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Book Review: Ecstasy in Darkness by Gena Showalter (Series, #5) (Bottom of TBR Pile Challenge)
Summary:
Ava Sans is hoping to move up to a full agent at New Chicago’s Alien Investigation and Removal (AIR) team. But before she can, she and her best friend, Noelle, are assigned to capture a powerful vampire who can manipulate time. McKell, recently cast out from the underground tunnels the monarchical vampires call their home, is having to adjust to living with daylight and is desperate to find out the secret these above ground vampires have for moving around in the daylight without burning. Used to seeing humans only as food slaves, he’s disturbed to find himself inexplicably attracted to Ava Sans, who just so happens to smell like butterscotch.
Review:
I rarely impulse buy books in drugstores and, after reading this book, I think that’s probably the wiser move. I bought this in a CVS due entirely to the cover and didn’t pick it up to read for three years. When I did, I saw it was the fifth book in the series. Fortunately, this isn’t the type of series that it’s necessary to read in order. Unfortunately, nothing about this book made me want to go read the rest of the series. It suffers from a meandering plot, ridiculous dialogue, two-dimensional characters, constant cock-teasing of the reader, and an entirely misleading cover (that I suspect was misleading on purpose).
This series focuses on a different romantic pairing in each entry. They all have ties to AIR in some way. The previous couples make cameos in other books, but the actual plot from the prior books doesn’t have much impact on this one. All that needs to be known is there was a war with the aliens, New Chicago is not on Earth, vampires are an alien species that are allergic to the sun and live underground on this planet, the vampires make humans their food slaves, and some of the vampires have started living above ground. Oh, and there’s this alien called the Schön Queen who looks beautiful but actually is a rotting, disease-ridden creature who gives those who bang her an illness that makes them her voodoo zombie slaves. Those who read a lot of pnr will understand that that’s a pretty simple plot summary for a series this far in.
The actual plot for this book basically is that Ava will help McKell lure vampires to interview to find out how they live in daylight and he will, in turn, come willingly to talk to the head of AIR. AIR wants to find out if McKell’s blood can be used to save victims of the Schön Queen’s disease. If the book stuck to this simple, straightforward plot it would work. But it meanders all over the place, tossing in red herrings, asides, diatribes, and scenes that seem to happen just for the fun of it. This book is over 500 pages long. That is not enough plot to support that many pages, unless the characters are stopping to bang a lot, which was honestly what I was expecting. That’s not what we get though.
The cover definitely implies that this is a BDSM book with a lot of sex. The only thing that ever happens with a whip is McKell comes over to Ava’s house with the whip intent on actually beating her up with it (in a to get revenge way not in a sexy BDSM way) but then he never uses it on her. She mentions it in a giggling aside toward the end of the book, and McKell states he would never ever whip her. He loves her too much now. I know the author generally doesn’t have any impact on the cover design at all, but somebody somewhere must have known they’d be pulling in people expecting BDSM only to have BDSM scorned within the book. Not cool. That’d be less irritating, though, if there was at least a lot of sex of some sort in the book. Instead, we repeatedly find Ava and McKell getting hot and steamy only to stop just short of having sex. They have sex twice in the book at the very end. You seriously have to read at least 400, maybe 450, pages to get one full sex scene. Which is incredibly frustrating because by far the best writing Showalter does is of the sex scenes. They’re tantalizing and realistic with some things we don’t always see in romance novels, like the guy going down on the girl, for instance. This book would have been at least three stars if Showalter’s steamy scenes had led to actual sex scenes throughout the novel. But instead, the reader just gets going with excitement only to have it yanked out from under them to go check in on that meandering plot.
The characters are so two-dimensional that it’s essentially impossible to truly care for them. McKell is a vampire with a temper. A bad boy, supposedly, that Ava inexplicably falls for. Most of his presence in the book consists of snapping at Ava and being shocked she doesn’t obey him and then being turned on by that. Ava, on the other hand, is traumatized by growing up on the bad side of the tracks and has a big inferiority complex. She also smells like butterscotch. And tastes like butterscotch. And her hair looks like butterscotch. She’s a piece of butterscotch candy who says boo hoo poor me and I want to prove to everyone that I’m not trash so oh hey let’s fall for this bad boy vampire who treats me badly that seems like a great choice. I admit by the end of the book McKell is treating her well but his transformation is out of the blue, not gradual. Plus, Ava falls for him when he’s a bad boy and never stands up for herself or says I deserve better. She ends up with an ok guy but only because he magically transformed, not out of any agency of her own. The supporting characters are even less well-developed. I can say maybe one or two things about them all, but nothing that makes them truly come to life in my mind.
