The Sharing Knife Vol.2: Legacy, by Lois McMaster Bujold

TITLE: The Sharing Knife Vol.2: Legacy
AUTHOR: Lois McMaster Bujold

COPYRIGHT: 2007
PAGES: 377
PUBLISHER: Eos

SETTING: Lakewalker territory, mostly (i.e. made-up place!)
TYPE: Fantasy romance
SERIES: Comes after The Sharing Knife Vol. 1: Beguilement, and it's not so much a sequel, as the second half of a long book. I would definitely recommend reading Vol. 1 before you even think of picking up this one. In fact, better don't even read the summary below before reading Beguilement, because it will spoil it for you. Just go read the review of the first book, if you want to know if this whole story is for you.

REASON FOR READING: I loved Beguilement and I wanted to know how things turned out.

Fawn Bluefield, the clever young farmer girl, and Dag Redwing Hickory, the seasoned Lakewalker soldier-sorcerer, have been married all of two hours when they depart her family's farm for Dag's home at Hickory Lake Camp. Having gained a hesitant acceptance from Fawn's family for their unlikely marriage, the couple hopes to find a similar reception among Dag's Lakewalker kin. But their arrival is met with prejudice and suspicion, setting many in the camp against them, including Dag's own mother and brother. A faction of Hickory Lake Camp, denying the literal bond between Dag and Fawn, woven in blood in the Lakewalker magical way, even goes so far as to threaten permanent exile for Dag.

Before their fate as a couple is decided, however, Dag is called away by an unexpected-and viciously magical-malice attack on a neighboring hinterland threatening Lakewalkers and farmers both. What his patrol discovers there will not only change Dag and his new bride, but will call into question the uneasy relationship between their peoples-and may even offer a glimmer of hope for a less divided future.

Filled with heroic deeds, wondrous magic, and rich, all-too-human characters, The Sharing Knife: Legacy is at once a gripping adventure and a poignant romance from one of the most imaginative and thoughtful writers in fantasy today.

THE PLOT: In Beguilement, Fawn and Dag met when they had a terrifying encounter with a malice, which led to something unprecedented happening with a sharing knife. Since what happened clearly gave Fawn some rights over that sharing knife, it was considered (mostly by Dag, really) that she should go with him to consult a Lakewalker maker about what it all meant. In the time they spent together they fell in love, in spite of the high odds against them, and managed to get past Fawn's farmer family's objections.

Legacy covers the second half of their journey. It starts as they leave farmer territory, right after their wedding, and head into the Lakewalkers' land. And if you thought Fawn's family were hard cases about their relationship, you'll now realize that they were positively mellow compared to the Lakewalkers!

MY THOUGHTS: This is a book that almost fell through the cracks in my reviewing... I read it not long after it came out, in July, but then completely forgot to post about it. Well, the good thing about having this happen is that it gives me a good indication that it was a great book: it's now been over three months and I remember it perfectly!

In a sense, this second half feels a bit better integrated than the first one. In Beguilement, the two battles taking place (that against the malices and Fawn and Dag's struggle for acceptance of their relationship) seemed to be pretty independent. We had the first confrontation and the unique activation of the sharing knife, but then the whole malices thing faded into the background, with the focus moving wholly onto Fawn and Dag slowly falling in love and then having to convince the people around them that they were right for each other.

This last theme continues in the first part of Legacy, mixed up with a whole lot of fascinating Lakewalker politics and power-struggles, but then the malices plot pops up again and the two separate threads mix in a most satisfying way, one feeding the other. What finally happened with that sharing knife was perfect.

And both threads were just as good. I talked about what made Fawn and Dag such great characters in the first book, and expounded at length about why I thought they were so perfect for each other. That's still the case here, and this made the romance truly top-notch.

As for the world-building, with the malices and the Lakewalkers and their mission, and the tension between them and the farmers... in one word: fantastic! We learn quite a lot more here, including some clues on where the malices might come from, and some indications that this might be some kind of post-apocalyptic world (or was that just me getting strange ideas?), and it's all absorbing and fresh. The very idea of the malices is worth the price of admission, as it's quite brilliant.

All this said, I enjoyed this second half of the story a little bit less than the first. I think the reason is that I was left with a hopeful feeling after Beguilement, but not so much after Legacy. Don't get me wrong, I'd definitely call the ending a HEA, but while I felt the farmers might get over their prejudices in time (in a looooong time), too many Lakewalkers were unpleasantly blinded by them and would be always unable to accept Dag's choices. My grumpy "why the hell would he want to live with these people?" question was answered wonderfully in the great ending, but I couldn't help but be a bit sad.

MY GRADE: A B+. There will apparently be more books in this series, and I'm looking forward to them.

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It's York now, and yes, more and more books!

1 ) This week, the photos are from York, and what a beautiful city it is!

• Part 1


• Part 2

2 ) Also, I got yet more books from the library, though I did return a few, too! And this week it was only 4 novels. I did get a couple of guidebooks in preparation for next weekend's expedition, but that doesn't count, does it?

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My top 100 ballot

In the end, after worrying I might not have time to do my ballot, I did vote in the AAR Top 100 Romances Poll.

My ballot is just an update of the one I submitted in October 2004, but it still took me a long time to do, because it wasn't just a matter of adding new keepers to the list. I had to figure out where to put them and I had to completely change the order of the books already there, because my tastes have changed quite a bit in the last 3 years. I think the whole ranking ans sorting took about 4 times as long as the actual choosing of books. *sigh*

Anyway, here's my list. If you want to know more about a particular title, I think I've reviewed most of these, and you can find links to those reviews here.

