Chaos Tryst by Shirin Dubbin

Ariana Golde may be known for breaking and entering but she's no thief, she’ s a returner. She retrieves stolen objects and gives them back to their rightful owners. Her latest job: retrieving a statue from the Medveds. But Ari is having an off night, and she's caught red-handed by the three brothers, who don't just get mad—they turn into bears.

Maksim Medved is outraged—the statue belongs to his parents. But Ari's returner magick doesn't lie: the heirloom has a new rightful owner. Ari is drawn to the surly, handsome Maks—maybe because he possesses the same chaos magick she does. But while Ariana enjoys a touch of chaos, Maks hates its destructive power.

When Ari and Maks team up to find her mystery client, their chaos magicks ignite even faster than their attraction. Can Maks learn to love a little chaos, or will the havoc they cause among the faebled creatures drive him away for good?

 ~~

I have to give major props to Shirin Dubbin because she has created a wonderfully cute story in only about 100 pages. I consider that a very hard thing to do because setting up a whole new world and giving me two new main characters to care about usually requires more pages.

Chaos Tryst is a very multicultural story; Ariana is half West Africa and Japanese, which gives her light brown skin and blonde dreadlocks - different for sure but it totally works. Miks is the 'surly' one from Russian descent who, when he gets too upset, shifts into a bear. They both live in the world of Faebles that is populated with Goblins and Oni (Japanese word for demon), pixies, faeries, gods, and more. It's a veritable smorgasbord of mythological characters and Ariana and Miks meet most of them (and change a lot of their lives) over the course of their adventures together.

In case you worried, let me assure you that readers get plenty of Ariana and Miks. This tale is a romance and while there aren't any smexy times in the story itself I didn't feel like anything was lacking. The two of them already have this history together, even if neither of them want to be reminded of it, and when they finally come together it's all sparks and smart dialogue. And when they do arrive at their HEA you've been rooting for them for some long that it's a lot of fun to see how the universe contrived to get them there.

The last thing I want to mention about Chaos Tryst is the language. I loved how Dubbin used unique phrases and larger words in this story. I don't think you get enough of that really, using the more antiquated words in romances, because it usually doesn't fit in the dialogue or the feel of a contemporary story. But as this takes place in an alternate reality type of place the author doesn't have to stay true to anything but herself and her characters, which makes for a particularly unique and diverse story.

Overall Feeling - Thumbs up.

Series - None.

**Title requested from NetGalley for review**

One Salt Sea by Seanan McGuire

IN A KINGDOM BY THE SEA

Now that she's a member of the landed nobility, October "Toby" Daye is dealing with a whole new host of challenges—not the least of which is figuring out the limits of her newly-enhanced abilities. Still, it feels like she's finally getting a handle on her life. She has a boyfriend, a roommate, and even a squire. Things couldn't possibly get better...

...but they can get a whole lot worse. Someone has kidnapped the sons of Duchess Dianda Lorden of Saltmist, and to prevent a war, the Luidaeg is calling in all Toby's debts. Toby will need to be smarter, sharper, and quite possibly damper than ever before if she wants to come out of this in one piece—and the fight is getting more personal than she could have dreamed.

~~

This is gonna be another one of those reviews I'm afraid, those reviews where due to the amount of awesomeness the book contains I'm almost struck dumb. Please try and stay with me.

The October Daye books are just so good and yet so scary that I don't know what to do with myself with I read them! My heart beats really fast  and I get all stressed out but I'm so absorbed in the story and desperate to know what happens that I can't do anything else. In other words, I need to remind myself never to start these on a work night because it was at the root of a very tired day after only 5hrs of sleep.

I think it's the combination of how I think I know what's going on but I have no idea what's going to happen next. Since these books are urban fantasies the romance is not the central theme and a HEA is never guaranteed. You're just waiting around to see if McGuire pulls one out for Toby but you're never completely sure. This particular book had me laughing and crying and by the end of it I just wanted to the next one but I'm going to have to wait until September 2012! UGH!

This author is just as high up on my personal favorites list as Jim Butcher and Simon R. Green and I wholeheartedly recommend the series.

Overall Feeling - Thumbs up.

Series - 1) Rosemary and Rue 2) A Local Habitation 3) An Artificial Night 4) Late Eclipses 5) One Salt Sea

Cosplay Break!

Here's the deal - I'm working on a Dragon*Con day 2 post and just realized I haven't made the video thingy I wanted to go with it. I've decided to kill two birds with one stone and avoid putting too many cosplay pictures in the other post by putting them here! Enjoy!

