Neck Deep by Sophie Lack

Neck Deep by Sophie Lack

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I hate when I forget to review a book. Which is why I, randomly, gaze about my shelves to see what I’ve read recently and what doesn’t have a review. Whereupon I saw this book here with the review column empty. Pfft.

Genre: Fantasy – mostly confined inside one city-state (Praza)
Setting: Not earth
Of note: I rarely read books involving vampires that are set on ‘not earth’ locations. Not exactly sure why that is – I’ve read many shifter books set ‘elsewhere’ but . . . well there’s this book that has vampires in a not earth setting and . . . can’t think of any other work. (view spoiler)[(ETA: looking at other reviews reminds me that this is, in fact, something like 'shifter' fiction, since the vampires can shift into a different creature) (hide spoiler)]

Story: Elanna, while not immediately obvious, is an elf. She’s also blind, though the kind of blind that can see. Heh. Though she sees things differently than those who still have eyeballs – she sees . . . light, and colors, and . . . impressions. She has the ability to ‘tell’ if the ‘thing’ over there is an elf, vampire, hunter, etc. etc. by the ‘colors, scars, etc.’, and has the ability to ‘see’ through walls to see what’s going on in various rooms. Oh, and she’s an assassin.

The book opens with Elanna in a bar talking with a ‘hunter’ – a religious fanatic who believes all creatures that are not human are evil and must be killed. With slight exceptions – like Elves are near the top of ‘vaguely acceptable’ list. The hunter, whose name is, I think, Oren, wants to hire Elanna to hunt down and kill a vampire. Which she has no problem doing – for the right price. Oren gives her a bag of gold and says he’ll give more after the fact. Elanna says she’ll get the job done within a week – possibly even by the end of that night.

Elanna promptly gets bitten by Valia, the vampire (also an Elf), and turned into a vampire.

After a bunch of back and forth, Elanna joins Valia on her hunt of Oren. Some feelings between the two women also begin to develop.

A quick satisfying easy read. I do not specifically recall if there is or isn’t graphic depictions of a sexual nature, but I do see the book on at least one shelf titled ‘Great Sex’ so . . . there probably was graphic depictions of sex in there. I assume that the sex was neither disturbing to me, nor exciting/arousing/whateverthefuck as I didn’t even recall if any sex occurred and it has only been two days since I read the book and I recall everything else about the book (including the part where we have yet another awful mother in lesbian fiction scene).

Rating: 3.8

February 23 2018



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The Vampire's Accidental Wife (Nocturne Falls, #8) by Kristen Painter

The Vampire's Accidental Wife by Kristen Painter

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Well, now I come to the last Nocturne Falls romance book I haven’t yet read (I’d read the last, or most recently published, Nocturne Falls related book – the most recent Frost book, after this one). Again, and this is kind of a reoccurring theme with me, I was reluctant to read this specific pairing. More the Julian part.

You know rakes? And having them be a main character in a romance story? Most, or I should say, at the most we are talking about men who have ‘been with’ (oddly this is a quite clean undescriptive series, sex wise, so ‘been with’ instead of ‘fucked’) a large number of women in a rather short period of time, though occasionally ‘short period of time’ is ‘thirty years’. Here? Well, there’s no question Julian is a rake. He’s not someone who liked the idea of pretending to be one (as has been seen in some books), he’s not the one who is considered one but didn’t realize others thought of him that way, etc. etc. No, others know he is one, and he knows he is one. Of course he lives in ‘modern times’ so using the word ‘rake’ seems vaguely odd. Except . . . and here’s why I went on about 30 years and the like, except Julian has been a rake since before 1666, and it’s now, oh, 2017. He’s been with a ton of women for more than 350 years. He’s never been anything but a womanizer. When his family was ‘saved’ from the plague of 1666, his two brothers were married – while he himself never had considered the idea. He had continued to not considered the idea until about a year before this book begins (or, well, there’s a mix of ‘some stuff happened before this book starts’, ‘stuff happened’, ‘it’s now a year later’ that messes with my ability to tell time) when Julian first spotted Desdemona Valentine performing in Vegas. As a Vampire. Or, I should elaborate, she was performing as a human pretending to be a vampire (while, in actuality, having been a vampire for hundreds of years).