1. Lord of Scoundrels - Loretta Chase

2. Gaudy Night - Dorothy L Sayers

3. Born in Fire - Nora Roberts

4. Archangel, by Sharon Shinn

5. Daughter of the Game - Tracy Grant

6. Shining Through - Susan Isaacs

7. Beauty Like the Night - Liz Carlyle

8. Heart of Deception - Taylor Chase

9. Busman's Honeymoon - Dorothy L Sayers

10. Winter Garden - Adele Ashworth

11. Naked in Death - JD Robb

12. To Have and to Hold - Patricia Gaffney

13. In the Midnight Rain - Ruth Wind

14. My False Heart - Liz Carlyle

15. For My Lady's Heart - Laura Kinsale

16. Ravished - Amanda Quick

17. Bet Me - Jennifer Crusie

18. Heart of Fire - Linda Howard

19. The Notorious Rake, by Mary Balogh

20. Demon Angel, by Meljean Brook

21. Anyone But You - Jennifer Crusie

22. The Bridal Season - Connie Brockway

23. Midsummer Moon - Laura Kinsale

24. Bliss, by Judy Cuevas

25. Mistress - Amanda Quick

26. Slightly Dangerous, by Mary Balogh

27. Dance, by Judy Cuevas

28. Uncommon Vows, by Mary Jo Putney

29. Trust Me - Jayne Ann Krentz

30. Slave to Sensation, by Nalini Singh

31. As You Desire - Connie Brockway

32. Shadowheart, by Laura Kinsale

33. The Viscount Who Loved Me - Julia Quinn

34. Fever Dreams - Laura Leone

35. Over the Edge - Suzanne Brockmann

36. Midnight Bayou - Nora Roberts

37. Family Man - Jayne Ann Krentz

38. Breathing Room - Susan Elizabeth Phillips

39. All Night Long - Michelle Jerott

40. Crocodile in the Sandbank - Elizabeth Peters

41. Welcome to Temptation - Jennifer Crusie

42. It Had to Be You - Susan Elizabeth Phillips

43. Heartthrob - Suzanne Brockmann

44. Hidden Riches - Nora Roberts

45. The Last Rogue - Deborah Simmons

46. Breathless - Laura Lee Guhrke

47. Lady Gallant, by Suzanne Robinson

48. Rapture in Death - JD Robb

49. One Summer - Karen Robards

50. Thunder and Roses - Mary Jo Putney

51. The Phoenix Code - Catherine Asaro

52. Trojan Gold - Elizabeth Peters

53. A Woman Scorned - Liz Carlyle

54. The Iron Rose - Marsha Canham

55. The Famous Heroine - Mary Balogh

56. Tell Me No Lies, by Elizabeth Lowell

57. Lord Perfect, by Loretta Chase

58. One Perfect Rose - Mary Jo Putney

59. The Gentleman Thief - Deborah Simmons

60. Witness in Death - JD Robb

61. By Arrangement - Madeline Hunter

62. A Summer to Remember - Mary Balogh

63. This Heart of Mine - Susan Elizabeth Phillips

64. A Great Catch - Michelle Jerott

65. The Shadowy Horses - Susanna Kearsley

66. One Good Turn - Carla Kelly

67. Paradise - Judith McNaught

68. Games of Command, by Linnea Sinclair

69. Mystic and Rider, by Sharon Shinn

70. Then Came You - Lisa Kleypas

71. Birthright - Nora Roberts

72. Lord of the Storm, by Justine Davis

73. See Jane Score, by Rachel Gibson

74. Fallen From Grace, by Laura Leone

75. To Love and To Cherish, by Patricia Gaffney

76. Mr. Impossible, by Loretta Chase

77. The Fire Rose, by Mercedes Lackey

78. Lover Awakened, by J.R. Ward

79. Match Me If You Can, by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

80. High Noon, by Nora Roberts

81. Suddenly You - Lisa Kleypas

82. Two Little Lies, by Liz Carlyle

83. The Fairy Godmother, by Mercedes Lackey

84. Caressed by Ice, by Nalini Singh

85. More Than a Mistress, by Mary Balogh

86. Demon Moon, by Meljean Brook

87. The Sharing Knife Vol. 1 - Beguilement

88. The Silver Rose, by Susan Carroll

89. Bitten, by Kelley Armstrong

90. The Last Hellion, by Loretta Chase

91. Woman on the Run, by Lisa Marie Rice

92. The Raven Prince, by Elizabeth Hoyt

93. Always to Remember, by Lorraine Heath

94. Spending, by Mary Gordon

95. Night Owl (from Hot Blooded anthology) - Emma Holly

96. The Devil You Know - Liz Carlyle

97. Lord of the Fading Lands, by CL Wilson

98. The Rules of Seduction, by Madeline Hunter

99. Something Shady, by Pamela Morsi

100. Love's Prisoner (from Secrets Vol 6 anthology) - MaryJanice Davidson

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Oxford and more books

1 ) I just posted photos from my visit to Oxford. There were so many of them that I ended up doing 3 parts:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

2 ) More books from the library. I keep telling myself to read the ones I've already got first, but I can't resist!



Don't know if the titles are big enough to see... that's The Roman's Virgin Mistress, by Michelle Styles (and what an awful title that is!), The Rogue's Return, by Margaret Moore and Ransom Bride, by Anne Herries

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The Dumont Bride, by Terri Brisbin

TITLE: The Dumont Bride (excerpt)
AUTHOR: Terri Brisbin

COPYRIGHT:2002
PAGES: 299
PUBLISHER: Mills & Boon Historicals

SETTING: Late 12th century England.
TYPE: Straight romance
SERIES: First in a trilogy: followed by The Norman's Bride and The Countess Bride.

REASON FOR READING: Lots and lots of Mills & Boon Historicals in the library here, and since I really liked Brisbin's The King's Mistress, she was one of the first authors I grabbed.

Christian Dumont Had Been To Hell To Pay For The Sins of His Father...

Now a royal command to wed would restore all he had lost--but at what price? For though marriage to landed, beauteous Emalie Montgomerie seemed to present no hardship, his countess harbored a secret dangerous enough to destroy them both!

Though she held her honor unblemished in her heart, Emalie Montgomerie knew that coming unchaste to her bridal bed was a sin unforgiveable in a noblewoman. Still, the desire flaring in Christian’s eyes offered her hope. . .but would the prideful Dumont ever accept another man’s babe as his own?

THE PLOT: When Lady Emalie Montgomerie's father dies suddenly, she becomes vulnerable to Prince John's depredations. He's determined to gain power over Emalie's holdings by forcing her to marry a man in his control, and before long, Emalie has been compromised against her will. In the nick of time, however, she's saved from having to marry the man by Queen Eleanor's intervention, who arranges a marriage with a man called Christian Dumont.

Christian Dumont has spent almost a year starving in a dungeon as punishment for his father's treason against King Richard. He believes he's about to be executed but is granted a last minute reprieve... as long as he agrees to do an unspecified favour for the King's mother. That favour ends up being marriage to a heiress and the addition of her extremely rich estate to his own holdings, which seems too good to be true. And he realizes it might be when it turns out his wife is pregnant, even though the marriage hasn't yet been consumated...

MY THOUGHTS: Well, this was disappointing. The set-up was interesting, and it could have been a really good book, but it felt like the characters were circling around the issues throughout most of the book, never really going at them head-on. The whole thing felt unfocused, especially in the first half.

Christian was an especially frustrating character. His history of having his honour questioned and denied through no fault of his own might have turned him into a more tolerant person, less ready to condemn others for a perceived lack of honour, but this just wasn't the case. The Christian of the first half was a total lout, and an unnecessarily cruel one, to boot. He arrives at Emalie's estate and immediately shunts her aside, even though it's obvious to anyone, even to him, that she's been running the holding on her own for some time and doing a fantastic job. Does he even consider the fact that his actions publicly humiliate her? He doesn't care. Does he consider that she might have some good ideas to add, given the success she's had already? No, he doesn't even think of it. So he's stupid as well as cruel.

And this is even before he discovers his wife is pregnant by another man, when he had no reason to believe anything bad of her. When he finds out about her "lack of honour", he goes insane, and I felt like strangling him. And Emalie doesn't help. She's so passive! She does try to explain to Christian that what happened was against her will, but he gets all outraged and goes "So you're crying rape now?" "Crying rape"?? Why should he doubt her? Idiot. And Emalie makes no more than a half-hearted protest. I mean, maybe he wouldn't have paid any attention, even if she'd protested more strongly (probably not, the stupid pig), but she doesn't even try.

