Katy Madison - All About Seduction

Title : All About Seduction
Release date : October 25th, 2011
Publisher : Avon Publishing
Genre : Historical Romance

I received this novel as an ARC, courtesy of Net Galley

Caroline Broadhurst married her husband, who is 40 years older when she was only fifteen years old. Her marriage was arranged between her father and her husband, because the family needed the money and Mr. Broadhurst needed their connection in the ton. After 15 years of marriage Caroline is still child less, so her husband gives her an ultimatum. He wants an heir before he dies or every property and money will go to someone else.

Mr. Broadhurst tells her that he is the problem in this matter and he wants her to seduce a gentleman and get with child he can claim as his own. Caroline is not happy about it, but goes along with this plan, only because she wants to hold on to the mill.

When one of the mill workers Jack Applegate gets injured during his job in the mill, Caroline takes him into their home so she can supervise his recovery. In the meantime she is trying hard to seduce one of the gentlemen from the hunting group her brother brings over. But there is only one man who’ll start a fire inside her and hopefully he will help her out with the plan.

All About Seduction by Katy Madison is the first novel I read by her and I have to say that I have some mixed feelings about this book.

The storyline was good, but for some reason it didn’t captured me. Sometime I really wanted to put the book down and stop reading, but the curiosity won and I kept reading. I really believe the main characters Caroline and Jack were both weak in this book. Of course I know that the settlings takes place in the regency time and that the behaviour of men and women are different then we have now. But I just expected more between them.

One thing I didn’t like was the marriage between Mr. Broadhurst and Caroline. I understand that her marriage was arranged and that there was no love. But the way he treats her and she just take it, was more than I could handle. I also don’t understand why the heck she keeps calling him sir or Mr. Broadhurst, they have been married for 15 year. You would think that in private you call your husband by his first name.

I can understand that Caroline goes along with the plan her husband demands of her, but when she finally seduce Jack, the man she really loves, she doesn’t follow her heart and tell him.

The love story between Jack and Caroline took too long to develop. To me the story was more about Caroline getting blackmailed by her husband, then her finally fall in love for the first time.

I have to be honest, I’m not really sure if I want to read something else by this author, especially if she keeps writing in this line.

Anthology - Down in Texas

Title : Down in Texas
Release date : October 28th, 2008
Publisher : Kensington Aphrodisia
Genre : Contemporary Western Romance

Wearing his brand
Lyssa McDonough always loved Brandon Tynan, but he always keeps his distance. Now she is caught in a barbed wire fence and Brandon is her rescuer. Brandon takes her home to take care of her wounds and send her back to her ranch. He promised her brother and his best friend Mac, that he will keep an eye on her when he’s away. But it is getting harder and harder to ignore his feelings for Lyssa.

Slow Ride
Daniel Tynan is back at the Dermott farm as a horse trainer. Maggie Dermott is in need of some help in order to keep her ranch. Since Daniel was a teen-ager he had the hots for his boss’s wife Maggie, now she is a widow and he is determined to seduce her. But Maggie isn’t sure about this romance because it seems Daniel is much younger that she is.

Straight up soldier
Mac McDonough is an ex-soldier who returned home injured. Although his sister Lyssa and his friends want what best for him, he isolates himself from them. When a friend contacts him and convince him to take a job as a bodyguard for a woman, he cannot refuse. It appears Suki is in hiding from her violent ex-boyfriend and knows she needs help, but when Mac shows up on her doorstep she isn’t convince he is the one for the job. But even though Mac is injured, he knows his way to Suki’s heart.

Delilah Devlin is a fabulous author and she did an amazing job with this book. All three stories were just fabulous; I loved the fact that all the stories were connected by family members. Just reading about those gorgeous cowboys, make me dream about a cowboy of my own. Damn they were hot.

For those who love contemporary western romance, you definitely need to check out this novel. You will get three terrific stories with fabulous characters. I’ll promise you by the end of the book you’ll want a cowboy of your own.