This is one of those rare Vampire-Vampire stories. It’s almost like seeing one of those creepy kinda icky books titled something like ‘My Billionaire’s Boss’s Butler’s Billionaire Boyfriend’s Roommate’, though here both parties would be billionaire’s, or, I mean, Vampires. If I recall correctly, this is only the second time in this series that two of a kind romance each other, and that includes the Frost series (well, a Winter Elf and a Summer Elf are two different things . . . in that universe). Here we have two vampires, and in ‘The Werewolf Meets His Match’, there are two werewolves.

Now that I’ve written all of that above, I’ve forgotten what I had actually intended to write about this book. Hmms. I rather liked both main characters, and the story.

ETA: Ah, I recall now what I wanted to write.

Julian and Des open the book in the same bed. Julian had been chasing her for a while, and Des kept putting him off. Willing to be near him but . . . she just can't allow herself to love because of her past history. Why are they in bed together at the start of the book then? Because . . . they had just gotten married the night before (not seen in the book). Des, you see, was celebrating a career advancement type thing (television contract), and was drinking. One thing lead to another and . . . well, I forgot to mention this part - they are in Las Vegas, so . . .Julian and Des got married.

Julian wakes up the next morning and wanders around, happily doing things, getting a drink, getting Des a drink, etc. (Crap. 'next morning' technically is 'next evening' since, Julian is a daywalking type vampire, but Des is a night-walking type vampire - as in, Julian can survive regardless of the time of day, while Des will burst into flames in sunlight). Des wakes up, looks around and . . . well, long story short, she's quite annoyed about the situation. One thing leads to another and Julian talks her into allowing them to stay married for a year then, if she still can't 'love' him, they'll get divorced.

Flash forward almost a year - Des calls Julian needing his help (and quite reluctant to ask for it). There's someone stalking her, which in and of itself isn't unusual, but they've injured her double in a car crash - so this is a much more serious situation. Again with the 'one thing leads to another' and Julian and Des head to Nocturne Falls to hide.

For the vast majority of their marriage, no one knew they were married - except for each other. And they hadn't actually consummated the marriage despite waking up in bed together afterwards.

Stuff in Nocturne Falls occurs. Des' backstory is revealed. Stalker bounces around. More story unfolds. etc. etc. The end.

Rating: 4.5

February 21 2018



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Blooded by Shei Darksbane and Annathesa Nikola Darksbane

Blooded by Shei Darksbane

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


There was one specific thing I noticed while looking over other people's reviews while reading this series: this isn't a 100% type observation, but many did not like the vampire member of the love triangle (Amorie or whatever her name is/was). Me? I did not dislike her and found her an 'okay' character, for the most part. That is until I read this book here.

Seems the dynamic changed on me between books 1-2, that short story, and this book here. And more than just the authors taking longer to write the book than expected. No, the dynamic itself changed - the non-main character werewolf part of the triad was not even in this book, though mentioned a few times and . . . is no longer described as a potential girlfriend type, but more as someone they have taken into their own kind of sub-pack/protection circle. And the 3 way relationship was described differently than before. I do not exactly recall how it was described before, nor can I accurately recreate the words here and now - something along the way of 'I'm in a monogamous relationship with the vampire, but we both know she can't have just relationship, so . . . . there's also this other werewolf woman, though she has nothing romantically to do with the vampire'. And the way the two characters in this 'love-triad' who actually appear in the book were described somewhat differently than before. Amorie (I really should get her name sometime so I stop getting it wrong) is a condescending woman who apparently has all the 'power' in this relationship; while Dakota was described as being a lot more wishy-washy (and to a certain extent, dumber than I recalled her). Not exactly sure what happened there.