I guess this was all necessary for Christian's later realizations about the nature of honour and what it means to lose it vs. being perceived to lose it, but it didn't make for a very sympathetic character. Plus, come on, man, it should have been obvious to you, considering what happened to you and your brother because of your father's actions!

And given his cruelty, I wasn't at all happy when the romancey stuff went into high gear. When Emalie started to get tingly feelings for her husband, I really didn't understand why she would feel that way.

MY GRADE: C- is really the best I can do. I'm giving it extra points for the atmosphere, which was good.

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Innocent in Death, by JD Robb

TITLE: Innocent in Death
AUTHOR: JD Robb

COPYRIGHT:2007
PAGES: 385
PUBLISHER: Piatkus (published by Berkley in the US)

SETTING: New York City in the year 2060
TYPE: Romantic suspense
SERIES: Latest in the In Death series (# 25, by my count)

REASON FOR READING: This is by far the best romance series ever, and I love every entry of it.

The phenomenal series set in a future New York City returns as NYPSD Lt. Eve Dallas hunts for the killer of a seemingly ordinary history teacher—and uncovers some extraordinary surprises. Craig Foster's death devastated his young wife, who'd sent him to work that day with a lovingly packed lunch. It shocked his colleagues at the private school, too, and as for the ten-year-old girls who found him in his classroom in a pool of bodily fluids—they may have been traumatized for life.

Eve soon determines that Foster's homemade lunch was tainted with deadly ricin, and that Mr. Foster's colleagues have some startling secrets of their own. It's Eve's job to sort it out—and discover why someone would have done this to a man who seemed so inoffensive, so pleasant . . . so innocent.

Now Magdalena Percell . . . there's someone Eve can picture as a murder victim. Possibly at Eve's own hands. The slinky blonde—an old flame of her billionaire husband, Roarke—has arrived in New York, and she's anything but innocent. Roarke seems blind to Magdalena's manipulation, and he insists that the occasional lunch or business meeting with her is nothing to worry about... and none of Eve's business. Eve's so unnerved by the situation that she finds it hard to focus on her case. Still, she'll have to put aside her feelings, for a while at least—because another man has just turned up dead.

Eve knows all too well that innocence can be a facade. Keeping that in mind may help her solve this case at last. But it may also tear apart her marriage.

THE PLOT: Eve is investigating the death of private school teacher Craig Foster, who was found poisoned at his desk. She's getting nowhere fast, finding no real reason why anyone should want to kill a nice, harmless man like Craig. Even when she finds some suspicious secrets in the school, things don't add up in her head.

It doesn't help that her relationship with Roarke suddenly feels under threat. Having hordes of women hitting on her husband has never fazed Eve in the past, but Magdelana Purcell isn't just any other woman: she's the only woman who actually dumped Roarke, rather than been dumped by him. She's obviously hellbent on creating trouble, and Roarke seems blind to it.

MY THOUGHTS: As always with these books, there's the case and there's the relationship stuff. They're well integrated, and everything, but still something I might evaluate separately. In this case, both were great.

I found myself genuinely interested in finding out why exactly someone might want to see Craig dead. The mystery is slowly and carefully developed, and the culprit doesn't come out of the blue at all. When you discover what happened, you look back and wonder why you didn't see it. Maybe for the same reason Eve wasn't seeing it, I guess, though I did consider it at one point and then thought "nah, she wouldn't". Anyway, fascinating and incredibly creepy.

But the Magdelana thing, oh, wow! In the first place, I loved the glimpse at the young Roarke, and I also loved the angst this whole thing created. It was great, great angst, too, because Nora managed to build it into something truly significant and important, something Eve was perfectly right to be upset about, but all without any real possibilities that Roarke would actually do anything, be even interested in doing anything with Magdelana. What's more, Eve knew perfectly well this was the case, but still, it felt right that she would be destroyed by the situation.

For I while I wanted to smack the boneheaded idiot for not realizing exactly what the incredibly obvious bitch was doing, but this lasted the exact right amount of time... long enough to get the full effect, not long enough to make it frustrating. It was all well solved, too, very satisfyingly, though was there really a need for her to hit him, too? ;-)

Oh, and another great thing was seeing the great support network of girlfriends Eve has created come into action. She's really come along way since book 1, hasn't she?

The only minus in the whole book? The name Magdelana. That drove out of my head. I suppose her parents might have spelled her name however they wanted, but something in me kept screaming "It's Magdalena, not Magdelana!!!!!" every single time.

MY GRADE: A very satisfying, solid B+.

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Distant Voices, by Barbara Erskine

TITLE: Distant Voices
AUTHOR: Barbara Erskine

COPYRIGHT: 1996
PAGES: 488
PUBLISHER: Harper Collins

SETTING: Varies
TYPE: Anthology - varies
SERIES: None

REASON FOR READING: There are tons and tons of Barbara Erskine books in charity shops here, and I enjoyed the two of hers that I've read.

In her second volume of short stories, which follows the hugely successful Encounters, Barbara Erskine has created a wide and vivid range of worlds and emotions, From love, romance, loneliness, grief, to betrayal, passion, adventure and compelling suspense.

A biographer investigating a tragic death hears voices from the past drawing her towards the truth... A nineteenth-century parson's daughter is caught tip in the excitement and romance of a smuggling intrigue... A young boy from a deprived background finds his own haven in the wastelands of the inner city... A young woman, struggling to choose between love or her career, finds help from an unexpected source...

Contemporary, historical, spooky, humorous, there are over thirty delightful stories, each one guaranteed to capture the reader's imagination, and all demonstrating Barbara Erskine's unique powers its a storyteller.

MY THOUGHTS: Of those 488 pages I've read only 34. Three short stories, and not one of them I thought was worth reading, so I just quit.

Let's see: the first story was about a journalist who's investigating an old mysterious death and sees some ghostly apparitions in the house where it happened. This one was probably the best of the three, but still very mediocre. Nothing really happens, and this is not compensated by great characterization or atmosphere, or anything like that. So the story just felt pointless. Why am I being told about this, why should I care?

Then the second was about a woman whose estranged husband, a high-powered businessman, comes back after years and tells her he's dropped out, become a poet and now wants her to represent him. Could have been ok, but it was very boring and again, pointless.

And the third I hated. It was about a woman who's married to her childhood sweetheart, and basically tells about how he cheats on her and she almost does the same, but instead, decides to forgive him. For the third time, totally boring and pointless and horrible, with cardboard characters and a really screwed-up message. Ugh.

Anyone read this one? Are any of the following stories worth it?

MY GRADE: DNF for this one, and I think if no one tells me I should give such and such a story a try, it goes back to Oxfam.

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I'm in paradise

There are libraries here! Duh, of course, and we do have libraries in Uruguay, but these are great libraries, with books I actually want to read for pleasure, not just books to study from!

