her feel even more nuts than usual. After Maggie and Broden exchange a very hot kiss, which Broden ends, she's more confused than ever. This guy doesn't even like her, and yet he kissed her very passionately.

Meeting Ryan and Broden spurs Maggie out of the inertia she's been in for some time. She decides to sell the house that she and Dean lived in. She's shocked that the very day she puts it on the market, it sells, and even more shocked to learn that the buyer wants to take possession of the house in six days. She's stymied by what to do until Ryan insists that she move in with he and Broden. Maggie agrees reluctantly, thinking that it will be torture to be near Broden, but she really has no other options, other than moving in with her parents. Will living with Broden make him finally act on the feelings he's confessed to having for her?

I picked this book because it looked angsty. And I loves me some angst. And this book IS angsty, but not in a way that completely made sense to me. Part of it is that to me, Maggie is still very much in the grieving stage of Dean's death. She's furious with him, and is still crying every day and mystified as to why he killed himself. She's angry, cutoff and detached from reality. So it made it very difficult for me to understand how this person could be remotely ready to have a relationship. The story is told in the first person, which makes understanding Broden's actions a bit difficult too. He's definitely remote and difficult to get to know, but Maggie has this wild attraction to him. She throws herself at him more than once, and he does respond, but if it were me, I'd be thinking, "Um, no, this chick is NOT ready for a relationship."

My other issue with the story is that it doesn't always transition well. Because it's told in Maggie's voice, and she's a very erratic character, sometimes her thought processes and justifications for actions just didn't make sense to me. And once she found out why her husband committed suicide, rather than making her grief more intense (the reason is awful), it kind of closes things for her. Having known several young women who lost their husbands very early in life, I just didn't buy that Maggie was healed and ready to move on after reading Dean's letter. Therefore, I didn't buy the Happy For Now offered by the author.

Breathe Again is an interesting story, full of angst and a hero who had potential, but the heroine's erratic behavior made me not fully invest in the couple, or their Happy for Now.

Final grade: C

Galley received courtesy of NetGalley & Carina Press.

Keeping Pace by Dee Carney - A Review(-ish)

When widow Regina Pace spots her neighbor masturbating on his back deck, she's unable to look away. He's young, gorgeous, and frankly, it's been a long dry spell for Regina since her husband died. When he approaches her after he's finished and asks if he'll see her "same time, same place" tomorrow, she's unnerved and definitely intrigued. The next day, Regina can think of nothing else. When she gets home, she pours herself a glass of wine, intending to step outside and see what happens. Instead, there's a knock at the door, and Josh Smith, her neighbor, is standing there chagrined. He confesses he'd had a bit too much to drink, and never should have approached her. He's hoping that she'll forgive him. She decides on the spot to forgive him and invite him in for dinner. As they talk, they find much in common, and definitely have a sizzling chemistry. Regina would like to have a fling with Josh, but he's determined to have more. Of course, she's 15 years older than him, and she knows without a doubt that she's too old for him. But Josh, house sitting for his folks while he finishes his doctoral dissertation, is determined. He's had a thing for Regina for ages, and he's definitely not going to let a golden opportunity slip away. They do have things, besides terrific chemistry in common, but can he convince her to put aside her issues with his age, and give him a true opportunity to woo her?

The story is  told in the first person, by Regina, and she's definitely an entertaining narrator. She still feels a lot of grief over Patrick, her husband's death three years earlier. And she really doesn't ever think she'll find someone who fulfills her needs like he did. But she knows he'd want her to move on with her life. Josh looks like the perfect way to snap her out of her sexual doldrums. No strings, just a fling. But as she gets to know Josh, she begins to like him more and more. She's also having issues at work, a younger coworker is being promoted over her, and Regina is just sick about it. When her boss, Lou, who she's always been friendly with, even going on a couple of dates after Patrick's death, indicates he's willing to promote her too, just so that she'll no longer be his subordinate and they can be free to date, Regina is not interested. Or, she's not interested in the dating part. She'd love to promotion. But when Lou shows up at her house after she's spent the night with Josh, and Regina doesn't explain their relationship to Lou, Josh in angry. He's beginning to see that Regina doesn't want a relationship with him. She'll never give dating him a real chance. He storms out, very angry. Regina begins to realize that Josh's feelings for her are stronger than she imagined. The question is, how does she really feel about Josh? And is she strong enough to trust her heart to another man?