Overall, this is an overly long pnr with a light, meandering plot and only two sex scenes in over 500 pages. While the sex scenes are well-written and tantalizing, the rest of the book is dull, with two-dimensional characters it is impossible to come to truly care for. The romance uses the bad boy/wounded woman trope and does nothing to make it deeper or richer. Those who think from the cover that this is a BDSM pnr should be aware that it is definitely not. I would perhaps pick it up in a library or at a friend’s house to skim through and read the sex scenes, but there is definitely better pnr out there to devote your time to.
2 out of 5 stars
Source: CVS
Previous Books in Series:
Awaken Me Darkly
Enslave Me Sweetly
Savor Me Slowly
Seduce the Darkness
Book Review: Alien in the Family by Gini Koch (Series, #3)
Summary:
Kitty loves being engaged to Martini, her super-sexy alien fiancee from Alpha Centaurion. But she’s not super into the whole wedding planning thing. The issue gets pushed to the forefront, though, when Martini’s estranged extended family on AC announces their intent to visit and determine the worthiness of the marriage. It seems Martini is actually royalty. Meanwhile, some new aliens crop up, and they just so happen to be Amazonian terrorists. It’s an awful lot for the Super-Being Exterminator team to handle.
Review:
This is a hard review to write, because I *loved* the first two books in the series but this one left such a sour taste in my mouth, I won’t be continuing on.
The overarching plot is good. Yes, it’s a bit ridiculous that Martini is royalty, but anyone who’s read the first two books in the series should expect and embrace the ridiculousness at this point. The added twists from the AC homeworld make the wedding plot more interesting and unique. Every wedding is unique in its own way, but this gives Kitty and Martini’s wedding a decidedly paranormal romance flair. I didn’t find the Amazonian terrorist plot particularly necessary but it was well-done and kept the action moving.
The writing continues to be tongue-in-cheek dirty wit.
I hated having to be someplace on time, it took away so many potential orgasms. (page 40)
But the relationship between Martini and Kitty gave me reason to pause this time around. They continue to have excellent chemistry, which is fun to see. But there are two glaring issues in the relationship. Martini is overly jealous, in a cartoonish, immature way. He doesn’t get jealous in a way that is sexy. For instance, he doesn’t see men looking at Kitty and hold her hand to show they’re together. He actually growls. And yells. And clearly doesn’t trust Kitty. Of course, that lack of trust could be justified since Kitty repeatedly wonders if she’s choosing to marry the right man. Not just that, she thinks about whether she should marry any myriad of her guy friends and ex-lovers. Plus, she continues to flirt with just about anyone, in spite of Martini telling her it makes him uncomfortable. These are issues that should have been worked out prior to an engagement, and they don’t bode well for a future marriage. I wouldn’t mind the issues, but the couple are presented as the ideal couple. They aren’t presented as a couple who has some issues to add some realistic drama to the story. This is paranormal romance. The main romantic couple *should* be a bit idealized, but they aren’t.
A much, MUCH bigger issue to me though is how rape is handled in the book. This comes up in two different scenes. There is a scene where Kitty is fighting some bad guys and accidentally ends up in a room with a football team visiting Vegas. Half of the team makes a very overt attempt to gang rape her, but the other half of the team (plus an alien pet Kitty picks up early in the book) puts a stop to it. Then later the leader of the rapey half of the team comes to help fight the bad guys and apologizes, and Kitty recommends that they be added to the secret forces. She shrugs off the rape attempt as everyone makes mistakes and they apologized and essentially recommends they get hired to her company. I’m ok with a heroine narrowly escaping a rape attempt, as that could happen. I’m not ok with the heroine then shrugging it off, accepting an apology, basically saying that a rape attempt is just a mistake, and trying to help the career of the attempted rapist. What. The. Hell?!