I didn't even look for "lighter" fiction (meaning non-classics) in the university library, but there is a branch of the Nottinghamshire library service about 10 minutes for me,and I joined a couple of days ago. And went completely insane immediately thereafter. I ended up lugging home a huge pile of books, and this was my take after I'd whittled down the initial pile I'd gathered, which was easily twice as big. I had to assure myself I can go back and get them later on, once I'm done with these.

This is just too cool! I can search the library, reserve books or request them from other branches, renew my books, all online. And I can borrow from any of the branches, so I can go to the Central Library in downtown Nottingham and go even more nuts.

The only thing that's not so great is that the romance books are shelved all over... there's only Mills & Boons in the "Romance" section, plus maybe a couple of books which happen to have naked-people covers, but the rest are in the strangest places. Crime and Mystery, Fantasy, Science Fiction... I even saw some Sherrilyn Kenyons shelved in Horror (and won't the typical reader looking for horror be shocked if he or she picks them up!). So I have to check *everything* to find books, but it's worth it.

Anyway, here's my haul:

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Lover Unbound, by J.R. Ward

TITLE: Lover Unbound (excerpt, buy ebook here)
AUTHOR: J.R. Ward

COPYRIGHT: 2007
PAGES: 528
PUBLISHER: Signet Eclipse

SETTING: Contemporary Caldwell, New York
TYPE: Vampire romance
SERIES: # 5 in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series

REASON FOR READING: I'm addicted.

In the shadows of the night in Caldwell, New York, there’s a deadly war raging between vampires and their slayers. And there exists a secret band of brothers like no other—six vampire warriors, defenders of their race. Now, the cold heart of a cunning predator will be warmed against its will…

Ruthless and brilliant, Vishous son of the Bloodletter possesses a destructive curse and a frightening ability to see the future. As a pretrans growing up in his father's war camp, he was tormented and abused. As a member of the Brotherhood, he has no interest in love or emotion, only the battle with the Lessening Society. But when a mortal injury puts him in the care of a human surgeon, Dr. Jane Whitcomb compels him to reveal his inner pain and taste true pleasure for the first time- until a destiny he didn't choose takes him into a future that cannot include her.

MY THOUGHTS: Yippee for the ebook coming out quickly after the release! I find myself unable to seriously review the BDB books, so just some disjointed impressions. And there will be many, many spoilers!!!, so be warned. Only go on if you've read the book already.

On the whole, I enjoyed most of the book, right until the end, which sucked. Even before that there were parts I thought were really, really lame, but I was still finding myself absorbed by what's going on in Ward's universe.

• There's a central love story, as in all the books in the series, and it was one I liked -until the very end. Before the book started, I wondered how Ward was going to deal with two aspects: a) V's unorthodox sex life and b) the definite sexual vibe of his feelings for Butch. I hoped she wouldn't chicken out and that both these aspects wouldn't simply magically disappear and be denied.
  
  Well, she didn't chicken out, that's for sure, though I think some people might be disappointed because she doesn't portray BDSM as a lifestyle choice for V. It's simply the only way he can tolerate sex because of his horrific past, so it's something that's in a way "cured" by his love of Jane. I prefer not to take this as a wholesale condemnation of the BDSM lifestyle, just as the way *this particular character* is, and I have to confess I prefer it this way. I accept BDSM as a perfectly valid choice for whoever is into it, but it's not something that appeals to me, even in a story. So I was much more comfortable with the way things turned out here: there will always be some BDSM play between them, and V was able to use this as a way to exorcise his demons, but it won't be what their life will be about.
  
  Other than this, what we're told about V's past sex life is even more hard-core than I expected. Definitely no chickening out here, nor in the sexual nature of his attraction to Butch. Even Ward's most stubborn fans won't be able to deny it now (even if they were completely blind and were denying it after the very clear Lover Revealed). It's really out in the open, and V even tells Butch that's he's had sex with men in the past. The man is clearly not particularly into men or women, and his past sex life wasn't really about attraction to them, but about power. Once he finds people he cares about, he's into individual persons, whichever their sex. Butch is the first person he ever had real feelings for (Butch is not completely sure that it was love, though, even if V is) and then Jane.
  
  Anyway, I think this is probably the first mainstream romance where I've seen one of the protagonists "allowed" to be this way, and I celebrate the change. Just because of it, I hope this book does very, very well and that it will increase the probabilities that we might have m/m books put out by mainstream publishers.


• Jane was probably Ward's strongest heroine to date (though, I know, that isn't saying all that much). I was a bit surprised by how quickly she just decides to give up her whole life, but eh, that would be part of the ending I hated. Before that, she took no shit from V at all, and I thought they were well-matched, even in the sexual plane. And I confess I thought that these two were seriously hot together, and in the end, really sweet. I was surprised to actually *like* the "mate, mate, mine" aspect of their romance.


• The only thing I didn't like AT ALL about the V-Jane relationship was the ending. I'd go as far as to say I HATED it. As I read about her coming back from death I kept thinking "she's got to be kidding me". It was just incredibly lame and silly. It felt so easy and like such a cop-out. I mean, where's the cost? Jane is pretty much as she was, only now she won't die, and the SV lost a bunch of birds, which can be replaced, apparently. Oh, cry me a river.
  
  And for the first time, I can kind of see the argument of those who argue against the guaranteed HEA in romance novels, because as I was reading about Jane dying, I wasn't going "OMG, how sad, how awful, how horrible". No, I knew we had to get a HEA coming somehow, so I was just cooly thinking "Hmm, I wonder how she'll get around this?".


• The other thing I thought was incredibly lame and silly was the language in the flashbacks and in the Chosen scenes. Again: Ms. Ward, you have got to be kidding me. Using the word "unto" doesn't make dialogue sound archaic, it just makes me laugh. The modern language wasn't that bad here, though every time I read the expression "for kicks and giggles" and one of the characters used the word "puss" for face, I wanted to punch something. These very words were used in her SSE release, The Billionaire Next Door, and they turned me off just as much there. I guess she must have been writing those two books at the same time.


• The Primale plot: eh. Just reinforces my hate for the Scribe Virgin. All we saw of her in this book convinced me that on top of being a cruel bitch, she's also got incredibly bad judgment. I mean, chosing that crazy psycho to father her children? Is she insane? Aren't we told she can see into people and so on? And what about the Directrix? Yet another enormous error of judgment. And the Payne thing there at the end? Oh, my. The SV is even crueler than I'd thought. But this is an intriguing twist and I can't wait to see what's up with that (did I mention I'm addicted, still?).


• I was creeped out by the Chosen and their lives (even more reasons why the SV must die!), and I think this is an area of the vampire universe that's ripe for a radical change. Maybe in the next book? I couldn't really tell from the excerpt if Phury's heroine will be Cormia. He seemed to be mostly irritated by her, even if he was turned on. We'll see.