I really enjoyed this book. As I said, Regina is very likable, and really, I never missed seeing Josh's perspective, mostly because it's a well narrated story, and it was easy to imagine what scenes looked like just visualizing them through Regina's eyes. Josh definitely tracked young (which he was), occasionally acting a bit like a baby when things didn't go his way. But overall, he was a guy who I believed a woman would fall for. I did think that the declaration of love came a bit too quickly. I wasn't completely sold that she loved him. I believed he loved her, he comes off as quite impetuous, but I wasn't as sold on her completely giving her heart to him. The story features some terrifically entertaining love scenes and a deft, smooth hand with first person perspective. For those looking for a spicy, quick summer read, Keeping Pace definitely fits the bill.

Final grade: B

Grey's Awakening by Cameron Dane - A Review(-ish)

Greyson Cole is a successful venture capitalist who decides he needs to take a break from all the Happily Ever After that seems to be happening all around him. He decides to go up to his cabin on a lake and take two weeks of vacation, just to get away from it all. Unbeknownst to him, his twin sister has given the key to the cabin to her friend, Sirus Wilder, who lives across the lake, but has had a bathroom flood in his house and needs a place to stay for a few days.

When Grey arrives at the cabin, he comes face to chest with one of the handsomest men he's ever seen. Sirus is gorgeous, and fresh out of the shower, clad only in a towel. Needless to say, Grey takes one look and is immediately on alert. He's completely attracted to Sirus, but assumes that he's got a girlfriend or wife. Nope, Sirus is gay -- and just as attracted to Grey, despite Grey's standoffish, somewhat nasty attitude. But soon, the men clear up that they're both gay and act on their attraction. They decide it will be a two week fling while Grey is at the cabin, but when it's over, it's over. Neither have been in a sexual relationship for a while, and are thinking to get their itches scratched. But what starts off as a fling becomes something much deeper and more complicated.

This is an interesting book. I liked both characters a lot, but definitely found Grey much harder to warm up to. Mostly, I think, because his inner monologue was very emotional, but his actions tended toward the dickish. Sirus was much easier to like and root for. Grey has had a hard life, and his reasons for not wanting a relationship make sense to me, but he jumped to a TON of incorrect conclusions about Sirus and was often completely wrong. But the character's connection, once they established it was interesting. Neither seemed able to give the other up, even when they *knew* the relationship as it was, was unhealthy. Both of them had very real issues, and it took them a while to get their heads out of their asses and talk to each other. But overall, when their HEA finally came, I was rooting for both of them, and hoping that they could work it out.

There were two things that bothered me about the story. The first is that they consistently had unprotected sex. They discuss it, and tell each other they're clean, and agree to have sex "bareback". I'm sorry, but in this day and age, with the types of disease that are around, and an easy enough method to protect yourself? That's not OK. Every time they had sex, in the back of my mind all I could think was, "Y'all need to put a wrapper on!" I think that if the author was trying to establish a trust relationship between them, unprotected sex was NOT the way to go. The second scene was just more of a squick thing and it involved butter and anal sex. I'm sorry, food implements going in any orifice other than the mouth during sex just is NOT OK with me. But that's more a personal preference than anything else.

Overall, Grey's Awakening is an incredibly hot, spice m/m romance, with plenty of angst and a really hot relationship between protagonists. I quite enjoyed this one!

Final grade: B-

PS - When I first read Sirus's name, I read it as "Sirius", and never quite bounced back to calling him Sirus. Clearly I have Harry Potter on the brain.

Secret Society Girl: An Ivy League Novel by Diana Peterfreund - A Review(-ish)

I've been wanting to read this book for a while, ever since Lusty Reader told me she'd read them and enjoyed them. I just finished a slew of erotic romances, so decided I wanted something a little lighter. This book filled the order perfectly.

Amy Haskell is a junior at prestigious Eli University, which is an Ivy League school. She's busy getting excellent grades, and working on the Eli Lit Magazine as its editor. She's got a boy, Brandon, who is VERY interested in her, but who she just kind of likes. Well. She likes him enough to sleep with him frequently, but he's not her boyfriend or anything. Eli University is full of secret societies like Dragon's Head, Book & Key,  and the one Amy is expecting to get into, Quill & Ink, which is full of literary-types. So when she gets tapped for the Rose & Grave, she's shocked. The Rose & Grave is the most prestigious, elite secret society at Eli -- Presidents are members. Rose and Grave members are set for life professionally, they make tons of money and are universally successful. Also, until this year, they were a male-only secret society.