In the second scene, Kitty is hanging out with her friend, Chuckie. Chuckie is, at this point in time, her boss. He’s also her almost life-long friend, she’s had sex with him in the past, he’s asked her to marry him before, and she’s periodically wondered throughout this book if maybe she should be marrying him instead of Martini. At the end of their conversation, they’re getting ready to go, and this happens:
He [Chuckie] took my [Kitty’s] shoulders and turned me around. “God, it’s as bad from the back. Really, go put on some clothes.”
“I don’t have a wrap, okay?”
“Find one. Before I rape you.” He gave me a gentle push toward the bedroom.
“Fine, fine.” (page 434)
So, Kitty’s friend: A) judges her clothing and deems it immodest B) orders her to change her outfit C) casually jokes about raping her D) victim blames rape victims with his comment implying clothing causes rape. And of course Kitty just takes this all in stride and doesn’t see anything at all inappropriate about what Chuckie says.
There is just far too much casual boys-will-be-boys acceptance of rape and rape culture in this book that supposedly features a strong female lead and *romance*. And a wedding! Paranormal romance fans deserve better. Men deserve to be treated as not mindless animals who will tackle anything in a sexy dress. Women deserve better than to be blamed for rapists’ behavior. Toss in the relationship issues between Martini and Kitty, while the relationship is treated by the book an ideal one, and no amount of sexy humor, wedding dresses, and aliens could save it for me. I’m very disappointed in the turn this series took. If you’re interested in the series, I would recommend reading the first two and stopping there.
2 out of 5 stars
Source: Amazon
Previous Books in Series:
Touched by an Alien
Alien Tango
Book Review: Tracking the Tempest by Nicole Peeler (Series, #2) (Audiobook narrated by Kate Reinders)
Summary:
Things have gotten interesting since Mainiac Jane True found out she’s half selkie. She discovered the whole world of supernatural beings, started training and honing her own powers with the help of a local goblin, and of course met and started dating the sexy vampire Ryu. After being caught up in the mystery that was a supernatural person killing halflings, Jane really just wants to focus in on power honing and Ryu. Particularly with Valentine’s Day approaching. But when she goes down to Boston for her first visit to his home, she ends up getting caught up in his current investigation. Going after a dangerous halfling who just escaped from an illegal lab.
Review:
I enjoyed the first entry in this series as a surprisingly humorous paranormal romance set in the unusual (for pnr) setting of Maine. So when I needed a new audiobook for a roadtrip and saw this lounging on audible, I snatched it up. I kind of regret that choice because not only did I enjoy this entry in the series less but I also apparently misremembered how well I liked the first book in the series. I only rated it as 3.5 stars but remembered enjoying it at at least 4. Hindsight is not always 20/20. Essentially, everything that kinda sorta rubbed me the wrong way in the first book got worse instead of better, and the things I liked became worse as well.
The humor takes a nosedive. Whereas the first book deftly handled a dry New England sense of humor, here things turn mean and inappropriate. Jane laughs at things she shouldn’t laugh at and invites the reader to as well, and it becomes deeply awkward. Like hanging out with a friend who thinks they’re funny but is in fact offensive.
I was excited to see what Peeler did with Boston, and I admit some things she handled well. She nailed the neighborhood of Allston, for instance, but she also put Ryu’s home in Bay Village. Ryu is supposed to be a wealthy vampire, but instead of putting him in Beacon Hill or a wealthy suburb like Cambridge or Newton, she puts him in a neighborhood that is actually a lower to middle class neighborhood that is slowly being gentrified. That’s not where a home like Ryu’s supposedly is would be located. This is a neighborhood that border the Massachusetts Turnpike (noisy big road, for non-Americans). It’s not the mecca of wealth that Peeler seems to think it is. A big mistake like that is rather jarring when she got details like how the exit of the T in Harvard Square is called the Pit, a bit of knowledge even some locals don’t have. On the other hand, she seems to think that the Boston Public Garden closes at night and has a big scene where Ryu takes Jane there on a romantic late-night date. Um. No. The Garden doesn’t close at night. It is, however, full of people trying to sell you drugs. Yes, yes, ideal for a romantic date. This unevenness in knowledge of Boston and its surrounding areas made reading the setting uncomfortable and awkward.