So - this is the third book in a series that leads from one book to the next so . . . obviously don't read this book first, though I mainly just brought this up to note: remember how Dakota was 'Awakened' by a lunatic burglar who was doing some insane ritual that Dakota got in the way of? And ended up 'getting' the 'gift', or however to word that, that the insane lunatic wizard was doing the ritual to get? That hellfire thingie? Well, this book comes full circle - in this book here Dakota goes to the demon who gave out that hellfire thingie and basically asked if that demon was cool with Dakota having the power. Then Dakota, and her vampire lover, get tasked with a quest - failure leads to both of their deaths (I don't mean that the task is inherently deadly, I mean that the demon will kill them if they fail). Going along on this quest is that demon's 'pet' lover boy thingie. Who, in a way, is creepy on a whole other level. But whatever.

So, Amorie investigates while continuously pushing Dakota into the background (it's better this way!), but since this is a solely point of view from Dakota's POV, and Dakota isn't actually always there while A investigates, Dakota has to find out some other stuff to do (which leads to her and that demon pet attempting to break into her own girlfriend's bar, by accident, but let's not get ahead of ourselves here). See, condescending A.

Story takes place in Memphis and . . . um . . . wherever the hell the series originally started (Knoxville? Nashville? Vampireville? I don't recall, some Tennessee place). Involves death defying stuff. And investigations. Oh, and there was some graphic stuff along the way. I think. I kind of read a bunch of stuff at the same time while traveling on trains, so some of it bleed together - like whether or not graphic stuff actually occurred in this one. Though I believe it did. I suddenly find myself in the odd position of not liking anyone in this series, and while I'm not bored with it (it was an interesting enough story), I'm still not sure I'll actually continue reading this series (if another book actually appears).

Rating: 2.88

May 1 2017



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Coitus Interruptus Dentalis by Jae

Coitus Interruptus Dentalis
by Jae
Pages: 31
Date: May 28 2015
Publisher: Ylva Publishing
Series: The Vampire Diet (2)

Review
Rating: 4.5
Read: October 9 2016

During a night of erotic fun, Robin-the-vampire 'chips' her tooth on Alana-the-former-djin. Vampire teeth are supposed to be basically unbreakable (Alana retains some djin power, which includes something like a shield, which is like a laser). So Robin's kind of in a unique situation here - how does she fix her quite painfully throbbing tooth?

After some search, Robin is directed to a 'Shelby', the 'weirdo' coyote shifter (and a psychiatrist with knowledge of medical community). Shelby leads Robin to a dentist capable (as in not horrifying afraid) to deal with 'unusual patients'.

Interesting story. Nice vibe. I liked it. Wish it was longer. Want more time with Shelby and Perez-the-dentist.

October 9 2016

sunfall by Nell Stark & Trinity Tam

sunfall
by Nell Stark & Trinity Tam
Pages: 264
Date: August 1 2012
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Series: Everafter (4th of series)

Review
Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0
Read: April 11 2016
And now the final book in the series has been read and completed. Four books by Nell Stark and Trinity Tam. Two for Nell Stark by herself.

This book picks up before the prior one even ends. The prior book ended with a gunshot. This one picks up before that gun was fired. This book opens during the planning stages for a raid that will involve the shifter and vampire alliance against Balthasar Brenner’s group. (A raid that the prior book ended on).

The first 42% follows the point of view of Alexa, the werepanther. After which the book follows Valentine, the vampire. Most of the people from the prior book return, including Solana, Helen, Malcolm, Constantine, Olivia, Karma, both Brenners (Balthasar and his son Sebastian), and of course Alexa and Valentine. New people popped up in this one, but no new major character (well, there’s Tian, but her appearance is like a film that has, say, Sean Connery pop up in an Admirals uniform for three seconds to say something deeply meaningful in a film before poofing. Tian’s role was about on par with that, important, but cameo worthy). Both Olivia had Solana had their largest roles in the prior book, appeared in this one but slightly more than cameos.

The series and the long running fight between Balthasar Brenner against basically everyone has concluded. It was an enjoyable run while it lasted. But now it’s time for something else to occupy the brain.