Julia Templeton - Return to Me

Title : Return to me
Release date : Augustus 7th, 2007
Publisher : Berkley
Genre : Historical Paranormal Romance

Gabrielle Fairmont has a miserable life since her uncle arranges an unwanted betrothal to a man with a violent past. She has to find a way to escape her betrothal and marriage in order to save her own life. Gabrielle knows she has to rely on her gifts of mind reading and her second sight, and what she sees in her betrothal’s mind isn’t something she wants to experience first handed. Then one night during a ball she meets gorgeous Darius MacLeod and feels the huge attraction between them.

Darius MacLeod is a five hundred year old Scottish vampire and has come to London as a request from his twin brother. Darius was never interested in London’s society and women after he lost his wife Rose centuries ago. When he sets his eyes on beautiful Gabrielle Fairmont, he knows that she is the one for him. But before he could talk to her she disappears into the night. When he hears of this young highwayman, he knows that fate has a mind of her own and put Gabrielle right back on his path.

Return to Me by Julia Templeton is a wonderful historical paranormal romance novel. This story has kept my attention and lured me right into the English/Scottish settings.

The story begins with Darius becoming a vampire and looses his wife Rose along the way. He made himself a promise to never love again, but when he meets Gabriella, who has some remarkable resemblance to his late wife Rose, he feels alive again. To him it doesn’t matter that she is different and has some great powers of her own. All he wants is to love her and spend the rest of her live together. Gabrielle is a strong and determined young woman, who will do anything to survive her uncle’s twisted games and escape from her violent betrothal. When she meets Darius, she knows he is strong enough to help her.

There is a second storyline in this book and I have to say that I love that one as well. Darius twin brother Demetri and his partner Remont has loved each other for centuries, but Demetri is also fond of the ladies. After Demetri last affair with a woman, Remont cannot take it anymore because he doesn’t want to share his lover anymore. He decides that it is time to let Demetri go, even though it is the hardest he ever done. Will Demetri let that happen or is he finally realizing that Remont is the love of his life.

Julia Templeton has written one fabulous historical romance novel with some wonderful characters. It had everything I expected to find in a historical paranormal romance. I cannot wait to read more of this author in the near future.

Anthology - Bad Boys on Board

Title : Bad Boys on Board
Release date : January 1st, 2003
Publisher : Kensington Publishing Corporation
Genre : Contemporary Romance

My house, my rules by Lori Foster
When Sam Watson meets his younger brother’s friend Ariel, he is instantly drawn to her. But Sam knows he cannot act on those feelings because she’s twelve years younger than him and not to mention his brother’s girlfriend, at least that’s what he thinks. Then one night Ariel interferes in his undercover operation and he gets hurt. Ariel takes him to his home and is determined to finally show him her true feelings, but Sam has some house rules to follow.

Going down by Donna Kauffman
Callie Montgomery’s divorce hits her hard, but she is determined to get her life back. She is now working as a personal assistant and is doing well. Then one night she escorts bad boy Dominic Colbourne out of the building after a meeting with her boss. Then the elevator stops and they both are stuck in the dark for the rest of the night. Never in a million years could she imagine that this night would turn out to be the best she ever had, when Dominic shows her a new side of her sexuality.

A Fast Ride by Nancy Warren
Nell Tennant has left the big city behind to stay with her aunt for a time, so she can figure out what to do with her life. When her aunt hurts one of the bikers in their front yard, she cannot let him lie there. So she takes him inside and wait for the doctor. Now it appears she has some criminal in her home, who cannot remember who he is. The worst part of this situation is that Wes thinks she is his girlfriend. When Wes finally gets his memory back, nobody could have expected the outcome, but at the end he is determined to convince Nell they belong together.

Bad Boys on Board is a great and well written Anthology. These three authors Lori Foster, Donna Kauffman and Nancy Warren have written some fabulous short stories with some steamy scenes. I really enjoyed reading this anthology and the whole idea of the Bad Boys, who happens to be men with their heart in the right place when it comes to the women they love.

