Fire Possessed (Twin Rivers Possession, Book One)

SEPTEMBER STONE

Goodreads synopsis: Sophie has done her best to avoid the magical world for fear of the havoc her abnormal ability wreaks on other supernaturals. As a silencer who mutes the powers of those around her, she’s spent her life among the mortals her defect can’t harm. But when Mother Nature pushes her from her home to do her bidding, Sophie has no choice but to venture to the magical town of Twin Rivers. Instead of viewing her presence as a curse, four men see Sophie’s arrival as a blessing. Carrigan, a psychic who hears everyone’s thoughts at all times. Hagan, a bear shifter who transforms at the slightest provocation. Jonas, whose losses have left him isolated and jaded. And Valor, a vampire without conscience or remorse. Drawn to Sophie, these irresistible men find themselves caught up in a dangerous whirlwind of magic that runs deeper than they can imagine. But Sophie can’t allow her mounting attraction to keep her from her mission—because Mother’s wrath destroys everything it touches. 

Stats for my copy: Kindle Edition, 1/14/19

How acquired: Hidden Gems ARC Program

First line: The moment the stench of freshly-burning wallpaper creeps under my bedroom door and smacks my nose, my dream where I'm mapping out future lesson plans comes to a blunt stop.

My thoughts: Billed as a “full length reverse harem urban fantasy adventure”. What isn't mentioned is that it just abruptly ends with no resolution to the plot. Grr.

Now that that gripe is out of the way. It's really the only gripe I have. Well, that and the cover, which looks like it belongs on a completely different book. I can't even begin to picture Sophie dressed the way the cover model is. Anyway, I used to read a lot of paranormal, and got a bit burned out on it. But the synopsis for this book sparked my interest as it sounded a bit different. And it very much is. In the world of this book, there are magical creatures, most of whom live in Twin Rivers. Sophie is a witch, but her magic is quite different than other witches, in that when she is around, other's magic disappears. Obviously, this makes her presence a bit unwelcome to others in the magical community. So Sophie's father raised her away from Twin Rivers, in a community where magic is unknown.

Sophie has a connection to Mother Nature that I'm still a little unclear about. Mother Nature uses Sophie for her own purposes, and if Sophie refuses her bidding, Mother Nature retaliates by, say, burning her house down in the middle of the night. Mother Nature wants her to seek out a mage in Twin Rivers who can restore a lost river. So off Sophie goes, where one by one she meets up with the four men who I guess make up the “reverse harem”.

I was a little afraid that this book was going to devolve into just a bunch of sex scenes between Sophie and the four men, with some loose storyline to connect them (I'm looking at you Anita Blake!). I'm happy to report that did not happen. In fact, there's not really any sexual action until midway through the book, and did not involve every character. But even then, the story still took precedence. The connection between Sophie and each of the other characters was clear, or if not clear at first, became clear as you learned more about the characters. And the characters are well written. Of course they are all quite different from each other, what with one being a shifter and one being a vampire. A couple of the men do not make good first impressions, but as the author peeled away the layers of their personalities, they become more liable, more vulnerable, and more welcome to the party.

I read this book in two sittings. I probably would've read it straight through in one sitting if company had not shown up at my house. It did start out a little slow, but once Sophie met the first two men it picked up with some of the dialogue making me laugh. Also, I was on page 75 when it suddenly hit me that the narration is in present tense. My least favorite tense, and I didn't even notice until 75 pages in! Score one for the author, and I look forward to Book Two. 

KISS OF DARKNESS (Silhouette Shadows No. 32)

SHARON BRONDOS

Synopsis from Goodreads: Adrian Smith's latest orders tore at a conscience that shouldn't exist, pricked a heart that was his curse. But he'd made his deal with Death centuries ago, and now he had to do Its bidding. He would kill the scientist who was on the brink of prolonging human life; then he would return to his own private hell...

Adrian had expected his prey to be an old man whose time was near, but instead, he found himself preparing to harm a beautiful young woman, bursting with life. Yet Adrian could no sooner murder Sue Cooper than he could hope to fight Death and Its agents of evil when they came to do the job themselves...

Stats for my copy: Mass market paperback, Silhouette Books, 1994.

How acquired: Given to me by a neighbor many years ago.

My thoughts:  I was unfamiliar with Silhouette Shadows when I picked up this book to read, and partway through my curiosity got the better of me and I looked up the line. It seems to have had a limited run, from March 1993 to March 1996, with only 66 titles. Some familiar authors and some I'd not heard of. 

Five hundred years ago Adrian lay wounded on a battleground, where he was approached by Death, who offered him immortality in exchange for enslavement. In agonizing pain, Adrian accepted. Since then he has lived his undead life mostly in isolation, leaving his solitary hut only to do Death's bidding.

Sue is a scientist on the brink of a breakthrough in her latest research project, looking for a way to extend the human lifespan. Death does not want her project to succeed, so he orders Adrian to kill her. But of course, once Adrian meets her, he is loathe to take her life.

The story has a different take on vampirism, which was interesting, and not what it seemed in the end. One of Adrian's abilities is to ward. At Sue's apartment, he places magical wards on the door and windows, to keep anyone else out. The description of him doing so is always vague:

After locking it, she saw him step back and make a few movements with his hands.