Amy is honestly befuddled by how they chose her. She's not rich, nor is she pedigreed. She's just...Amy. Her Dad is an accountant, for goodness sake! But here she is, in a room, conducting an interview with a bunch of Shadow Men who know everything about her, including which teacher she had in third grade. She's unnerved, which makes her mouthy and she's pretty sure she's blown her chance. Until she gets called for initiation. But once she's in, she, and the other girls who were tapped discover that not everyone is on board with women being admitted to Rose & Grave. In fact, their admission might be enough to close down the secret society altogether. The stakes have just been raised, now the question is, will the girls band together and rise above it?

I've met Diana Peterfreund before, and I found her to be smart and engaging, and to have the coolest hair ever. At the time I met her, she had already written all of the Secret Society Girl books and was moving on to a new series about Unicorn Hunters - the book we now know as Rampant. Anyway, I liked Diana quite a bit and figured she'd have a great writing voice. I was totally right. The book is told in the first person, and Amy, our narrator is smart, mouthy and completely engaging. She's often confused, and not always confident, but she fakes it til she makes it. I loved reading about her adventures, and the many boys who seem to be interested in her. This book is DEFINITELY not "young" Young Adult lit. It's set at the college level. These kids drink, have sex, and engage in other bad behavior. Although the book is never salacious, and it doesn't really feature any sex scenes, it's definitely geared towards the older end of YA readership.

Secret Society Girl is an entertaining, light read featuring an engaging main character and truly hilarious antics.

Final grade: B+

Colters' Woman by Maya Banks - A Review-ish

When Adam Colter goes out in the bitter cold to check the mail, the last thing he expects to find is an unconscious, freezing woman. But when he picks her up, and holds her to his body, he knows. She's The One. Adam, and his brothers, Ethan and Ryan had an unusual upbringing. Their mother was married to three men, at the same time. None of them know exactly who their biological father is, and they knew, even as they grew up that their relationship with The One would be the same as their parents'. They would love and care for the same woman, and she would have a relationship with all three of them. The challenge, of course, was in finding the right woman. Now, here in his arms, she is.

Holly is on the run. She's running from her abusive husband, and had to abandon her car a few miles away. He'd beaten her badly, so she didn't make it very far before succumbing to the cold. When she awakens, it's to find herself with three gorgeous brothers, all of whom make her want inappropriate, carnal things. She's distressed to find herself attracted to all three, and even more upset to find all three more than willing to engage with her, seemingly without jealousy. What the heck is going on?

For their parts, all three Colter brothers know almost immediately that Holly is The One. And they want nothing more than to protect her, and cherish her, particularly from her brute of a husband. They band together to make Holly feel wanted and safe and comfortable. They facilitate her divorce and in doing so, fall in love with her even more deeply. While Holly is confused in the beginning, she pretty quickly understands that the brothers don't have a jealousy thing going on. They're OK with her having encounters with each of them independently, or frankly, together. And the longer she's with them, the more she sees their gifts, and she falls in love with each of them more and more deeply.

Where to start with this book? I enjoyed it. Enough that I bought the rest of the series once I finished it. But yowza, did I have to turn off my analytical hat during the sex scenes. There's a lot of "going where your brother has JUST been before"  and multiple blow jobs all the way (eww, that's a lot of swallowing). All of which combined to make me do the wrinkle my nose thing more than once. To be clear, there was absolutely NO contact between the brothers, but they were in *very* close proximity to each other, and very often climbing on top moments after the last one finished. All of it sounded quite unsanitary and a bit ick to me.

That being said, I enjoyed the romance part quite a bit, particularly because it gave the perspective of three very different men loving the same woman. This is definitely a fantasy book, where no one gets jealous or upset. The brothers are very evolved in their acceptance of their woman being with other men, even if they are your brothers. But overall, the story worked for me, it was just the sloppy seconds aspect of the love scenes that exercised my quick factor.Colters' Woman is a different, if quite enjoyable romance, by an author who rarely fails to deliver for me.

Final grade: B-