Pros: Tense, action-filled adventure with plenty of twists and inventive assassinations; interesting new characters introduced into the series Cons: Too much explaining; cartoonish villains; insufficient romantic chemistry Rating: 3 out of 5
The GhostWalkers seem to have an unknown ally on their side—several informants and pawns working for Whitney, their worst enemy, have died in mysterious “accidents”. A slip and fall; a car crash; a fatal anaphylactic reaction. The only thing these incidents have in common is Sheila, the go-between Whitney sends to pay off his informants, and the fact that each person’s payoff has disappeared from the scene within moments of the death. Sheila fears that one more slip-up and Whitney will blame her.
A new mission is about to be handed down to the GhostWalkers—one that will ultimately sacrifice one of their own, Sam Johnson, so that Whitney can get his hands on a rare component for a weapon he’s building. Only the presence of a traitor among those few who know about them could explain what’s going on.
The GhostWalkers want a spy satellite to help keep them informed and safe. There’s only one company that makes the best of the best in the satellite industry: Samurai Telecommunications. And the three people who run the company—two men, one woman, all adopted by the same man—insist on personally meeting anyone who buys their satellites. This means they’ll be entering the GhostWalkers’ sanctuary at a time when the GhostWalkers fear that Whitney would do anything to kidnap the several children within the compound.
Jason is Archangel Raphael’s spymaster, and he has a most unique affinity for shadows and whispers. When Archangel Neha’s consort is viciously murdered, Jason agrees to bind himself to Neha’s niece, Mahiya, while he helps to figure out who could have and would have gotten away with such an act. Mahiya seems to be a quiet, powerless princess who fears Neha and refuses to stand up to her—but there’s much more to her than there seems, and Jason, as the spymaster he is, can’t help but notice. For the first time in hundreds of years, he’s found something that fascinates him.
The killings don’t stop when Jason arrives, and they seem to make no sense. They’re horrifying in their nature, and the killer is impossibly quick and powerful. Jason and Mahiya are running out of time—Neha won’t tolerate failure for long, and with each killing she becomes more agitated and dangerous. The unexpected feelings that develop between the two angels only make things worse, endangering them both.
Pros: Wonderful world; entrancing exploration of romance/friendship/attraction within the context of war and racism; good characters Cons: Somewhat predictable; the book is slower than implied by the back cover text Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Varian is the leader of the Na’Chi—the half-bloods nobody believed existed—who have come seeking sanctuary among humans. The Na’Chi came to the Light Blade council because in the world of their demonic Na’Reish parents, their existence alone is a death sentence. However, while the leader of the Light Blades and the Lady’s Temple Elect are willing to offer the half-breeds an alliance, many others aren’t so sure. The Na’Chi need a certain amount of blood to survive. They also possess physical attributes that make them quite dangerous to the average human, which angers and frightens many of those around them. It doesn’t help that there are years of racial hatred to contend with.
Varian and Kymora, the blind Temple Elect, spend a lot of time together. Everyone else can see what Varian wants to deny—that there’s no stopping the feelings developing between them. He’s afraid that if he allows himself to care for Kymora, she’ll become an even greater target for those fomenting discontent against his kind’s presence in the city. It doesn’t help that among the Na’Reish, anyone with such a physical imperfection as blindness would have been killed for the defect, and the Na’Chi on the whole have picked up a few Na’Reish prejudices. It isn’t only the humans who aren’t entirely unified.
Of course, Varian won’t have time to handle everything carefully and slowly. There are those determined to drive the Na’Chi away, or preferably, kill them all—even the small children. And they don’t care if their own Temple Elect stands in the way.
Pros: Fantastic new world; intriguing exploration of the development of friendship and love in the context of war and racism Cons: Somewhat predictable Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Annika is the half-blood daughter of the Na’Reish leader. She was created as vengeance against her human family, and her demon father feels nothing but loathing for her. She’s had to learn to be clever and light on her feet to avoid pain and humiliation at the hands of her father and his people, while hiding a great gift for healing—that can also kill.
Kalan is a Light Blade warrior captured by the Na’Reish. Annika wants to use him to escape, promising him freedom in exchange for safe passage to—and within—human territory. If her father’s people find them, they’ll kill her. Kalan may kill her himself if he doesn’t learn to trust her. And if they reach human territory, well, then things really become dangerous.
Together they must convince the Council of the Light Blade warriors that change is coming, and that the Na’Reish are even more dangerous and numerous than previously realized. But the council is hiding dangerous secrets, and some of them are afraid of what Annika might represent.
Jonah Walker was a missionary before he became possessed by a repentant demon and found himself trapped in an eternal fight against evil. Recently he lost a hand to that fight—an injury that even his demon can’t undo. That loss makes him less than able to carry out his purpose, and has left him on the brink of despair. Now, he finds himself drawn to a newly-made possessed, Nim, a stripper who really didn’t count on spending eternity killing demons. She’s one of the very few female possessed in existence, and together with Jonah she has the potential to take control of powers the rest of the Talya haven’t even imagined. The only problem is, the two of them have to work together to make that happen—and the demon-possessed don’t play well with others.
