It’s another review!

Bam,

If you’re going to faint, make sure to set up the video camera so I can watch it later on YouTube. Ready for this? I’m actually reviewing another book, and in a semi-timely fashion. I’m sure you’re wondering how this could be possible, so I’ll tell you a dirty little secret: we’re slower than dial-up at work. While that’s not a good thing for me professionally, it certainly helps my romance-review hobby.

I admit to being a Kresley Cole fangrrrl. Her Immortals After Dark series is one I’ve been hooked on since the story of Myst and Nikolai appeared in Playing Hard to Get. The Lore, which is populated by nearly every mythical creature imaginable, is one of those universes I’d love to visit in my nonexistent free time.

With that said, you can guess that I liked the book. I managed to blow through Dark Needs at Night’s Edge in two days - record time for me lately - and immediately picked up Dark Desires After Dusk. Ms. Cole has a talent that I require in series authors: she writes about the same world, but her characters are definitely not carbon copies of each other with “wash, rinse and repeat” storylines. She manages to make her heroines strong and spunky with the right touch of vulnerability (thereby avoiding the Mary Sue death-spiral) and her heroes deliciously alpha, but self aware and fearful that they just might not be good enough. LOVE IT!

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Hello, beeeeetches. It is I, Ai! Grabe… your new fabulous reviewer, with my fabulous debut review of the only book I’ve been able to finish for the past few months. You see, I’ve been having this terrible problem. I love to read. I’ve been reading since I was… I don’t know, a fetus… and the FSM knows if I were the only WOMYN left alive on the planet full of those nasty vampire creatures from I Am Legend, I would totes be okay if I had in my possession every book I have ever wanted to read. True. Story. Speaking of stories, stop me before I tell you mine, lest I go back to, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” ON WITH THE REVIEW, AI! (FSM, I babble more than Bam tends to do) [Bam: Oh no you di’int, beeeyatch!] Where was I? Oh, yeah… Kresley Cole’s Dark Needs at a Night’s Edge was the ONE book that was able to pull me out of my reading funk. I received it in the mail, tore it open, sat down to read, and three hours later, Fini! It was great. And for that, it gets an A. Oh, and also, because it’s pretty great.

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Previously on Antiques Roadshow: Vampire Edition: Victoria goes to Italy to inspect some vampire happenings, Max is acting squirrelly, there’s some shit about some vampires trying to get a hold of A MAGICAL ITEM that will enable them to rule the world, Victoria and Sebastian argue and make out a lot, and Max does something really, really bad.

And now: Victoria acquires more responsibility and drama than she could ever handle, Max comes out of his funk still brooding and growly, Victoria’s mom and her cronies descend upon Italy to provide hilarity and shenanigans, Victoria and Sebastian argue and make out a lot, those damn vampires are still trying to get a hold of A MAGICAL ITEM that will enable them to rule the world, Victoria starts looking at Max in a totally different light (tramp!), we find out something about Sebastian that I already totally called from Book 1, AND Max has to make A VERY BIG DECISION that will change his life forevah. Oh, and Victoria is still crying and moaning about Philip even though she now has a stable of mens to worry about. Jesus, girl, shake the dwelling and get over it!

Do I gotta warn you people about spoilers?

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Grade: A

Note: this is out in the UK now; out in the US in January.

Kristina Lloyd is a phenomenal writer. I picked up her first novel, Darker Than Love, in a second-hand bookshop. DTL is a fairly typical piece of historical erotica (ingenue heroine is kidnapped by pervert peer, subjected to unspeakable degradation and eventually rescued by handsome hero) but there was something about her prose that lifted it above the usual. It was enough to prompt me to buy her second novel set in contemporary Brighton, Asking For Trouble. That book blew me away.

Consequently I ordered Split from Amazon as soon as it came out in the UK and I was not disappointed. It’s another contemporary novel with the action taking place in the brooding Yorkshire Moors.

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Grade: A-

Bam,

I know you weren’t all that interested in reading Wicked Deeds because it didn’t focus on the Valkyries. Well, dumb decision on your part. It may not focus on those crazy women we’ve come to know and (in some cases) love, but it does continue to focus on the Lore and the folks that make up the creatures of the Lore. And while I know you’re generally wary of series (except for a certain group of vampires that love to have extraneous H’s in everything they say, do and name) [Whord to your muthah. -Bam], Kresley Cole continues to impress with her Immortals After Dark series. I know you weren’t totally cahrayzee about A Hunger Like No Other due to Emma’s lack of spine and general annoying personality. While we didn’t review No Rest For The Wicked, I will briefly say that I was much happier with Kaderin as a heroine, but thought that Sebastian wasn’t nearly as strong as I had hoped.

Well, Wicked Deeds finally seems to get the mix right in all respects. The heroine is actually strong without being feisty, spunky or a Mary Sue and the hero, while being a total alpha, isn’t foolish enough to believe he can’t ever be wrong about something (or many things for that matter). And Ms. Cole continues to write buildup and actual sex with terrific heat.

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