• Speaking of Phury, for some reason, even though I really dig virgin heroes (though, is he still a virgin now?), I'm not particularly desperate to read his book, probably because his obsession with Bella doesn't much resonate with me. Again, we'll see. Don't get me wrong, I am definitely going to read it, I'm just not going to suffer during the wait *g*


• I was surprised by how there were pretty much no lessers here, other than a few fights and that traumatic scene near the end, which really felt out of the blue, given the lessers' previous absence. It's all explained by the fact that as the forelesser has died, I suppose. There's obviously going to be a quiet period as they regroup, so it makes sense, but still, I was surprised. It's a big difference with the other books that there are no scenes from the lessers' POV. I was actually interested in the lessers subplot in Lover Revealed, but I'm not going to complain that they weren't present here and that it was all about the Brotherhood. Is JRW listening to her fans to that extent?


• I think my favourite parts of the book were the ones about John. He finally goes through his change here, and wow, John and Xhex? I could get really excited about that pairing. I loved that he turns down the sweet and submissive Chosen and is seriously turned on by the ball-buster Xhex. Even if I'd hated everything about the rest of the book, I'd continue reading the series just to see how this turns out.

MY GRADE: God, this is hard. Er... a C+?

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Would you like to visit Sherwood Forest?

There you go, then.

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Quick one

I'm about to leave for a day in Sherwood Forest, so just a quick update.

The suitcase finally reached me last week (without the plastic wrap I'd put on it at the airport, but otherwise intact), so I now have clothes, yay! Thank you all for the good wishes and the positive thoughts *g*

I've started classes already; not my regular lectures, which start on the 8th, but the presessional classes. Last week was Maths, next week is Econometrics, and thank heavens we're doing that, because spending 6 years in the workforce after getting my degree has driven all the mathematical and econometric knowledge I once had out of my brain. Well, not really driven it out, but buried it under other stuff, so this breakneck speed overview we're doing in the presessional classes is really helping me remember it all again.

As for extracurricular activities, I've uploaded a ton of pics to my photo blog, so go check them out!

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The River Knows, by Amanda Quick

TITLE: The River Knows
AUTHOR: Amanda Quick

COPYRIGHT: 2007
PAGES: 368
PUBLISHER: Putnam

SETTING: Victorian London
TYPE: Straight romance
SERIES: None, stands alone

REASON FOR READING: JAK in all her incarnations is my consumate comfort read, so I turned to her when worried about my missing suitcase ;-)

The first kiss occurred in a dimly lit hallway on the upper floor of Elwin Hastings's grand house. Louisa never saw it coming....

Of course, Anthony Stalbridge couldn't possibly have had romantic intentions. The kiss was an act of desperation meant to distract the armed guard from catching the pair in a place they did not belong. After all, Louisa Bryce, in her dull maroon gown and gold-rimmed spectacles, was no man's idea of an alluring female. The only thing the two interlopers have in common is a passionate interest in the private affairs of Mr. Hastings-a prominent member of Society whom they both suspect of hiding terrible secrets. Now, brought together by their ruse, Anthony and Louisa are united in their efforts to find the truth.

Each has a reason for the quest. Anthony's fiancée was said to have thrown herself into the Thames-but Anthony has his own suspicions. Louisa-whose own identity is shrouded in layers of mystery-is convinced that Hastings has a connection to a notorious brothel. When Anthony successfully cracks Hastings's hidden safe-and discovers incriminating evidence-it appears that both their instincts were correct.

Yet Hastings is hiding far more than jewels and ledger books. Bringing him to justice will be more perilous than they anticipate-and their partnership will be more heated than either one expects. For it is not only Anthony's curiosity that Louisa arouses, and the two share something else: a thrilling attraction to danger...

THE PLOT: Louisa Burton faked her own suicide and disappeared when she had to kill a predatory nobleman in self-defense. The young, pretty shopkeeper took inspiration in the recent suicides of two society ladies who'd just thrown themselves into the river, and one of whose bodies had never appeared. Some time later, she's working as a companion to a very forward-thinking lady and writing hard-hitting articles for a journal, trying to get some justice against noblemen who think nothing about ruining and hurting people, as long as they are in a lower position in society.

Louisa and Anthony Stalbridge meet when both are going after the same man, Elwin Hastings. Louisa is investigating his involvement in a notorious brothel, while Anthony suspects him of murdering his fiancée, one of the women whose suicide gave Louisa the idea of faking her own. When they are forced to pretend to be involved so as to get out of a tight spot, an unlikely partnership emerges between them.

MY THOUGHTS: The romance was actually quite good, almost back to the JAK I love, the JAK of the mid 90s. Anthony's complete and utter need for Louisa was well rendered, as was the tenderness he felt for her. Their interactions were very enjoyable, with plenty of banter. Oh, and the love scenes were very nice.

I also really liked Anthony's very unique family and Louisa's free-thinking employer. They were very enjoyable secondary figures.

Too bad the very humdrum suspense subplot wasn't up to par. The undeniable reiterativeness of AQ's stories doesn't usually bother me, but it did here, at least in this aspect. The actual romance was fine and, though both Louisa and Anthony were familiar figures, their relationship felt plenty fresh enough. But the suspense? Oh, man. "Oh, here we're coming to the scene when they go interrogate someone, and when no one answers the door they break in and find him dead." That kind of thing.

MY GRADE: A B. The romance more than compensates for the weaker suspense.

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More photos up, and some good news!

First the good news: it seems the suitcase finally turned up! My dad just called me (he's been nagging the Montevideo Iberia employees to death these last few days) and he tells me it never left Sao Paulo, in Brazil. Everyone kept telling me how it had probably got lost in Madrid, because everyone loses suitcases in Madrid, but I was sure the fuck-up must have happened in Brazil. We arrived such a long time before our plane was to leave that someone must have put them aside to send and then forgotten about it.

So anyway, I'm trying to be cautiosly optimistic at most now. I won't celebrate until it actually reaches me here in Nottingham. On the positive side, this annoyance has allowed me to see just how incredibly generous some of my fellow students are. Lots of people lent me stuff, and everyone kept asking me if they could help.

And now for the pictures: a couple of the university are here (including the one I posted here yesterday, so it's old news to you), and if you want a whirlwind tour of downtown Nottingham, click here.

And yep, that's Robin Hood on that poster stuck on the wall of the City Council!

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Still alive

Ugh, I didn't even have time to post "bye bye, I'm off". But I was off, and I'm now settling down in Nottingham. Well, not really settling down, because until Saturday, when I can move into my permanent residence, I'm staying at one of the residence halls on campus, but hey, at least I've been able to log on to the internet with my laptop!

The trip was horrible; long and tiring and damned Iberia lost my luggage, which still hasn't been found (positive thoughts are very welcome and very needed!), but the university is lovely and so are the people. I've got pics, which I'll be posting later, as it's late today. I did manage to post photos of the trip and the last goodbyes at my photolog, though, so take a look at them here.

I leave you with one of the photos of the university (which I haven't yet posted on my photolog, so you guys have got an exclusive, LOL!)




That's the Portland building, on campus, which I've been to a lot on these first couple of days. And as you can tell from my clothes, it's incredibly cold for the end of summer, at least by Uruguayan standards!