Jessica Andersen - Lord of the Wolfyn

Title : Lord of the Wolfyn
Series : Royal House of Shadows #3
Release date : October 18th, 2011
Publisher : Harlequin
Genre : Paranormal Romance

I received this novel as an ARC, courtesy of Net Galley

The story begins when a Blood sorcerer kills the king and queen of Magical Elden and has plans to kill their four children next in order to get the throne. But never underestimate the love and strength of parents, their mother had enough strength in her to combine her power and send them away to survive and deal with their enemy later.

Reda Weston is a human cop, who’s dealing with her partner’s death. She blames herself for his death, because she froze when they walked into a robbery. Reda always had a way to escape reality and be happy in her dream world, especially fairy tales and her favorite Little Red Riding Hood. She has been looking for that special edition her mother always talked about and now she finally found it. But she never could expect to be drawn into a vortex and wake up in a magic realm.

Dayn is the second son and prince of the Kingdom of Elden. After the brutal attack and murder on his parents, he has been living in the Wolfyn realm. The last thing his father whispered to him in the vortex was to wait for the one woman who would guide him back home. He has been waiting for two decades for her to come his way, now he is ready to go back home and stop the Blood sorcerer and get the vengeance he desperately craves.

Lord of the Wolfyn by Jessica Andersen is the third novel in the Royal House of Shadows Series, which she is co-writing with Gena Showalter, Jill Monroe and Nalini Singh. I already loved Jessica Andersen’s The Final Prophecies Series, so I was curious to see if this novel would capture me too and yeah it did. I love her version of Little Red Riding Hood.

Reda and Dayn both has some issues they need overcome and the only way to deal with that is to work together. But Reda has a hard time with that when she discovers the real identity of Dayn, not him being a royal prince but his curse to change into a Wolfyn, the one creature she fears.

But when the final moment is there for Reda to decide what she really wants, she let her heart speak instead of her mind. Now they have to find a way to the Kingdom of Elden and reclaim Dayn’s home.

I loved this book, it has captured me from the first pages and it held my curiosity till the end. Dayn and Reda are strong characters, okay they have to deal with a lot of baggage from the past, but slowly they manage to overcome that.

You can sense that the four siblings are getting closer and closer to reclaim the Kingdom that is legally theirs. Only one more book left and I cannot wait to see what Nalini Singh has in store for the youngest. I really hope the brothers and sister will find a way to reclaim their heritage and finally be together again. I’m already looking forward to read that.

John Anderson - The Last Ride of the Reverse Cowgirls

Title: The last ride of the reverse cowgirls
Release date: May 20th, 2011
Publisher: Lillibridge Press
Genre: Paranormal Romance

Andy Sutton is a werewolf and a cop for the supernatural. His main job is to stop and catch the supernatural beings in his own realm as well in the human world. His current assignment is running in the human world, leaving behind a trail of castrated victims. But Andy is called back by the head of ICI; he has to catch a serial killer, a vampire who’s draining his female victims during their passionate moments.

Human cops cannot find anything at the crime scenes, they are completely clean. Andy soon discovers that the victim’s bank accounts are empty. He knows that he has to catch this master vampire and his human minion before the human world discovers that paranormal creatures really exist.

The Last Ride of the Reserve Cowgirls by John Anderson is a great novel and the first I’ve read by this author. The author contacted me and asked me if I was interested in reviewing his book and after reading the book description I couldn’t say no. I knew this novel was going to be so much different than the books I normally read, but I didn’t mind.

This book was a pleasant surprise, because it appears to be a paranormal thriller with a mix of erotica into it. The main character Andy Sutton is a fabulous character, who struggles with his supernatural half. He was bitten and turned into a werewolf and knew he had to leave his loved ones behind to keep them save. The only thing that keeps him going is his job and his best friend’s 600-year old wizard Suarez and his 400-year old girlfriend Zan, who both live in the supernatural realm. He hates his boss Scanton and he also isn’t fond of Lucifer himself and it appears to be mutual.