The issue of Ryu being an obvious jerk continues. It’s clear from the beginning of the book that a break-up is coming and Jane is being set up with another character. It’s kind of annoying for the book to be this predictable, but it is paranormal romance, and Jane does ultimately stand up for herself, so I was ultimately ok with this. In fact, the way Jane stands up for herself is handled so well that it saved the book from getting 2 stars instead of 3.
The last, and most important, thing that made the book deeply upsetting for me was the fact that Jane is not once but twice put into a situation where she is about to be raped. Rape comes up a lot in paranormal romance and frankly it bothers me. These are worlds in which women are powerful, talented, and often gifted with great gifts. So why must their confrontations so frequently devolve into threatened or real rape? I get it that rape is a very real thing in the real world, and I am completely fine with it existing as a plot point in horror, dystopian or post-apocalyptic scifi, and mysteries. Horror is supposed to push the boundaries of comfort. Dystopian and postapocalyptic scifi is frequently presenting humanity at its worst, and rape is one of the worst. Mystery needs a victim, and frequently murder victims are also raped. But in a battle between supernatural creatures in a book that is supposed to be a romance suddenly tossing in rape as a weapon doesn’t read right. It removes so much agency from the main female characters. Like, what, she’s always easily defeated because you can just threaten to shove your dick into her against her will and suddenly she will acquiesce to your viewpoint? It’s paranormal romance. Why can’t the paranormal world have fights where rape threats and attempted rapes aren’t a thing?
What really bothered me about the second scene this happened in with Jane is the level of victim blaming that happens as well. Jane has just successfully escaped from the first rape attempt. She saves herself. This is great, and she does it with a mixture of trickery and violence that is commendable. But then a man shows up and immediately takes over. He says he needs to protect her; he’s going to walk her out of this situation. Jane insists she needs to pee. She goes to pee, against his protests, and when she comes back out, he’s gone because another group of villains have him, and Jane starts to be attacked by a known violent rapist. She later blames herself for having to go pee, and no one argues with her that she has every right to pee when she needs to. So we have a powerful halfling who can’t go pee by herself because she might get attacked and raped? That is so incredibly victim blaming and putting all the responsibility for safety on the woman that I can’t even properly articulate how angry it makes me.
Kate Reinders, the narrator, mostly does a good job. She lands the complex voice of Jane quite well. The only negative I can say is that she mispronounces some New England words and city names. But her narration did make the book more enjoyable for me.
Combine these issues (aside from the audiobook narration which was fine) together with the fact that the plot is basically the previous book’s plot flipped in reverse (violent halfling killing supernatural people instead of supernatural person killing halfling), and I can safely say I won’t be continuing on in the series. The only thing that saves the book from a lower rating is the fact that Jane ultimately does stand up for herself. But for me it was too little too late. Not recommended. Unless you enjoy bad humor, awkward settings, and rape threats and victim blaming of the heroine.
3 out of 5 stars
Source: Audible
Previous Books in Series:
Tempest Rising
Smashwords Summer/Winter Sale Finds
Smashwords is a website that lets indie authors sell their ebooks in multiple formats, including: kindle, epub, pdf, rtf, sony, palm doc, html, and javascript. It’s an interesting community with some pretty unique stories.
Since I’m an author with a presence on Smashwords, I became aware of their annual Summer/Winter Sale (so entitled to cover both northern and southern hemispheres). After agreeing to have Ecstatic Evil participate in the sale, I thought I’d check out the listing of all participating books to see if there were any that caught my eye. Here, then, is a listing of the ones that I found and downloaded for 100% off with the sitewide coupon code SSWIN.
Clear Heart by Joe Cottonwood
A love story for men about nail guns, wet concrete, and strong women. When carpenters work for bigshots – and fall for beautiful women – who gets nailed? “It’s funny, very tender, and enormously, tremendously human. In fact, Clear Heart just might be one of the most human books I’ve read in a long time.” —Colleen Mondor, Bookslut
The Veiled Mirror: The Story of Prince Vlad Dracula’s Lost Love by Christine Frost
Legend has it that the love of Prince Dracula’s life committed suicide during a siege in 1462. Author Christine Frost tells the story of Ecaterina, consort to Vlad the Impaler, the Romanian prince who served as the inspiration for Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The richly detailed story of Ecaterina is a romantic, supernatural, and adventurous view into one of history’s most notorious figures.