April 11 2016

nightrise by Nell Stark & Trinity Tam

nightrise
by Nell Stark & Trinity Tam
Pages: 288
Date: August 1 2011
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Series: everafter (3rd in series)

Review
Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0
Read: April 9 to 11 2016

With the completion of this book here, I’ve now read more books by Nell Stark and Trinity Tam than I’ve read by just Nell Stark. 3 to 2. Not a significant statistic, just something I noted to myself as I was reading.

This book is difficult to actually say anything about without going into spoiler territory. Literally, first thing that happens in the book is a series spoiler. Not specifically a book spoiler, but a series spoiler. So how to write a review that says something while getting around that issue? Note before I continue, a book can ‘spoil’ itself by having a flash forward to open the book, like say flashing forward 3 years, then the rest of the book is set three years before. That did not happen in this instance. I’m not a big fan of flash forwarding.

Val and Alexa return for their third book. The alternating POV continues. Keeping up past tendencies, the book followed a process of focusing on one character for a longish period of time before switching at, roughly, the 49% mark (I might just be remembering when it switched in the prior book, it might have switched earlier this time). And like the previous book, part of the ‘switch’ involved action that took place before where the action ended before the switch. In other words, POV-A followed the storyline time line from point in time A to point in time E before the switch; POV-B followed C until some point after point in time E. Unlike last time, I did not and do not know how much time ‘had to be made up’ before we got back to ‘current’ time.

The action of the book takes place in New York and Argentina. It involves, as noted, Val and Alexa. Also involves Olivia. A new character appears in the form of Solana Carrizo. And the fight with Brenner continues.

And that’s basically what I can say without going into spoiler zone.

Overall I rather liked this addition to the series. A satisfying book. I liked it so much that I diverted from my normal pattern, at least with this series, and dove into the next book immediately.

(there's a longish spoiler section, but I can't seem to figure out how to put spoiler tags on the log - the spoiler section can be found on the version I put on GoodReads. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1604598209)

April 11 2016

Everafter by Nell Stark & Trinity Tam

Everafter
by Nell Stark & Trinity Tam
Pages: 230
Date: October 1 2009
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Series: Everafter (1st in series)

Review
Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0
Read: March 14 to 15 2016
My first book with this duo, and 3rd book overall with Stark at the controls (and zeroth with Tam as a solo author).

Hmm. I came here to write about something that I was going to take a certain issue with. But I can’t now. As the issue involved pre-knowledge I thought gleaned from the book description. I guess I got the information from the reviews? No matter – the point I was going to make is that I learned a certain something before beginning the book and this ‘certain something’ distracted me for a certain length of the book. I knew going in several things. (1) the book was split in half, with one main character taking half, and the other taking over the second half of the book; and – don’t read this one unless you’ve read the book (at least from personal experience having this information prior to reading was a distraction) - (2) the one who isn’t a vampire turns into a werepanther. I spent a little too much time in the beginning parts of the book drumming my fingers, waiting for this to occur – that, as I’ve indicated, distracted me from what was going on.

Okay then – this book goes a certain direction I’ve seen several times, though it is, in its way, a less populated path. This is more science fantasy than out and out fantasy; and, to a certain extent, if the creatures involved didn’t reside so deeply in horror or fantasy, I’d probably just call this science fiction. Because, while fantasy creatures are involved, there is a very science-fiction-y explanation for the critters.

I’ve forgotten now what exactly was said, but one is a virus (shifters), while the other is a . . . bacteria? I’ve forgotten now. Ah yes, bacteria (vampires). The explanation for what’s occurring with shifters isn’t as detailed, I absorbed the information that a virus was involved; while the explanation for vampires was quite medical jargon-y. See, there’s this bacteria that invades the body – it attacks a person’s red blood cells, goes inside of them, and explodes them – feeding off the blood. If the infected person gets blood from others, then they can continue to live – potentially forever, though they’ll become more and more similar in nature to the pop culture version of vampires (well, the kind that gets annoyed at the sun, because of the exploding and stuff); while if they ‘feed’ off of a ‘true love’ (not sure ‘true’ was actually there) then they’ll ‘keep their soul’ (see, this whole ‘soul’, ‘true love’, etc. is all magically bullshit, so, fantasy, so not science fiction) – therefore they can continue going outside in sunlight – though the impact of the sun’s rays is still stronger on them than on ‘regular’ humans. (note: I didn’t really think about it until I wrote this paragraph, but, technically, they could be getting this ‘outside blood’ through transfusions of one kind or another – but that’s never even mentioned – probably because of the discussion that occurred when a glass of blood was offered – it would sustain, but isn’t as ‘good’ as getting it directly from the source (more magic-y bullshit).

