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It’s a new year, and what better way to start than with a New Year’s anthology? A Kiss At Midnight contains three novellas. I really enjoyed “Burning Man” by Ally Blue, and “Wildest Dreams” by Emily Veinglory, but since “First Footer” is by far the most “New Yearsy” of the three, I'm going to talk about it. Premise: The story begins on New Year’s Eve. A bunch of academics -- who moonlight at sci-fi writers -- have gotten together at a remote house to bring in the new year together. Matthew is the only one among them who is unattached and, despite the good company, this has made him feel rather morose. The idea that you should, “start the new year as you mean to go on,” points to a lonely 365 days. There is another New Year’s custom called “first footing,” in which the household will have good luck in the coming year if the first person to cross the threshold after midnight is a tall, dark man carrying a lump of coal and a bottle of whiskey. Matthew is reminded of this tradition when there is a knock at the door at the stroke of midnight. He is only slightly surprised to find that the visitor is not a man, but a catman-like alien. What I liked as a reader: This is a really interesting story – there's lots of stuff going on in addition to the romance -- and in fact, I actually found it to be equal parts “first contact” story and romance. So many alien contact stories are about the horrible things that we (humans) would do to them (aliens), or the terrible things they would do to us, but this story avoids both those clichés. What if the aliens’ first contact was with a bunch of sci-fi writers who were just drunk enough to accept the arrival as not-so-strange? What happens during that initial contact period when the humans take them to their leader? And, of course, there is romance and hot sex. ☺ What I liked as a writer: This is a very creative idea, and Jones managed to pull it off in the form of an erotic romance. I LOVE that. Often writers can’t manage to carry off an interesting story arc on top of the erotic relationship arc. Jones does it masterfully. A great New Year's read. [posted 1/2/2006]
Have you ever bought a book that you were so excited about you couldn’t bring yourself to read it? Because you just know it’s going to be good and, once you've read it, it won’t be waiting for you any more? That’s what happened to me with Hunting Season. I’ve read all of Shelly Laurenston’s books – To Challenge a Dragon is the book that inspired me to try writing erotic romance – and she is one of the few authors on my “automatic” buy list. Thankfully, I just finished a project and decided I deserved a reward. Reading this book was it. Premise: Neecy (Denise) is second-in-command of the Crows – a group of women, broken and abused in life, hand-picked by the goddess Skuld, at the moment of death, to join her crew. Yager is the head of the Ravens, a group of Viking descendants, chosen by the god Oden to be his warriors. Both groups are on the same side, fighting the forces of evil, but they don’t work together. In fact, they don’t really get along at all. Even so, Yager has wanted Neecy since the day he met her; she thinks he’s too good for her. She wasn’t the most upstanding of women before Skuld gave her a second chance, and she hasn’t gotten over the guilt. Yager is gorgeous, rich, nice and, most of all, a danger to Neecy’s need to keep people from getting close. What I liked as a reader: Three words: Kick. Ass. Heroine. I’ve been reading romances since I was about ten and, even at that age, I’ve never been able to stomach heroines who waited around for the hero to rescue them. No worries with Laurenston’s women. They’re all tough. I love shifter stories (although these guys don’t really “shift”, per se) and Laurenston has created something new and unusual (thank you!) with the Crows and the Ravens. And then there’s Yager. Yu-ummm. What I liked as a writer: I am so sick of reading the same shifter story written and re-written by different authors. Where’s the imagination? Where’s the creativity? Laurenston’s stories are always her own, always fascinating. Her heroines are super strong, which, in a romance, is a lot harder to do than it seems. She introduces a whole host of side characters who are compelling without being intrusive. Even her “toss away” characters are interesting. All I have to say is this: Write faster, woman. Write faster. [posted 1/15/2006]
If you’ve been keeping up, you know that Willa Okati is one of my favorites. I’ll buy anything with her name on it, even if it’s in the middle of a series, like this one. Happily, it was easy to drop into AOEM without any background knowledge. And after reading this book, I’m going to have to check out the other titles in the backlist. Premise: The Agency Of Extraordinary Mates series (AOEM) series centers around the liaisons that occur on the island of Chimera, in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle. There, paranormal beings go to meet their mates, who have been lured to the island. In Under Your Spell, Niko -- a powerful sorcerer and one of the architects of the island -- is a high-handed bastard. Instead of leaving his “mating” up to fate, using a scrying mirror, he finds the man he wants, and performs a ritual to bind Jamie to him without his knowledge. How can a mere human resist his powerful spell? What I liked as a reader: Okati has a way with complicated, misguided characters. Behind Niko’s arrogance lies insecurity and loneliness. Okati takes the reader on the journey along with the sorcerer and, together, we learn to trust in fate. As my critique partner, Maya, recently reminded me, we all love a story where for the hero who can have anything, there is only one seemingly average person who can heal his wounded soul. Add an intriguing plot twist that begs for a book of its own – what more could a reader ask for? What I liked as a writer: Again, Okati has done in about 15K what many writes can’t do with four times that length. This story is complete, the characters are well developed, and the romance is believable. She doesn’t just fill in the blanks. The story and characters are unique and well thought out. Niko is an arrogant, self-centered hero who we can’t help but love, and Jamie is a wonderfully average guy with an open an adaptable mind. Reading her work makes me want to make my stories better. Thanks WO. J [posted 1/31/2006] |
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