Callisto: Adrift by Erica Conroy
Stealing damning evidence from a certain covert ops section of Space Corps makes Jasmine a target. So what does she do? She runs. Hops the first civilian transport ship out of there, but of course the bad guys still find her. Luckily for her the dark and brooding half-human man on board, is a deft hand with a sword. Unluckily for him, helping her could be hazardous to his life!
Portrait of the Past by Kate Halleron
The year is 1880. Marguerite is an artist and former slave who is hired to paint a wedding portrait for a wealthy family. She soon finds that the family has close ties to her past from which she has constantly fled. Instead of fleeing again, she stays to paint a portrait of her former family, and in so doing she begins to understand the difficult choices her loved ones were driven to make.
The Silence of a Soldier: The Memoirs of a Bataan Death March Survivor by William J. Duggan
It was 1942. The fight for the Philippines was over. Japan was the victor. American POW’s sat beneath the burning April sun in the fields of Mariveles. At the point of a bayonet, 75,000 U.S. and Filipino POW’s carried sacks of rice, dried fish and ammunition for the Japanese move across the Philippines. Thousands died. Bub survived. This is his story.
Gone by Brian Alaspa
A group of employees trying to have a weekend of bonding in the woods. What they get, however, is a weekend of unrelenting terror. What is making them disappear one at a time? Why can’t they leave? Will any of them make it back or will all of them end up “Gone?”
Polly’s Wild Dance by Sidnee Elliot
After twenty-five years of dealing blackjack in Las Vegas, Polly Brilliant throws the cards in the air, sells everything she owns and makes a beeline to the Greek island of Kythira to paint, write, and forget about men. Or so she thinks.
The Preying Mantis by Andreas Louw
Since investigating the murders of young, female teachers by a serial killer, FBI Special Agent Elizabeth ‘Betty’ Roy has been having nightmares. When he contacts her, latent memories from her childhood starts resurfacing. Who is this man they call The Preying Mantis?
I’m excited by the finds for my personal TBR pile, although lord only knows when I’ll be able to get to them. *eyes size of TBR pile*.
In any case, if you love free books as much as I do, I encourage you to check out not only these titles but the page dedicated to the sale! As you can see from the titles I chose, the genres are incredibly varied, and I bet you will be able to find something that strikes your fancy.
Book Review: Hellsbane by Paige Cuccaro (Series, #1)
Summary:
Emma Jane Hellsbane has always had the ability to sense other people’s emotions, and she turned that into a comfortable career as a “psychic.” All that changes when the cute jock from highschool who mysteriously disappeared halfway through senior year lands on her doorstep with a clawed stomach. She swiftly finds out that he’s a nephilim–half human, half fallen angel–and so is she. Without intending to, Emma Jane finds herself swept into the war between the angels and the fallen, as well as attempting to pay off the debt for her father’s sin.
Review:
This was a classic case of not a bad book but I’m not the right audience for it. I definitely don’t think the summary of the book that I read was quite as clear about the book’s Christian leanings as the one I just wrote for ya’ll. If it was, I wouldn’t have picked it up.
What we have here is what I’m thinking is probably a new category of Christian fiction I was completely unaware of –Christian paranormal clean romance. Now, I know at least two of my followers who would absolutely LOVE this book for exactly those reasons. Alas, that’s exactly why I didn’t like it.
The Christian mores and doctrines have a strong presence. We even go so far as to have Emma Jane come from a Catholic family but be an agnostic herself until hell and heaven literally show up on her doorstep. As an agnostic myself, I found it rather patronizing to have an agnostic character proven wrong by flesh and blood angels and demons. Y’know, like that would ever actually happen in real life? The whole scene just felt smug. On the other hand, I could totally see as a Christian enjoying seeing someone convert from agnostic back to Catholic. And yes, this book is heavily Catholic. There is a lot of talk of saints and levels of sin and etc… This of course means that there are things that I just don’t agree with (like the whole Emma Jane being held responsible for her father’s sin), but that’s only natural considering that this book is geared toward people who believe in those sorts of things. Kind of like how I can’t stand The Chronicles of Narnia for similar reasons.
