Meljean Brook

Here.

I <3 Sir Pup

(I should make that a bumper sticker.)

Now that the book is finished…

I have been sleeping, instead of passing out on the floor behind the sofa.

I have been eating well, instead of living on a diet of caffeine and chocolate.

I remember to wash you morning and night.

I shower regularly.

I think my hormones aren’t all whacky and crapped out from stress. At least, I haven’t blown up for very trivial reasons for at least a couple of days.

So, stop it! STOP IT! You aren’t fifteen! Stooooop iiiiiiitttttt! STOOOOOPPPPP ITTTTTTT!!!!!! I swear I’ll slap you if you don’t settle down by tomorrow!

*huff*

*huffhuffhuff*

I probably need to drink more water.

I didn’t love love the first book, but it was the kind of book I’m willing to give another try. Covers like this just make it easier

THE DARKEST KISS by Gena Showalter

This is the second book in the Lords of the Underworld series (or third, if you count the novella, which I (eek!) haven’t read yet.)

I liked the first book quite a bit, particularly the setup and the mythology behind it. I’ve read reviews that mentioned the number of characters who showed up were confusing, and I’ll admit that I did have my finger stuck in the page where the lords were listed, so that I could flip back to see who it was when (especially) the scene was in the POV of a woman who only had their physical description to identify them. That didn’t bother me as much as I think it did others (and I remember I had to do the same when I first read Anne Bishop’s Black Jewels Trilogy — I had to keep flipping back to check the rank of the jewels and witch/Warlord/Warlord Prince order) and eventually I wasn’t doing it quite so much.

I didn’t have to do that with this book at all, and I don’t think it was just because of my greater familiarity with the characters; when the lords do show up, we are given an idea of what they are Keeper of, but it doesn’t seem so important to keep track — because the background characters stay in the background. You get a feel for who they are, but because the introduction doesn’t feel so formal, it didn’t feel as imperative to keep them straight. So instead of trying to remember who was who, I could just read along without worrying about flipping back (or to the back, in this case … the list of characters is at the end of the book). Also, because Anya is in-the-know, there isn’t as much need to match physical description to the name; she already knows who they are.

Which is all a very long way to say that if you felt the first book in the series was the intro book, this one takes off nicely. The focus on the romance is strong — and also super fun and angsty. Lucien has to kill Anya, Anya might have to kill Lucien — and they get close to it, several times. Anya is one of my favorite kind of female characters — she’ll kill without apology, but she’s not heartless. She’s just looking out for number one, and by gods, she’s not going to let anyone tell her she’s not #1.

I’m also having quite a bit of fun with the mythology being thrown in — magic artifacts, monsters. I’m looking forward to the next book … but also Paris’s now.

DARK DESIRES AFTER DUSK by Kresley Cole

Yeah, I’m probably the last person to read this. I loved Holly, but Cade made this book for me. I think I mentioned over at the Dear Author review (which I’m going to link to, because I pretty much agree with everything Janet/Robin had to say) that I especially loved how he was completely comfortable with his sexuality in a way that I thought was unique among alpha heroes — he wasn’t pushy (okay, a little, but not in a way that I was uncomfortable with) but just kind of let it all hang out there (seriously, no pun intended). I loved every scene he was in, I loved his slobbishness, and the fact that although he had a hell of a lot on his mind, he wasn’t wallowing in guilt and torturing himself every second.

This was my favorite Cole so far; the characters just hit me in all the right places.

Reading next:

THROUGH THE VEIL by Shiloh Walker

A) I love the cover, B) it just sounds fantastic.

I saw that the Book Binge has Shiloh as a guest author this week, and she’s answering loads of questions about it there — oooh, and also at Let’s Gab (with Anne, Jennifer B., Lori, and Kate).

And I need to go back to talk about three fantasy novels I managed to slip in while I was dead. They include

One I liked, one I lurved, and one I was just a little bit more than “meh” about.

Including the DEMON BOUND excerpt (if you missed it in the comments of a few posts back )

Also, there are DEMON BOUND bookmarks now (back and front pictured at left) e-mail me (or use the contact link farther left) with your address, and I’ll send them out to you on my next trip to the P.O. International is fine. If you’ve been waiting for one, they’ll be heading out on Monday.

I heart Gena Showalter and I’m loving this book (I super-heart Anya, the heroine) — but it’s a crime to have those lips covered up by her name.

That is all.

 Anyone heard any early buzz on these? What upcoming debuts have caught your eye?

