TITLE: Blind Spot (in Must Love Hellhounds anthology)AUTHOR: Meljean Brook
I've got a while to wait until Meljean Brook's next single title, but fortunately, there are still a few of her Guardians short stories I've yet to catch up with. This one stars Maggie Wren, whom we met in the wonderful Demon Forged. Maggie has been working as a sort of troubleshooter for Colin Ames-Beaumont and his wife Savi, and her latest mission is to rescue his niece, who's been kidnapped by some baddies. But she's not going alone, Colin has asked his nephew, Blake, to help out. Maggie is initially nonplussed, as Blake is blind, and she's not sure what he can do to help, but the Ames-Beaumont family's contact with a certain sword has had a long-running effect on the entire line, and Blake has some surprises to offer.
This was fun, as always. The action is exciting, Blake's talent is really, really cool, and the romance is a brilliant one. There are some surprises there as well. I'm not going to reveal them, but they make the romance much more believable.
MY GRADE: A B.
TITLE: Private Eye (in Some Like It Rough anthologyAUTHOR: Susan Lyons
I liked Susan Fox's Wild Ride to Love books so much that I swept my library for anything under her other name, Susan Lyons. This included a couple of short stories in anthologies, including this one.
Hayley Croft has been doing admin at a PI company for a few months, but it's only when a case brings the whole team to a strip club that detective Ry Montana notices the sexy woman under the staid, boring outfits. And he can't help but notice her when Hayley ends up volunteering to go undercover as a stripper to solve the case.
Lyons has a way with love scenes, but ultimately, this was pretty meh. The characters were very broadly drawn and not particularly distinct, so I didn't particularly care what happened to them, including when they fell into bed (which was much too often, considering the length of the story). Also, I felt this had a bit of a pornish sensibility, which I don't mind in straight-out erotica, but I do in erotic romance. Plus, the setup was just silly.
Hmm, I liked the Fox books so much that I will probably give Lyons another shot (maybe something longer next), but if this had been a new author, I don't think I would have.
MY GRADE: A C.
Oh my, I'm waiting eagerly for the last installment of the Guardian series, too, the Michael and Andromeda aka Taylor novel. In the mean time I'm catching up as well with the novellas/short stories, and I'm currently reading Ascension (Radha& Marc Revoire)...Do you happen to know when is the last novel going to be released?
ReplyDeleteLove your blog!!! Keep it up!
Forgot to add that I was disappointed Blind Spot didn't have a 'proper' love scene...forgive my superficiality, lol...
ReplyDeleteI am, too! Really want to read it as soon as possible, but it doesn't look like it'll be soon - MB's upcoming books list has only one this year, Riveted, in September, but that's one of the Iron Seas books (which does sound amazing, actually, from all I've heard). Guess this gives me the time to reread the entire series in preparation!
ReplyDeleteLOL!
ReplyDeleteThanks for replying, Rosario! <3 I 'm so psyched for the last Guardian novel, but I'll patiently wait more then...actually, a new Iron Seas book is quite a good news, as I loved this series, too. If I remember well, Riveted will another Mina centered novel, and that's great, loved the Iron Duke...
ReplyDeleteAgain, really love your blog and your eloquent reviews made me read quite a lot of stuff, and I always loved them...I think your book rating system actually coincides with the real quality of those books, in a word, I believe you're great, spot-on critic! <3
All the best!
Oh, I just checked MB's website, and Riveted has nothing to do with Mina and Rhys; they just have a novella, though, I must read it NOW. She also says that Michael;s story "should be availble next year", so that means 2013 who knows what month...grrrrr...that's just too much wait for me, hahah.
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