The fact that this is a Christian romance also means that there is ZERO SEX. There is one pretty tame kiss. If you want clean romance, this is your book, but if you’re like me it, um, is not.
The only thing that bothered me that I can’t chalk up to not being the target audience is the surprising lack of racial diversity in a book set in Pittsburgh. Seriously, woman, I know there are black people in Pittsburgh! And we’re not just talking oh the characters are white. They all seem to be blonde-haired, blue-eyed white people. This would make sense maybe in um….Wisconsin perhaps. Not Pittsburgh. Cuccaro really should focus on more diversity in her future books.
These things said, Cuccaro is generally a good writer. The plot is complex, the characters well-rounded, and the sentences are well-written.
Overall, this book is well-written for its target audience–Christian, probably Catholic readers looking for some clean paranormal romance. If this sounds like you, you should check it out.
3 out of 5 stars
Source: Netgalley
Book Review: Tempest Rising by Nicole Peeler (series, #1)
Summary:
Jane True lives in a small coastal town in Maine and cares for her father, a stubborn fisherman who refuses to leave his hometown. This means Jane is stuck in a town where everyone pretty much thinks she’s crazy. Everyone except the lesbian couple who run the local bookstore where she works. Even Jane thinks there’s something off about herself what with swimming near the deadly whirlpool The Sow in the ocean in the middle of the night in the winter on a regular basis. But then a neighbor winds up dead, mysterious people show up, and Jane finds out she’s half-selkie, and nowhere near as crazy as she once thought.
Review:
First things first. I absolutely, completely, 100% love the character of Jane True. If she lived in my neighborhood, we’d definitely be the best of friends. She’s smart and loyal with a biting, classic yankee sense of humor. At the same time though, she’s human, flawed, and makes mistakes but not the sort of mistakes that would make you hate her. I also really related to her relationship with her father, as mine has the same debilitating heart disease that her father has. Seeing her see in him the same, strong, blue collar daddy who raised her and who now is struggling with an illness was really refreshing to see in a paranormal romance. It seems like dads tend to be absent in the genre in general, when let’s face it, a lot of women’s dads remain an integral part of their life, even when grown-up.
The storyline itself is fairly complex, and it was a delight to see modern rural New England in literature. The characters also take a random jaunt up to Quebec, which honestly we definitely do periodically. I’ve been to Canada more times than I’ve been to the American south for instance. The settings were fabulous and well-envisioned. Normally I would complain about Jane’s love interest, but it’s obvious to me that she’s going to outgrow him with time.
The one thing I actually didn’t like about the book was the sex scenes, which is kind of problematic for a paranormal romance since that’s kind of half the point. Jane insists her man uses a condom. Ok, fine, write that in there once and then we’ll assume that they have safe sex for the other encounters. The thing is though, Mr. Man Candy complains about having to use a condom every single time, and every single time asks her if they really have to….by dangling the wrapped condom in her face. This is not sexy behavior! This is reason to ditch a guy behavior. She said use it, that means use one until she says otherwise quit being a baby. And frankly, quit ruining my sexy reading by turning into an asshole right before the sexy times. The whole entire sex scene situation is problematic throughout the book, and just gets worse each time they do it. There’s one scene in particular when Jane is down on her hands and knees, and the dude is behind her, and he dangles the condom in her face. Like randomly he’s behind her, she’s getting excited, he’s touching happy places, then bam there’s a condom in her face. WTF. This is not how paranormal romance should work. I get it that we’re not supposed to 100% like the guy, and this is part of the way of showing us he’s an asshole, but still. I hope the whole sex scene situation improves in the next book.
Overall, the character is a rich, engaging, Mainiac with a biting sense of humor, and the world Peeler has created is diverse and engaging. Hopefully the boyfriend situation improves in the later books. Given how much I like the main character (which is rare in paranormal romance), I’ll definitely be reading the next entry. If she sounds engaging to you as well, and you like paranormal romance, you’ll most likely enjoy this book.