The next morning, while Adrian is asleep, Sue sneaks out of the apartment. How did she get past his wards you ask? Quite simply:

She set down her bag and tried to imitate in reverse exactly what she had seen Adrian do last night. After two attempts, she heard a soft hum and then a click. When she tried the door again, it opened readily.

I don't know why but this really bothered me. She is a human, with no magical powers or abilities. Yet by simply imitating the hand movements Adrian did, she can turn his wards off and on. It just didn't make sense to me. As silly as this sounds, given the paranormal nature of the book, it just wasn't believable.

This book was not great. It was like one of those corny old B movies. Yet I enjoyed it so much that I feel the need to search for more Silhouette Shadows. 

Click here if you'd like to explore the line yourself. 

Wild (Amber Eyes, Book 1 and Book 2)

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS WHAT SOME MAY CONSIDER SPOILERS

MAYA BANKS

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Golden Eyes
When Duncan finds an injured cheetah, questions about how she wound up in his mountains—and going after the poachers pursuing her—can wait. First he brings her home. Then he checks in on his patient, and finds not a cat, but a gorgeous, very naked woman.

Aliyah Carter spent the past six months trapped in cheetah form, a prisoner of the poachers who took her to use in an illegal exotic-game hunt. Finally she’s escaped, but now she faces another problem. A devastatingly sexy sheriff who knows her secret.

Amber Eyes
The beautiful, timid cougar that appears at Hunter and Jericho’s remote cabin breaks their quiet routine, warms their hearts—and rouses their curiosity. Why would this wild creature want to form a friendship with humans?

Kaya has survived a lifetime of isolation in her shifted form. Yet there’s something about these two men that draws her to embrace her human side. In the shelter of their love, she blooms. Then they are called away on a mission that goes terribly wrong. Now pregnant and alone, Kaya’s only hope is that the men who love her will find their way home.

Warning: This title contains explicit sex, adult language, sweet lovin’, multiple partners and ménage a trois.

Stats for my copy: Trade paperback, Samhain Publishing, Ltd., 2010.

How acquired: Borrowed from a friend.

My thoughts:  Maya Banks is one of those authors I see all the time, but have never actually read until WILD. I really enjoyed her take on shapeshifters, which has always been one of my least favorite tropes in the paranormal genre.

The first story, “Golden Eyes”, is about Aliyah, who is a cheetah when she's not a woman. While in cheetah form in Africa, Aliyah is captured by poachers, who are bringing wild animals to the Rockies and then releasing them to be hunted. Duncan, the local sheriff, is out investigating sightings of a tiger and a lion when he comes across the injured cheetah, and rescues her from the poachers. I enjoyed the story, and the characters, especially Duncan. Their relationship built up pretty fast, and almost bordered on the fated mates trope, which I'm not crazy about. As per the warning on the synopsis, there was quite a bit of explicit sex, and I loved seeing how Duncan reacted to Aliyah, surprising himself with his own fierceness. In between the beddings, they track down and shut down the poaching ring and it all ends on a nice HEA.

“Amber Eyes” was very different. The heroine is Kaya, who is a cougar. She was mentioned in “Golden Eyes”, as she's Aliyah's sister, who disappeared when they were young children. Unknown to her family, she'd been captured, and eventually managed to escape, but by the time she found her way home her family had moved away, and she thought she'd been abandoned and was unwanted. She's been living on her own in the mountains, spending most of her time in animal form, since then. Hunter and Jericho live in a remote cabin, and are a bit of a mystery. They've loved and lost a woman together, but to honor her memory they carry on with their work, which they don't ever talk about, and all we know is they could be called away for an assignment at a moment's notice.

“Amber Eyes” had so much more actual story to it – there is no sex until at least the halfway point if I remember correctly. While Aliyah was cautious and wary lest her secret get out, Kaya is much more so. Having not lived among humans since she was a child, she's much more terrified of being discovered and put in a cage. She's drawn to the cabin, drawn to the two men, and has been watching them from a safe distance for a long time, unbeknownst to them. It isn't until she has an injured paw that she finally becomes brave enough to actually approach them.

With Kaya we get a lot of internal dialogue as she worries about being discovered, worries about surviving, worries about Hunter and Jericho knowing her secret, worries about whether or not they want her, especially Hunter who is more standoffish. In the beginning the two men were almost interchangeable for me, in that I had trouble keeping up with which one was which. I liked them both well enough, but not as much as I liked Duncan.

My heart broke for Kaya over and over, as her tragic past and angtsy feelings were revealed. I became much more vested in her story than I had with Aliyah. The pacing of the relationship between Kaya and the men was much slower than the one between Aliyah and Duncan. Hunter and Jericho have loved the same woman before, and while they shared her, it was never a smooth and comfortable relationship because she never truly trusted the relationship. They both want Kaya, but they're reluctant to go through that heartbreak again.

Lots of feels here. Eventually the men must leave for an assignment, and are gone much longer than anticipated. When they are all finally reunited, I teared up. Then Kaya and Aliyah are reunited, and I cried a bit. And then Kaya is finally reunited with her parents, and I blubbered like a baby. So much emotion packed into the last thirty pages or so!

“Golden Eyes” is an enjoyable, sexy story. “Amber Eyes” is a wonderful and touching and sweet character study. And Maya Banks has a new fan.