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Hard to Guard, by Nina Mamone

TITLE: Hard to Guard
AUTHOR: Nina Mamone

COPYRIGHT: 2007 (comes out today)
PAGES: About 23,000 words, which I'd say is short story length in those regular 4-story print anthologies.
PUBLISHER: Samhain Publishing

SETTING: Contemporary
TYPE: Paranormal Romance
SERIES: No, but it will be part of an anthology called "I Dream of Dragons II"

REASON FOR READING: The author emailed me and asked me if I'd like an ARC, and after checking out the summary, I said "yes, please!"

Two guardians + long-denied passion + a quest to recover a kidnapped wyrm = spontaneous combustion

I Dream of Dragons II

A construction worker by day, a Guardian by night, Connor has had it with the irresponsible antics of the wyrms he vowed to keep secret from the human world. The only reason he keeps going is to be near the sassy, sexy, but totally out-of-his-league Sorcha. However, for the past five years, Sorcha’s not-so-subtle digs have convinced him that she only sees him as a stuffy, wet blanket.

Sorcha lusts after Connor and may even love him. But after five years of poking, prodding, teasing—anything to get some kind of reaction, even a frown—she’s given up hope of having a relationship with him. He has made it very clear that working with her to find a kidnapped wyrm is the very last thing he wants to do.

An unaccounted-for wyrm is a deadly wild card, and after a dangerous aphrodisiac appears on the streets, Sorcha and Connor will have to join forces to ensure the safety of everyone they care about.

THE PLOT: As Guardians working for the Directorate, Connor and Sorcha's job is to take care of wyrms, dragons who can take human form and live among humans. Wyrms aren't the most responsible of beings, and it takes a lot of effort to make sure they remain a secret from the world at large. It's a bit like being a babysitter, and both are tired of it. The only reason they don't quit is that each sees the job as the only way they can keep in contact with the other.

Connor and Sorcha have known each other for five years, since the day they started training for their job. From the very first, the strong attraction between them caused them to behave strangely, and the result is that each is very misguided about the other's feelings. Connor is convinced Sorcha thinks him a priggish stick-in-the-mud, while Sorcha is sure Connor disapproves of her and can barely stand her.

But when the kidnapping of one of the wyrms forces them to work together, it becomes much harder to hide their true feelings.

MY THOUGHTS: I'm very glad I accepted the author's offer, because this was a fun, sexy story, with plenty of tingly romance.

Romance short stories are not really my favourites, as they're so hard to do and you usually get what feels like the bare bones of a larger story. But the good news is that short was the perfect length for this particular story. It helped that the outside plot was quite simple really. The thing about the wyrms and their Guardians and how this all works was fun and original, but at the same time, it was quite straightforward, and there wasn't a too-complicated mythology that took up tens of pages being introduced. Furthermore, the story was more character- than plot-driven, with the outside plot only providing the background for the change in Sorcha and Connor's relationship, but never really coming to the forefront.

I also liked that the relationship was one that was already pretty established, so the author wasn't forced to cram the entire thing into a few short pages, from the first meeting on. No, Connor and Sorcha's feelings are already there, and we're given just enough background info to understand them and their history. This was excellently done, and in the first part, the feelings of yearning for each other but believing it's hopeless were just yummy.

What we see in full is the resolution of the conflict that had kept them separate, and this was good, a nice combination of sexy and sweet. Sorcha did go a bit nuts afterwards, creating a conflict that felt slightly forced, but it didn't bother me excessively, as she saw reason soon enough.

MY GRADE: A nice, solid B.

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By Possession, by Madeline Hunter

With only a week to go before I leave for England and the preparations kicking my ass, if I want to write any reviews at all (which I do; I'm addicted to it), they're going to have to be itty-bitty-sized. So here we go.

TITLE: By Possession (read an excerpt)
AUTHOR: Madeline Hunter

COPYRIGHT: 2000
PAGES: 371
PUBLISHER: Bantam

SETTING: Medieval: 1326 England
TYPE: Straight romance
SERIES: It's Hunter's second published book, but chronologically, it's the first of her six Medievals. See here for more details.

REASON FOR READING: I'd been meaning to reread it for a while.

A Common Lady

For years she had thought he was dead. Yet when Addis de Valence strode into Moira Falkner's cottage, there was no mistaking the sharp planes of his face, and the scar she herself had helped to heal. The young squire who had once been her hero was now her lord, a hardened man who returned to claim the son she had raised as her own. But Moira couldn't deny that Addis roused a passion she never thought to feel--and a perilous hope for a future that could never be....

An Uncommon Love

Addis returned from the Crusades to find his lands usurped by his stepbrother, and his country on the brink of rebellion. Determined to reclaim his birthright, Addis could not afford to be distracted by a woman--even one as tempting as Moira. Yet the only living part of his contented past lay in Moira--and his desire for her was more dangerous than his deadly battles with the king's men. By law, Moira belonged to him...but possessing her heart might be far more difficult.

THE PLOT: When Addis de Valence returns from the Crusades, he finds his lands usurped by his step-brother, with the full connivance of the King's friends. All that's left is a manor brought by his late wife... and Moira Falkner, serf from that manor. Moira claims to have been freed by Addis' father-in-law before he died, but Addis refuses to lose her, too, and won't believe her claims.

As Addis fights and manouvers to recover his holdings, he and Moira struggle as well, as each becomes more important to the other but the power issues between them keep them apart.

MY THOUGHTS: This was a very good read. I loved what Hunter did with the tension that arises from the issues of power and inequality and possesion and injustice that separate Moira and Addis. The tension is both between them and inside Addis, because he knows very well that it is an injustice, that Moira is indeed telling the truth about having been set free from her bond. It's just that Addis can't tolerate the thought of not having her beside him, because she's the only thing in the world that gives him a measure of peace. He must keep her with him, by whichever method he finds to do so. It works, because Moira keeps her pride and though she does warm to Addis, she never gives in to what she knows would be wrong for her. When they do come together completely, they do so as equals, in spite of the difference in their stations. In the end, I believed their love completely.

What was less successful was all that about the past history between them that Addis can't remember at first. That felt strange and improbable, and it didn't feel particularly necessary to the story, either. But all right, it didn't bother me all that much.

As in all of Hunter's books, this is an excellent historical romance. The history comes alive and plays a huge role, but it doesn't overwhelm the story. It just shapes it and gives it a vivid backdrop and makes it all the more enjoyable. This is how historical romance should be done.

MY GRADE: A B+.

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Hands down, the best way to read...

is half-buried in cats!

This is me a few weeks ago.

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Dark Moon Defender, by Sharon Shinn

TITLE: Dark Moon Defender
AUTHOR: Sharon Shinn

COPYRIGHT: 2006
PAGES: 448
PUBLISHER: Ace

SETTING: The land of Gillengaria
TYPE: Fantasy romance
SERIES: Third in the Twelve Houses series, coming after Mystic and Rider and The Thirteenth House.

REASON FOR READING: I've loved everything I've read by this author, and this series has been excellent so far.