3.5 out of 5 stars
Source: Amazon
Book Review: Alien Tango by Gini Koch (Series, #2)
Summary:
Kitty Katt only learned about the existence of aliens on Earth five short months ago. Incredibly hot aliens who wear Armani as a uniform and can run at hyperspeed. Now she’s the head of a special American government division working with the A-Cs to keep Earth safe from the extra-terrestrial threat of superbugs. Plus she has a hot A-C boyfriend, Jeff, who gives her the best sex of her life. Their new routine gets interrupted though when the team gets sent to Florida on a routine mission that quickly turns abnormal. Can the team figure out the threat at Kennedy Space Center? Just as important, will Jeff’s family accept that he’s dating a human?
Review:
I actually received a Kindle copy of this book for free as part of its promotion, so I was unaware that it’s the second book in a series until I was a couple of chapters in. Thankfully, the paranormal romance genre tends to take a few moments to remind the reader of what’s going on in the plot, so I wasn’t lost for too long.
Kitty Katt is the ideal paranormal romance heroine. She’s simultaneously strong and girly. She can kick major ass but also just wants to be held when the action is all over. Best of all, her wit and snark line up exactly with mine. I found her hilarious and would love to be her best friend. Or be her. In any case, she is 100% not annoying, which is not easy to pull off in the paranormal romance world. I want to visit Kitty again and again, which is kind of the point of paranormal romance series, yes? I kind of think of them as modern day serial stories.
I also really enjoy the alien angle. I fully admit I rolled my eyes at the fact that the aliens only wear Armani, but in that “this world is ridiculous but I love it” way, not in the annoyed way. The aliens tend to either be imageers or empaths. I’m a bit unclear as to what the imageers can do. I think that’s because I missed the first book. Kitty’s boyfriend, however, is an empath, which means he almost always knows what emotion she’s feeling. Talk about your dream guy. It’s a fun new angle as opposed to the over-done vampires and shapeshifters.
The plot is full of action and sex. It’s fast-paced with always one or the other going on. The sex scenes are believable, in spite of the alien factor, and very modern. Kitty is a gal who understands how things work in the bedroom but is also able to shoot a gun and outwit terrorists. The combination of well-written modern day sex scenes and exciting action sequences make for an intensely enjoyable read.
Overall, Alien Tango is the ideal paranormal romance. It puts something new into the mix–aliens–and features a heroine who is strong, modern, yet still retains some of her femininity. I highly recommend this series to all who enjoy a good paranormal romance and also to lovers of scifi who won’t mind some hot sex scenes tossed in.
5 out of 5 stars
Source: Amazon
Previous Books in Series:
Touched by an Alien
Imminent Arrivals and TBR
Since I didn’t quite manage to finish my current read on the bus this morning (I literally had to stop in the middle of the climax. I HATE IT WHEN THAT HAPPENS), I thought I’d do something a little bit different today. As you all know, I use PaperBackSwap for acquiring a lot of my books. It lets you sort your wishlist by estimated time to fulfillment, so I thought I’d share with you guys the books that are estimated to be mine shortly.
First up, I’ve been waiting for this book forever: The Forest of Hands and Teeth
Next is The Group
Third is yet another post-apocalyptic book: Life As We Knew It
Ok, so I also have books in my TBR pile, so I’m going to show you guys 3 random books from there. If there’s one you sorely want reviewed soon, tell me now!
I stumbled upon The Integral Trees 
A pretty recent arrival, I Am Not A Serial Killer by Dan Wells features an untrustworthy narrator with sociopathic tendencies who spends the book trying to convince us and himself that he’s not a serial killer. Kind of reminds me of Dexter
Finally, there’s Undead and Unwed 
That’s it! Please tell me what you think, my lovely readers!
Book Review: The Dangerous Book for Demon Slayers by Angie Fox (Series, #2)
Summary:
It’s only been a couple weeks since Lizzie found out she’s a demon slayer, and she’s already been to hell and back–literally. You’d think she could get a vacation to Greece with her hunk of a griffin boyfriend, Dmitri, but her fairy godfather, Uncle Phil, has got himself tangled up with a succubus. Lizzie, accompanied by the geriatric biker gang, the Red Skulls, and Dmitri run off to Las Vegas to save him. They discover an unusual amount of demonic activity in Vegas, however, which points to a possible demon invasion from hell.
