[This review was written by my good buddy Shuzluva. She’s one of the smartest folks I know. Sassy as all hell, doesn’t take shit from anyone, and she… well, she scares me sometimes, but in a “big sister” way. Anyway, this is her first review. Be nice, kids, ’cause she’ll kick your asses if you’re not.]

Grade: C+ {Shuzluva: Dude, the grade is supposed to be a C, not a C+!} C

So…I’m almost finished with Unleashed. I have about 10 pages to go to finish up the Susan Kearney but I know what I’m going to say and I’m assuming you want to hear it.

MEH.

Meh by author:

“Bond of Silver” by Rebecca York. Don’t ask me why this is called Bond of Silver. I don’t think there was anything to do with silver in the story. The hero Alexander is from New Atlantis and has speshul powas that include the ability to shape rock with his mind. New Atlantis is in need of fresh minds to keep up the forcefield that hides their island from the hoi polli. Apparently the way they get them is by coming to the US to…ahem…charm women into going back to NA with them FOREVAH! So our friend Alexander goes to the island temple to dream of his SOUL MATE. The dream is half sexin’, half nightmare (but not really ’cause it reads like something out of Dora the Explorer). Claire, Alexander’s so-called soul mate, is a ceramic artist with speshul powas that are similar to Alexander’s, lives in a fictional town with her mom and owns a studio. AND she is the daughter of Alexander’s step-father. ‘Course, Alexander’s step-father is single because his soul mate refused to move to New Atlantis with him. Lovely misunderstandings ensue throughout the story. The dialogue between Alexander and Claire was stilted and their immediate attraction to each other failed to convince me. The addition of the stepfather/mother element was fucking annoying and simply served as a plot contrivance for conflict and lengthened the story. C-

“Red Skies at Night” by Diane Whiteside. Okay, let me start by telling you that I generally don’t like Diane Whiteside’s books. I know she’s Angela Knight’s writing partner and does all of the critiques and first reads of her books, but her stuff just doesn’t grab me like AK’s. Ever. On to the review: we’re back in the land of Don Rafael Sanchez and his vampire amigos in this book. I didn’t really like Bond of Blood, so I was surprised that this story was much more interesting and the sex was much hotter due to the characters’ relationship being better drawn. Travis is an NY cop who sees his ex-partner murdered while they are discussing a case. At the time of the murder, a very special little black book is taken from the body and Travis knows that to nail the bad guy (Morelli - why are the bad guys in NY always Italian?) he must have this book. Enter Gillian, a vampire who has stolen the book in a bid to blackmail Morelli for other work she’s done for him (illegal, of course. Gillian is a famous burglar). Pursuit ensues, sexin’ happens and Morelli’s thugs show up to try and kill Travis and Gillian. One of the thugs is a vamp and Gillian defeats him but is wounded in the process. Travis gives her the all-powerful red stuff and they flee into the protection of a secluded cabin in the middle of the storm of the century. In the middle of all the running, sexin’ and fighting we find out that Travis is well versed in vamps, grew up in Texas and is well acquainted with Don Rafael. Uh, WHAT? Okay, then. They face the bad guys, DR shows up and Gillian makes Travis into her servant. While there were plenty of GIANT holes, the dialogue was good, I could believe the attraction between Travis and Gillian and they worked together to defeat the baddies, without either of them turning into a whiny, needy saps. For Diane it was really good and gave me faith that her vamp series didn’t suck (pun intended) as much as I thought it would. B-

“Come Moonrise” by Lucy Monroe. I read The Real Deal which was a B-ish book if memory serves, but there was nothing that was so great about it that I felt compelled to buy anything else of hers. However, after reading this story I may pick up some more of her books. Ty is a werewolf living in a Montana town with his family of werewolves. Frankie is human, female (hey, I have what is generally considered a “man’s name” so I felt it important to be clear here), his friend and neighbor, and has been in love with Ty since adolescence. Ty doesn’t want Frankie ’cause she’s a lame-ass human that he believes will eventually skip out on him. Issue 1: wolves mate for life. Issue 2: wolf divorce doesn’t exist, so for a wolf to have any sexin’ after a split, the mate has to be dead. Issue 3: Ty’s dad is seriously against any human/wolf mating after pack law forced him to kill a friend for sexin’ when his human mate was still alive. Oh, and he forced Ty and his brother Duke to watch the meting of justice. Let’s get that great mental picture of throat-ripping here. What worked here was the backstory that Monroe set up between Frankie and Ty, the attraction between them, Ty’s obvious trouble fighting this attraction and Frankie’s desire for Ty (whithout being needy or whiny. LOVE THAT). What didn’t work was that Frankie had NO IDEA that Ty and his family were werewolves, nor any suspicions. She’s supposed to be a smart chick, yet she’s totally dense when it comes to that. Also, Monroe’s dialogue between Ty and Frankie after the mating was so flat that I wanted to tear the book to shreds. However, she managed to pick it up a bit after that and redeemed herself. Most of the dialogue between the males in this story was cryptic, and rather than sounding mysterious and exciting it was like watching the air go out of a balloon. However, the relationship between Ty and Frankie was the strongest out of all of the stories in the book, and I’m interested in seeing what (if anything) happens with the rest of the pack. B+

“Beyond Limits” by Susan Kearney is another New Atlantis story and boring as all get-out. The soul mate, speshul powas instant attraction and bonding is fucking annoying. Oh, and get this:

She only knew that if his love-making had been a song, it would have been her favorite. If his love-making had been a movie, she would have watched it a hundred times. If his lovemaking had been a book, it would have been a number-one best-seller.

Oy. IF HIS LOVEMAKING WERE ANY FUCKING GOOD, SHE WOULDN’T BE WRITING LIKE THIS! I have no desire to finish this story. No compulsion to see if Samantha learns to shape shift and makes it back to New Atlantis to save the force field with Ari. Are you going to make me finish reading it? I’m not interested in the sexin’ which is supposed to happen right after the above atrocity that I’ve quoted. I can’t take it. D-

[So there you have it, kids. She doesn’t cuss as much as I do, but she’s pretty funny. Bitch cracks me up for real. I haven’t read the book yet myself, but I’ll do that soon and may post my own review. We may just have us a good ole-fashioned dueling review or what-not. Who knows. Come back and visit anytime, Shuzluva!]

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 10th, 2007 at 8:52 am and is filed under Books, Grade: C, Romance: Paranormal, Romance: Anthology, Shuzluva's Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.