Pros: Great fantasy worldbuilding; playful and original erotic romance Cons: Shaky start with a too-”perfect” female lead Rating: 3.5 out of 5
One of the pitfalls of reviewing books is that sometimes a publisher sends you a book from the middle of a series, and you have to dive in without any of the early series background. That was pretty easy with Jean Johnson’s “Sons of Destiny” eight-book series, thankfully; she’s pretty careful to include enough information to allow the books to stand surprisingly well on their own. The basic premise of the series is that eight brothers (four sets of non-identical twins, all powerful mages) are the subject of a prophecy, and their homeland, out of fear of the prophecy, has exiled them to a deserted island. Among other things, the prophecy covers the fact that each brother shall find his destined bride, in order from the eldest brother to the youngest, and the youngest is fated to be the matchmaker who ensures that the prophecy comes true. Thus each book focuses on a single erotic romantic pairing, as well as the development of the burgeoning community on the island of Nightfall, and the continuing story of the prophecy, mysterious attacks on the brothers, and the island’s bid for independence.
I started with book five, The Cat, followed by The Storm, The Flame, and The Mage. I loved them so much that I wanted to read the rest of the series from the beginning.
Pros: Sizzling hot kinky sex; fantastic characters; interesting plot Cons: Severe drop in pacing for most of the first half of the book Rating: 4 out of 5
Raina is half-human and half-succubus—and all witch. She uses her skills with witchcraft to prevent her from needing to kill in order to feed her succubus side. She also takes in other succubi and incubi who aren’t so fond of having to kill. She runs a bordello in which a combination of their abilities with sex and her facilities with magic enable them to get what they need, and give their clients what they need, without harm to anyone. It’s a delicate balance, however, and a hard push in the wrong direction could send it all toppling down.
That hard push could come in the form of Isaac, a rogue incubus who stole something from Lucifer. Mikhael, a Dark Guardian, is right on his trail, and determined to drag him back to where he belongs. Raina wants to give Isaac a chance to do the right thing, while Mikhael is certain Isaac is incapable of that. So Raina and Mikhael enter into a sort of truce. Isaac has the protection of Raina’s bordello for a time, but Mikhael isn’t going anywhere until things are solved one way or the other. Which gives him plenty of time to realize just how unusual Raina is, and how much he could come to care about her…
Pros: Great story, wonderful romance, and plenty of fantastic drama Cons: … Rating: 5 out of 5
Review book (uncorrected proof) provided by the author
When someone dies fighting the otherworldly, sometimes they’re given a choice to come back, to become a guardian protecting humanity from the things that go bump in the night—a Grimm. Will made a mistake when he gave Celine that choice, and Celine made a mistake when she said yes. She thought she’d be coming back to her life and her husband; she didn’t know she’d never have either of those things again. Now she fights like she has nothing left to lose. She’s got a killer instinct, but that won’t help her if she gets herself killed just to end the pain.
Celine’s gone through a handful of trainers already; each has given up on her in turn. Finally Will gets one of his famous “feelings” and pairs her with Jacob, an outwardly cold and highly capable Grimm with a dark and painful power—the ability to force people to face their fears, their regrets, their dreams. He doesn’t want to invade Celine’s privacy in that way, particularly since he rather likes her. But if he wants her to live in the present rather than the past, he’ll need to do just that. She needs to see that the perfect life she left behind maybe wasn’t so perfect—and that perhaps, when she chose to become a Grimm, she didn’t make a mistake after all.
Pros: Powerful and moving; incredibly erotic; understandable motivations for terrible actions Cons: Bad guy could have used more fleshing out Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Ruby owns a gun shop because frankly, guns are more reliable than the magic she was born with. Guns are less likely to fail her when tragedy strikes. She’s been hiding away from the one man she hasn’t wanted to see again—Derek—only now he’s found her, and he needs her help. He’s a powerful sorcerer and can help to protect a magical fault line that’s in danger, but she’s the best teacher of magical practice he knows, and he needs her to train a coven of witches to continue guarding it after he’s gone. Ruby might not want to deal with Derek, but the help he needs gives her a needed opportunity for revenge against a demon named Asmodeus, a demon she’s been working up the ability and nerve to kill for years. Derek, however, isn’t about to let Ruby get away without telling him why she left him, and what’s changed her into a woman he hardly recognizes.
Pros: Good plotting Cons: Self-absorbed heroine who magically gets loved by all and whose bad decisions always turn out right; love interests don’t have great chemistry Rating: 2 out of 5
Jillian was injected with a formula that made her blood both irresistible and fatal to vampires, and she was used as a pawn in an attempt to kill the king of the vampires. Now she’s on the run with her half-vampire protector, Declan—only he’s becoming as dangerous to her as the things he’s protecting her from. It turns out that Dhampyr are unstable, and they grow more and more violent as they age. Now that Declan is off of his emotion-controlling serum and exposed to the tempting scent of Jill’s blood, he’s having more and more difficulty controlling himself around her.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, the Amarantos, a secret society bent on making vampires truly immortal, wants the vampire king’s daughter. They plan to kill her in their rituals, and if they succeed, the vicious new vampire king will be truly unstoppable.