Review:
This was definitely a step up from the first book in the series. The action is tighter, characters more well-rounded, and the impetuses for decisions are more believable. The demon invasion winds up being a secondary plot point to Lizzie’s attempt to figure out what exactly the slayer truth “sacrifice yourself” means. I also enjoyed the fact that Fox gave the talking terrier, Pirate, more to do besides be excited when Lizzie shows up. The fact that she’s paying attention to animal characterization makes me happy.
One of my main complaints with the previous book was the romance story-line, in particular the sex scene, and I can’t say that that’s improved here. Although by the end of the book I found Lizzie’s affection for Dmitri believable, for most of the book I was baffled by it. He just doesn’t do it for me as a romantic hero, and I’m not sure exactly why. Similarly, the sex scenes were again cringe-inducing, not sexy. I mean, he rips her leather skirt up the middle, and she finds this endearing? The fact that the man seems to lack the knowledge that you can push a skirt up makes me seriously doubt his abilities in the sack. It’s odd, because Fox’s other scenes are generally well-done. The two sex scenes are so decidedly cringe-worthy that I sort of forgot this is supposed to be a paranormal romance. It read as a paranormal fiction featuring an odd choice for a boyfriend and thank goodness he’s not talked about too much.
In general though most of the book isn’t about Dmitri or his relationship with Lizzie. It’s about Lizzie’s experience figuring out what exactly it means to be a demon slayer. Thank goodness for that, because that combined with Lizzie’s crazy family and witty dog make for a good story. I recommend it to those with a taste for the paranormal and romance lovers who aren’t fans of sex scenes in romance to start with.
4 out of 5 stars
Source: PaperBackSwap
Previous Books in Series:
The Accidental Demon Slayer, review
Book Review: The Accidental Demon Slayer by Angie Fox
Summary:
Lizzie’s life is all about control. Her library books are never late, her preschool class is extremely well-behaved, and she always grocery shops with lists. In fact, to date the only out-there thing she’s ever done is to adopt her terrier, Pirate. On her 30th birthday, though, her long-lost grandmother shows up, and she just happens to be a biker babe. Oh, and she’s here to warn Lizzie that the minute she turns 30 her slayer powers will go into full effect and a fifth level demon wants them. Before she knows it, she’s caught up in a whirlwind of roadkill witches, griffins, demons, and switch stars.
Review:
This is a refreshing twist in the paranormal romance genre. No vampires to be seen so far and demons are just demons not fallen angels seeking redemption. Lizzie reads kind of like a reluctant ninja, which is a nice change from the boring girl suddenly made exciting by the appearance of vampires. Her life is suddenly made exciting due to a change that took place inside herself, not outside.
I also really enjoyed that her slayer powers come about when she turns 30, not at adolescence or at 18 or at 21. Thirty makes sense because she actually gets a chance to grow up before dealing with all of this stuff. Plus it gives older readers who long ago gave up on getting a letter from Hogwarts a chance to still imagine a fantastical life for themselves.
On the other hand, Fox does not entirely escape from paranormal romance (or heck, just romance) tropes. There’s this really cute guy and she instantly feels a magical connection but oh my goodness something is holding them apart until they stop letting it but then she gets instantly angry at him. For a writer who put in some very creative elements, such as the witches being elderly grandmas who still kick butt, I was expecting far more from the romance portion. Also, the sex scene really fell flat. I’m not sure if this was due to the way she wrote about the sex or the fact that I just didn’t believe any of the emotions between the two, but it was a disappointment either way.
Similarly, Lizzie hems and haws over being a demon slayer rather late in the game at a point at which it is obvious she really enjoys it but for some reason isn’t realizing it? It just doesn’t make sense and rings false.
However, I still plan on reading the sequel, because the romance was such a minor portion of the storyline, and Lizzie is at least a strong female character who remains feminine. I’m not big into the hardened heart tattoo covered female leads who seem to be the only paranormal alternative to moony-eyed emo chicks. Lizzie lands smack between the two, which lends to the unique qualities in the book.
If you enjoy paranormal romance with a twist, you’ll enjoy this series. Similarly, if you want a humorous, gentler introduction to the genre, try this book out.
3.5 out of 5 stars
Source: SwapTree
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This work by Amanda Nevius is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
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