(PS - these and more all came from my Flickr album. Enjoy the much higher quality images thanks to very helpful info from Epbot.)

Nerfpunk + KISS = Awesome

Princesses at rest

So cute!

I never see enough well done Xenas. But where's her Gabrielle?!

Candyland? Maybe? I think so. 

Iron Man and his entourage 

Vamp Xander and Willow! Oh Dopplegangland, you're one of my favorite episodes ever.

¡Three Amigos! 

If you want to know why this lady is one small pair of panties away from naked,  I have no idea.

And Mary Poppins for the supercalafragalisticexpialadoshus win.

Mini Me: Dark Predator by Christine Feehan

As brutal as the undead he hunted, Zacarias De La Cruz was a master executioner. Over the long, dark centuries, he plunged into so many battles they blurred into an endless lifetime of evil that hardened the soul of this merciless, ruthless and implacable dark predator.

Now his stark and savage journey is over. After a thousand years in a gray world, he has accomplished everything he set out to do. His brothers are safeguarded. Each has found a woman who completes them. And they are at peace. For his brothers, Zacarias has walked the edge of madness, but with centuries as a killing machine now left to the past and without a hunt to define him, Zacarias wonders, for the first time in his life, who he really is.

The answer awaits him back home in Peru , in the betrayal of a woman who is readying her trap, in the vengeance of an old enemy, in the inevitable consequences of a bloody family legacy, and in the deliverance of a lifemate he never could have imagined.

~~

I think there's been a lot of buzz about Dark Predatory and while I wish I could argue with it....I really can't. This book is odd. Like really odd - odd to such an extent that while I wasn't as offended as some reviewers I had squeeky uncomfortable feelings through most of it. I'm just not sure how Feehan thought her romance audience would be ok with a 'hero' who walks the fine line of rape (mental and physical) who doesn't even seem to have the same emotional connection we've seen in previous novels. 

Bleh. I think BABBLING ABOUT BOOKS AND MORE! has a good review of the book that hits most of the low points and I'm torn about whether I'll buy more of this series. I've read it for so long and every few books Feehan releases a pretty incredible installment. We'll see folks, we'll see. 

I can't in good conscience recommend this one but if you want to go back in the series and pick a book that works pretty well as stand alone, I'd say read Dark Slayer. Unlike the other books you have a very kick-ass heroine that's not afraid to go out and fight the vampires - and fight to save her Lifemate as well. I really enjoyed it and thought it harkened back to the beginning of the series, where there was much more of a balance of power between the hero and heroine. I was hoping it was going to be indicative of a new direction for the Dark Series but unfortunately I haven't seen that trend continue.

Rush of Pleasure by Rhyannon Byrd

DANGEROUS PASSION AND PRIMAL INSTINCTS....

With his sinister good looks, Noah Winston is the one man—a human with Casus ties—who Willow Broussard has never been able to resist. Once enemies, then lovers, Noah broke her heart. Yet the powerful witch and paranormal private investigator can’t turn him away when he needs her help in protecting his family, him —and the world— against their enemy…

As Noah and Willow work together, the secrets of their turbulent past are slowly exposed, each startling revelation drawing them closer. But when the enemy finally makes a move, Noah will need more than witchcraft and magic to survive. He’ll need his friends, one hell of a plan…and the undying devotion of a tenacious witch whose love is eternal.

~~

While it feels like this series has taken a long, long, LONG, time to finish, Byrd wraps up her Primal Instinct books with a not too bad bang. The Casus are for the most part gone, finally sent back to the hell from which they'd escaped, but the Death Walkers are still around, causing wide spread death and destruction.

Also - random side note - I do really like how 1) vanquishing the original bad guys gave the series new ones, and 2) when the Death Walkers started to kill entire communities of people Noah and the other former Watchers were shown not only cleaning up the mess but trying to figure out how to cover it up. I thought both things gave the series a nice touch of reality, since that's not really something humanity deals with on a regular basis. 

But ok, to get back to the review, Rush of Pleasure is great both as a series end-er and a stand alone novel because while the characters from others books are brought into play for the most part the story centers on Noah and Willow. They have a past and so while they're forced to work together on this particle 'save the world' mission, neither are willing to forget what came before. There's a lot of sparks between the two of them and when the finally come together it's great!

The only place I'd criticize Rush of Pleasure is on the action front. You've built up all this momentum over eight books about how the Watchers are going to get rid of the Casus and then the Death Walkers, but by the time the final battle comes around readers aren't even in the midst of the action! The story switches to center on Noah and Willow, because their relationship depends on what happens at that battle, but I kind of felt jipped! I wanted to see the guys kick butt - which is rare for me as a hard core romance girl, but I think the ending would have been stronger for it.