NIGHTKEEPERS by Jessica Andersen

The Mayan doomsday prophecy states that the world will end on December 21, 2012. The NOVELS OF THE FINAL PROPHECY tell of the ancient myths that come to life in the last four years before that end-date, and their opposition by the Nightkeepers, descendants of an ancient magic-wielding race sworn to protect mankind from the apocalypse.

In NIGHTKEEPERS, their last king is forced to team up with a Miami-Dade narcotics detective in order to reunite his scattered warriors and fight Zipacna, god of the Mayan underworld. Wielding ancestral magic based on bloodletting and sex, the king will have to choose between his duty and his love for the human woman who is the gods’ destined sacrifice.

June 3rd. Love the title and cover. Holly has a review over at The Book Binge.

BOUND BY SHADOW, BOUND BY LIGHT, BOUND BY FLAME by Anna Windsor

(For Bound by Shadow) Riana Dumain is a fully trained Sybil, a warrior priestess battling
evil whose practical magic keeps her grounding in earthly science — and desires. She knows that gorgeous NYPD detective Creed Lowell is dangerous, and possibly a foot soldier for the evil Legion cult, using his badge and drop-dead looks to consolidate demonic power.

Creed’s low profile Occult Crimes Unit pulls Riana and her two sister Sybils into the case of a politician’s son, murdered in a ritualistic sacrifice. Soon, Riana’s instincts prove true. Creed, the hottest half-human she’s ever known, a demon in bed and out, is guarding a trapdoor to hell. And unless Riana can find a way to tame her mystery man’s treacherous inner self (and her heart), all of Manhattan may be enveloped by darkness.

Three month, back-to-back release, starting in June.

NIGHTWALKER (The Dark Days Series) by Jocelynn Drake

For centuries Mira has been a nightwalker–an unstoppable enforcer for a mysterious organization that manipulates earth-shaking events from the darkest shadows. But elemental mastery over fire sets her apart from others of her night-prowling breed…and may be all that prevents her doom.

The foe she now faces is human: the vampire hunter called Danaus, who has already destroyed so many undead.  For Mira, the time has come to hunt…or be hunted.

But in a dimension just beyond the world’s boundaries, a banished race stirs dangerously, hungry for power, for domination, for vengeance.  Already a protective seal has been breached: already blood flows like a river through the world’s great cities.

And only the collaboration of two sworn enemies can save humankind…and its feral brethren.

July 29.  Not sure if it’s romance or UF. By author blurbs (Kim Harrison, Jeaniene Frost, Vicki Pettersson) I’m guessing it’s UF.

Also, looking forward to:

PLEASURE UNBOUND by Larissa Ione (okay, not technically a debut, since she co-writes the sexy/fun ACRO series as Sydney Croft, and because she’s also had novellas published, but it’s the debut of her DEMONICA series (Demon E.R.) and first solo single-title.)

July 1st

I am on page 44 of THE GREEK TYCOON’S UNEXPECTED WIFE by Annie West. I picked it out of the others on the rack because I enjoyed Annie West’s HIS FOR THE TAKING, which had a male lead who wasn’t a complete jerk.

But in this one, he has just decided that the reason the chick is completely emaciated is that she has been starving herself in a ploy to raise his sympathy and have a larger divorce settlement. (You see, they were in a situation where — to help her escape from a prison during an uprising in South America — they had to have a hasty marriage, but within a day they were involved in an explosion that he believed had killed her.) Her claims that she also thought him dead? Seen as a play for his billions.

Anticipated solution to his assery: she tells him that she’s been lost in South American jungles the past four years. It will take one conversation on page 180.

Added bonus: a variation of the line “Oh why did she bother? Nico never believed her anyway” has already shown up.

Am I putting it down?

*sobs*

No.

ETA:

I just hit page 57, and she told him. Oops.

I have hope again.

ETA2:

Page 58, and he’s decided she’s lying. Sigh.

ETA3:

Page 59, and she reveals she’s been living with a nun the past four years. His response:

A nun? She was asking him to believe she’d been living a life of unblemished innocence with a nun all this time?

…

Next she’d claim to be a virgin.

New anticipated solution: Sister Mercedes shows up, wondering how her friend is doing, and he realizes how wrong he’s been.

Hopeful solution: Sister Mercedes shows up, he finds out they’ve been having wild nun sex the past four years, and the heroine and the nun run off to find their HEA.

ETA:

Done. Nothing unexpected, but the angst was all ratcheted up at the end and I COULDN’T STOP!

Next:

It seems so familiar. Like I have been here before.

What is this? Half-written posts? Books I have read but not spoken of?

Missy?

I think I know someone named Missy.

*scratches head*

I must go explore first.