All of this to say (not really, but it was one of the points): no, this isn’t science fiction, and so a person is left with ‘horror’, ‘fantasy’, ‘science fantasy’ (and then which subgenre it falls into below that). There is a horror element – something of a ‘boogy-man’ ‘rogue’ vampire is going viciously attacking people and turning them into vampires; both of the lead characters have horrifying nightmares, etc. This has some of the elements of horror, but I would not necessarily put it in horror. There are ‘paranormal creatures’ so fantasy, right? But then there’s all that medical jargon, and explanations and . . . stuff . . .. Let’s just go with Science Fantasy and move on, eh?

So, picture this – it’s a Tuesday, there’s this young woman with a very special night planned. The apartment is decorated just so. Preparations for a lovely meal are in the works. A very special ring has been secured. And the love of that young woman’s life will show up in about 15 to 30 minutes. But! Champagne! Valentine ‘Val’ Darrow hurries out to acquire some. She’s distracted by happy thoughts. She vaguely spots a creepy looking dude smoking nearby as she’s heading into a liquor store. She dumps a pile of coins and paper onto the store counter and informs them that she wishes the best champagne that pile of money will secure her. She exits. Still distracted. Walks down the street. All aglow with what the night will bring. Thoughts of this and that and . . . are those footsteps behind her? Are they getting closer? Val moves quicker. The footsteps behind her move quicker. She spots a well lighted area ahead of her – that’s her goal. Running now. Almost there. Pushed into an alley and savagely beaten, knifed, then loaded into a car and driven to Canal Street and dumped (by the way, this takes place in New York; did I not mention that yet?). And so the book begins – seemingly starting with two becoming one, but diverted by a creature out of horror.

The book then proceeds to follow Val as she attempts to figure out what happened to her, and what this means to her. She learns a few things, dodges a few things, and spends an inordinate amount of time hunting her killer. See, there’s this mystery angle going on in this book as well. Meanwhile her girlfriend/lover/almost fiancée follows along for the ride.

Until roughly the mid-point when the story shifts and it’s now Alexa Newland in control of things (or, in other words, things shift to her point of view). It’s difficult to go much into her territory as it’d probably all be spoiler-y. I’ll just leave it as I liked Alexa’s point of view more than Val’s, though I also needed Val’s because if I had just had Alexa’s – Val’s whimpery/depressing/etc. attitude was easier to take, somewhat, with the further knowledge gleaned from being in Val’s head.

Long and short of it – good enjoyable book. I’ve seen at least one review indicating that the next book is even better than this one, and I was interested in reading that one any way; but I think it might be a little while before I tackle it. So – I recommend this book. Especially to those who like fantasy, and science basis’s for fantasy creatures (like might be found in Mira Grants Parasitology series).

March 17 2016

Darkness Embraced by Winter Pennington

Darkness Embraced
by Winter Pennington
Pages: 248
Publish Date: May 17 2011
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books

Review:
Rating: 3.0 Stars out of 5.0
Read; December 31 2013 to January 8 2014

The idea of the Dracule (however that is spelled) was interesting.  Actually the most interesting part of the book. Silky, furry critters. Might be interesting to read more about them.

Overall,  the book just had way too much sex in it for me personally.  Interesting enough story/read or I wouldn't have finished or given up to 3 stars, but still. It's one of the reasons that other series I read by Pennington kept getting lower and lower ratings (5 stars, 4, 3). Each book I read by Pennington seems to have even more sex in it and/or obsession with.

At this rate, the next book or the one after will open during sex, will involve people walking around while humping each other (maybe just telepathically), will have fight scenes during sexual activity,  then the book will climax with a ...well, explosive climax.