Still the story was a good one and I can't wait to see what Byrd comes out with next.

Overall Feeling - Thumbs up.

Series - ...5) Touch of Surrender 6) Touch of Temptation 7) Rush of Darkness 8) Rush of Pleasure

**Title requested from NetGalley for review**

Heart Search by Robin D. Owens

Laev T'Hawthorn -- one of the highest nobles in the land -- must rebuild his life after a devastating mistake.  He married a woman he believed was his HeartMate, only to learn she was a greedy social climber.  She callously used him, stealing his family heirlooms.  He is determined to reclaim all that he has lost -- beginning with his self-respect.

Abandoned at fifteen, Camellia Darjeeling values her independence above all.  She's fought to establish her own businesses -- elegant tearooms -- only to have her father and uncle re-enter her life.  They emotionally scourge her and extort money.  Trusting men, even her HeartMate, is too risky.

When Laev and Camellia meet, they refuse to acknowledge that they are true HeartMates.  After her shady relatives are implicated in the theft of Laev's property, Camellia and Laev's lives become ever more entangled bringing each to the brink of despair and passion...and a destiny they can no longer avoid.

~~

I loved Heart Search and it was wonderful to see Owens go back to some of the characteristics that made her books a favorite of mine in the beginning. Heart Search had just the right amount of romance and angst; Camellia, with her distrust of Laev and all men really because of her family and Laev, who knew he had a heartmate but because of his horrible marriage didn't want anything do with love. You could think that with two main characters who are firmly determined not to find themselves in relationships again you'd get type of anger and confusion typical of HP,  but instead you just get one that feels real.

I didn't feel like either Camellia or Laev went out of their way to deliberately misunderstand or hurt each other - unfortunately it was more circumstance from their own experiences that left them floundering. Camellia initially might know that Laev is her heartmate but he married someone else; a betrayal that she's hard pressed to get over, especially considering how much emotional (and physical) abuse that's doled out by her uncle and father. None of the people she should have been able to trust have her back and she's not in a place where she wants Laev to pick up the slack.

So Laev, after overcoming his own fears, has to be the one to convince Camellia that they're good for each other. They might have sparks but it's the emotional connection they need to repair, and Owens does a fantastic job of showing how both Camellia and Laev have to work hard to get to their happy ending. 

Recommended.

Overall Feeling - Thumbs up.

Series - ....7) Heart Fate 8) Heart Change 9) Heart Journey 10) Heart Search

Once and Again by Lauren Dane

Seven years ago, Lily Travis was only too glad to see her hometown of Petal, Georgia in her rearview mirror. Thanks to her father running off with a twenty-year-old, though, here she is, trying to pick up the pieces. First order of business: meet with her brother’s teacher in a quest to pull his grades out of a downward spiral.

Nathan Murphy is pretty much resigned to his bachelor status—until he looks up from his desk to see an all-grown-up Lily walking into his classroom. Of all the women who turned out to be totally wrong for him, she’s the only one who felt right. At least until his foolish, immature mistake drove her away.

Lily has to admit that time has been more than kind to gorgeous, sexy Nathan. Except there’s no room on her full plate for another complication. Especially with a man who broke her heart once before.

With a little help from his friends, Nathan has a plan to rekindle the flame. It isn’t long before they’re burning up the sheets. Winning her heart? That’s another matter.

~~

A the end of this book I had two main feelings 1) I still love Dane & her Petal, GA characters! 2) I may love her older Petal, GA characters so much that it detracts from my love for this book. I'm just so used to these fantastic large novels from Dane that this one (at about 100 pages) felt short and almost unfinished. I as the reader got to learn quite a bit about what was going on inside Nathan and Lily's heads but I would have appreciated more of just about everything. 

More of Lily's brother and family, more of Nathan and his growth as a person, more about the journey of Nathan and Lily back to each other - just more.

But please don't take any of this to mean I didn't like the book. Once and Again still has fun quirky characters and enough of the small time charm to make things memorable; I think I'm just distracted by how it's not the Chase Brothers series - which is more of a failing of mine than Dane's. There's enough of what I love here to keep me interested in learning about the next books that come out, especially if Dane sticks to fleshing out more of the Murphy family. In general I'd probably give this book about a B-/B on my scale, which is only different because I'm used to Dane releasing A+'s. Still recommended either way!

Overall Feeling - Thumbs up.

Series - 1) Once and Again