The Rider Justin is sent to the small town of Neft, so he can spy on the nearby Lumanen Convent where the Daughters of the Pale Moon reside. He quickly learns that Coralinda Gisseltess, the leader of the Daughters, is indeed persecuting mystics and the people who shelter them. Even more quickly, he falls in love with Ellynor, one of the convent's novices.

But the courtship is perilous in the extreme. Not only does Coralinda hate the king and the King's Riders, but Ellynor is from the Lirrenlands, where women are not allowed to take lovers outside of the close-knit clans. If her brothers find out about Justin, they will insist upon an duel to the death... and if Coralinda finds out that Ellynor is a mystic, Ellynor's own life will be instantly at risk.

THE PLOT: When Rider Justin is sent undercover to the small town of Neft, to spy on the Daughters of the Pale Mother, at the Lumanen Convent, he's not particularly happy about it. He hates leaving the friends he made in the earlier books (his makeshift family, really) behind, and he feels isolated.

Things change when he meets and falls for Ellynor, a novice at the convent. Their relationship develops amid much danger, as Justin discovers just how bloody and murderous the Daughters' campaign against mystics has become, and Ellynor realizes what the convent is really about. But that's not all; there's even more danger for each of them. Ellynor turns out to be a mystic herself, and she's from the Lirrenlands, too, where customs determine that relationships between Lirren girls and outsiders almost always end in tragedy.

MY THOUGHTS: As the series has progressed, I've become fonder and fonder of Justin. He started out in M&R as a character I saw as somewhat rigid and prejudiced, but as I continued reading, I came to understand him much better and appreciate him. In DMD, Shinn pairs the man who comes from no family at all and who has had to build his own with a woman who has a surfeit of it, for whom her extended family is the building block of her entire life.

It's a relationship that seems impossible from the start, what with Ellynor being in the worst possible place and the danger from her family hanging over them the whole time. But these two do fall in love, in spite of everything, and it's a sweet, caring relationship. I liked Ellynor quite a bit (in spite of the couple of moments when she seemed purposely blind), but it was Justin I kept reading for. The real, inner Justin is a vulnerable man who feels he's not deserving of the love of someone like Ellynor, and seeing him understand that he is, indeed, loved, and not just by Ellynor, but by his friends, was lovely.

It seems from the setup of the book that we'll be focusing just on Justin and not see the group of six friends from the earlier books together, as they seem to be scattered all over the place. But never fear, the six do get together again, and we are treated to some more fascinating family dynamics. Justin's relationship with Kirra had been a very interesting element of the previous book, and it remains so here. They're really brother and sister now. And we also get updates on how Kirra and Donnal are doing (which is a good thing, after how little we got of that in TTH, and really set my mind at ease), as well as Senneth and Tayse (I love those two, their relationship is wonderfully romantic, in a totally non-saccharine way).

Oh, and I mustn't forget the outside plot. The probable upcoming war continues to simmer here, and though not much actually happens here, it was still excellently done and interesting. We come to understand more about Coralinda Gisseltess and her Daughters of the Pale Mother, which was great, as they'd been a bit shadowy in earlier books. With what we see here, Shinn makes the stakes feel even higher, because this is quite a terrifying sect. I wonder whether the next book, Reader and Raelynx (coming out in November, and hey, look, you can see the cover now at amazon!) will be the last one? If so, we should get all the answers there. Whatever it is, I can't wait.

MY GRADE: An A-. Shinn keeps getting better and better.

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Caressed by Ice, by Nalini Singh

TITLE: Caressed by Ice (read excerpts)
AUTHOR: Nalini Singh

COPYRIGHT: 2007 (it will be out next week, on September 4th)
PAGES: 368
PUBLISHER: Berkley

SETTING: An alternate version of Earth in the late 21st century, with shapeshifters and psy, a race which has special psychic powers.
TYPE: Paranormal romance
SERIES: Book 3 in the Psy / Changeling series. It definitely shouldn't be read before the first book, Slave to Sensation, since it will spoil the plot of that one. In fact, this review shouldn't be read before reading STS, either!

REASON FOR READING: I love this series. Slave to Sensation was my favourite book last year, and the second one, Visions of Heat, was almost as good.

Explore new heights of sensuality in this return to the world of the Psy-where two people who know evil intimately must unlock the good within their icy hearts…

As an Arrow, an elite soldier in the Psy Council ranks, Judd Lauren was forced to do terrible things in the name of his people. Now a defector, his dark abilities have made him the most deadly of assassins-cold, pitiless, unfeeling. Until he meets Brenna…

Brenna Shane Kincaid was an innocent before she was abducted-and had her mind violated-by a serial killer. Her sense of evil runs so deep, she fears she could become a killer herself. Then the first dead body is found, victim of a familiar madness. Judd is her only hope, yet her sensual changeling side rebels against the inhuman chill of his personality, even as desire explodes between them. Shocking and raw, their passion is a danger that threatens not only their hearts, but their very lives…

THE PLOT: When he lived among the Psy, Judd Lauren was an Arrow, part of a top-secret group of assassins who enforced the Psy Council's directives. When he felt there was a threat on his family, he used his considerable powers and intelligence to find a way for all of them to drop out from the Psynet, which they did, the very first Psy to handle it.

The Laurens found refuge among the SnowDancer wolf changeling clan, but while over the years everyone else in the family have slowly started to let emotions in, Judd remains as cold and emotionless as ever. Unlike them, he will never be able to remove his mental blocks on feeling. The extensive training to become an Arrow, which took place since he was very young, placed some very real and dangerous tripwires on his mind, which any kind of feelings will activate.

And it's very strong feelings that dealing with Brenna Kincaid threatens to cause. If you've read Slave to Sensation, you'll remember Brenna as the last young woman taken by the Psy serial killer in that book. She was rescued before he killed her, but not before enduring weeks of horrific torture, both mental and physical. This has left her with some very serious sequels, and it doesn't help that everyone in the SnowDancer clan seems to now see her as some kind of fragile victim. It's only with Judd that she feels more comfortable, more like a survivor, rather than a victim.

Ever since she returned to her family, Brenna has been having very disturbing, violent dreams. They seem to be just natural results of her experiences, but when a murder is discovered in SnowDancer headquarters, Brenna realizes that her dreams are something else. Did the Psy psychopath succeed in turning her her mind into something dangerous? She can trust only Judd to help her figure out the truth, as well as evade the increasing danger it becomes clear she's under.

MY THOUGHTS: Wow. Just... wow. As I've repeated ad nauseam, I absolutely adored STS, but I'm hard-pressed to decide if I liked it or CBI better.

As in the other books in the series, Singh's created a complex, original, truly fascinating world, and one that feels more deeply developed as the series advances. I love that while there's a complete-feeling story and romance in each of the books, there's also an overarching storyline about the evolution of Psy/changeling/human relationships. There's a sense of big, important things going on and progressing, and that each of the stories told are contributing to it.

But as much as I love the universe Singh sets out, it's the romances that are the true hearts of the books for me, and CBI is no different. I was looking forward to seeing what a relationship between a male Psy and a female changeling might be like, and it was even better than I could have expected. The relationship between Judd and Brenna is amazing, full of passion and a sense of both inevitability and yearning, because having love developing between them seems as necessary as it is impossible.