During the whole book we are switching between Andy’s point of view and that of Stepan, the vampire’s sidekick. At the beginning I really thought that was odd, because you would have expect to see the murders through the killers eyes, but it all makes sense when you are further in the book. Stepan is human and has been in the vampire’s service for quite awhile now, he doesn’t mind this position but that is changing when he meets the love of his life.

The storyline is fabulous and I found myself reading more and more, just to see what was next. The ending was good, but has an opening to another book and I really hope this author is going to write another book with these characters. I really think the story of Andy Sutton is not finished and I would love to find out more about human detective Isabelle, the woman Andy finds himself attractive to. It appears she is not completely who she says she is.

Nalini Singh - Slave to Sensation

Title : Slave to Sensation
Series : Psy – Changeling #1
Release date : September 5th, 2006
Publisher : Berkley Sensation
Genre : Paranormal Romance

Sascha Duncan is a Psy, which is a race of psychic humans. The Psy-race have perfected their race and put a program together where every psychic is locked in. All the Psy are programmed from birth, so they feel no emotion but Sascha is different. She’s hiding her defects from childhood behind a strong mental shield, because all the less powerful ones will be send away for reprogramming and never come back normal.

Her new assignment is to work with a group changelings, a pack of shape shifters cats. Lucas Hunter is the alpha of the Dark River pack and he wants to work with the Psy on a business level. But he has other motives, he thinks one or more of the Psy is killing members of his pack and Sascha might be his key inside.

Slave to Sensation by Nalini Singh is the first novel in her Psy-Changeling series and a fabulous beginning. I’ve already read Nalini Singh’s Guild Hunters Series and love her writing, so I wasn’t surprised that I fell for this series too.

The contrast between the Psy and the Changeling is huge; you could say they are the opposites of each other. Psy humans don’t have emotions, where the Changelings feel them all the time. Sascha is one of the exceptions in the Psy race and she knows that she has to hide if from her mother and her superiors or face the worst thing that could happen to a Psy.

When Sascha and Lucas meet each other, they act like all the others before them, cold and distance. But Lucas soon discover that Sascha is different and know his plan to use her in his investigation will be a bad idea. When the romance between them begins to grow, it’s hot and very passionate.

Besides Lucas and Sascha we mostly meet characters of the Changeling society and I wouldn’t mind to read more about some of those characters, especially Vaughn and Hawke.

I cannot believe I’ve waited so long to start this series, I have some of the books on my shelves for ages, but for some reason I ignore them. Now it seems that a new addiction is born, so I promise to continue with this series soon. I know this journey will be fabulous.

Thea Harrison - Dragon Bound

Title : Dragon Bound
Series : Elder Races #1
Release date : May 3rd, 2011
Publisher : Berkley
Genre : Paranormal Romance

Pia Giovanni knows she is a little different from the rest and hide it since she was young. Now her ex-boyfriend found out the truth about her heritage and is blackmailing her. She has to steal something from Dragos Culebre and bring it back to him. But Pia wants to teach her ex-boyfriend a lesson and steals a very small item, not something he can use.

Dragos Culebre is a billionaire businessman that happens to be a dragon shifter. When he discovers that someone stole something out of his hidden lair, he is determined to track the thief down and punish her. Neither of them could have imagined the huge chemistry between them.

Dragon Bound by Thea Harrison is the first novel in the Elder Races Series and I have to say its one hell of a start in this series. I’m a huge fan of dragon shifters, so I couldn’t resist this book and what a book it was.

Dragos is just the bad-ass dragon you expect him to be, strong, super alpha and a little stubborn. When he discovers that Pia is the thief, he is determined to lure her to him and punish her, but Pia is stronger then he thought. It appears Pia has powers of her own and they recently come to surface, when her mother’s protection spell is wearing out.

Throw a Dark Fae King who wants Pia for his own in the mix and you have a fabulous storyline, full with danger, plots and some steamy scenes.

Thea Harrison has written a fabulous novel, created a great world where different beings are working together and some also against each other to stay on top of the power chain. I really hope the next novel will be as fabulous as this one, because I’m already hooked on this Elder Races Series.