That was one of the things I loved best about the book, the way the obstacles to a happy ending seemed insurmountable, and how they really, really had to work at them, even having to work through the hopeless feeling of thinking there's no way to solve things. The main obstacle was Judd and both the way his mind was originally and what it had become under Silence. I was impressed by how real the obstacles were in Visions of Heat for Faith abandoning Silence, but that was child's play compared to what Judd has to go through here.

See, there's a double block on his feelings. Judd's mind has been programmed so that any feeling will cause excrutiating pain in his brain, even causing very real injuries. Small ones, caused by small losses of control, he can fix himself, but if he were to really let go, he'd turn his brain into mush. But even if that problem were solved, there's also the knowledge that before Silence, people with his abilities always ended up losing control of them, at some point, and murdering the women they were close to.

So the conflict inside Judd is tremendous. He can't be with Brenna, but he can't not be with Brenna, because the link between them is much too powerful. The scene with the flying furniture was unforgettable! Anyway, I won't reveal how this was all solved, only that it was immensely satisfying and well done.

Something else I loved was Brenna's characterization, most especially the uniqueness of her being a changeling. So far in the series, we'd only really seen male changelings. I mean, we've met females, but since it was the heroes of the last two books who were shifters, we only really delved into how a male changeling relates to the animal inside him. So it was especially interesting to see this aspect of Brenna. It's a very interesting relationship she has with what's inside her, and even when it's lacking the last step for her, as it is at first during this book, when she's having trouble shifting, it's clear that it still shapes her personality. And it does in a way that is recognizable and yet subtly different to that of the males.

All in all, a fantastic read, and one that's right up there with the best I've read this year. I'm going to have such a hard time deciding my best book of 2007!

MY GRADE: An A. Fortunately, the long wait for Mine to Possess will be made shorter by the release of the An Enchanted Season anthology on October 2nd.

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Off World 2: Sanctuary, by Stephanie Vaughan

TITLE: Off World 2: Sanctuary (ebook here or here)
AUTHOR: Stephanie Vaughan

COPYRIGHT: 2007
PAGES: 288 in the print version
PUBLISHER: Torquere Press

SETTING: Futuristic - Doradus station, on a hollowed-out mining asteroid
TYPE: Gay romance
SERIES: Follows Off World.

REASON FOR READING: Vaughan is on my autobuy list, and Off World was fantastic.

Vigilant crewmember Sandy D'abu stays behind on Doradus station to mind the crew's new secure cargo business while the rest of the guys take the spaceship out on a run. There isn't a lot for him to do, so he spends his evenings at Durty Nelly's, keeping an eye on bartender Alex, a former pleasure slave a few of his crewmates feel responsible for.

When the man who made Alex's a pleasure slave back on Earth suddenly turns up as part-owner of the sex club, Sandy agrees to help Alex out by pretending to be his boyfriend. After all, what are a few kisses among friends? The problem is that Sandy doesn't want to pretend; he's already in love with Alex. Alex is still skittish about being touched at all by anyone, let alone kissed by the huge ex-soldier, and if that wasn't enough, there are plenty of bad guys in both Sandy and Alex's pasts back on earth who have escaped to Doradus station too, and they all want a piece of the action.. Will Sandy and Alex be able to put the past, and the men who want to hurt them, behind them to find a future together? Find out in this passionate sequel to Off World.

THE PLOT: OW2 takes place right after the events of OW1, but though what takes place here is a direct consequence of something that happens in the first book, this book stands alone quite well. Anyway, during OW1, Sarhaan and friends got help from Alex Valentine, a man they'd first met when he was a sex slave at a kind of brothel catering to "special" (read "completely perverted") tastes, but hadn't been able to save. Alex later managed to escape on his own, even though he'd been pumped full of drugs all the time, and made his way to the off-world station of Doradus, on a faraway asteroid. As the book starts, he's managed to be clean for some time and is working as a bartender at Durty Nelly, a high-end sex club.

Since a ear infection kept him grounded on his spaceship's latest run, his fellow crew members have asked chief engineer Sandy D'Abu to keep an eye on Alex while they're out. He's been spending his evenings at Durty Nelly doing just that (it's not like there's a lot to do on Doradus, otherwise), and during his long chats with Alex, he's become extremely attracted to the guy. However, he's aware that the events in his past have left Alex barely able to bear even the most casual of touches, so Sandy doesn't have any hopes that anything more can develop.

But circumstances change when a man from Alex's past arrives at Doradus and becomes a part-owner and Durty Nelly. Feeling threatened, Alex asks Sandy to pretend there's something more between them, and suddenly they're spending a whole lot of time together, in close quarters...

MY THOUGHTS: I loved it! I knew I would, so I made a whole production out of reading it... opened a good bottle of wine, set out some olives and cheese and crackers and then some really good chocolate and dug in. And it was totally worth it: Vaughan doesn't disappoint in the least.

It's not a perfect book, because I had a couple of little issues with the plotting. Like, how Nick's past relationship with that Nick guy is never made completely clear. It happened before Alex was forced to become a sex slave, and there seems to have been some kind of betrayal involved, but what exactly happened? What did Nick do? Why does Alex see him as so much of a threat that he's willing to "impose" on Sandy, as he sees it? I have some theories, but no certainties. And that instance of grave danger at the end kind of came out of the blue.

But did these very few small plot issues lessen my enjoyment of the book one whit? Hell, no. I was wholly caught up in the relationship, and that was just lovely. Alex is a wonderful wounded hero, a man still haunted by the horrors of what happened to him a few years earlier and convinced he'll never be able to have a real relationship with another man, and furthermore, that if he's ever able to handle it, he's not really worth anything. He's damaged goods, more trouble than he's worth, etc. He might have become annoying or whiny in another author's hands, but he never did here. I was totally rooting for him and found his insecurities and doubts just heartbreaking.

Sandy was the perfect guy for Alex, and I loved that Alex was the perfect guy for Sandy, too, because Sandy was such an incredibly good, decent man and he deserved it. He's the gentle giant kind, a scary looking Samoan, all huge and tattooed, but a tender, caring sweetie on the inside.

That's just how their relationship was, actually, tender and caring, as well as very, very sexy. And the best thing was, it's not just Alex who finds the sanctuary of the title. Both of them do, with each other, because Sandy has his own issues that are made much better by being with Alex, and that made for a much better relationship than if it had been one-sided. The focus of the story was squarely on that relationship, with the outside plot merely creating the circumstances for a closeness that would have been harder to achieve naturally.

MY GRADE: A very solid B+. Gorgeous book!

NOTE: I initially tried to buy the book directly from Torquere, but MY GOD, their website is crap. My payment just wouldn't go through, so I had to search and search for it, since it wasn't at Fictionwise yet. Finally, I ended up buying it from All Romance Ebooks in MS Reader format, rather than the html I was trying to get from Torquere. Good thing I was determined to get the book, because I suspect a casual shopper would have just given up.

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