Cassie

I started reading Sherrilyn Kenyon about 5 years ago but I never really got into her series and quit reading her after a while. But lately I've been wanting to give her another try and around that time, her dark hunter series box set went on sale for a really good price.

I reread some of the books I read from years ago and then I got to this one. You know the whole definition of stupidity of where you do the same thing over and over again expecting a different outcome. Well, that's me with this book because I kept on trying to read it over and over again hoping that I would like it but alas, I failed miserably.

Sherrilyn Kenyon, for me falls in the okay author category. Rarely will one of her books receive a rating above 3 stars from me but her books are decent enough reads. My major issue with her writing is her dialogue can get really cheesy with an extra side of cheese. So much so, that it pulls me out of the story and why she just doesn't rate that high with me.

This books was like mount Everest. Every page became a chore and finally I called it quits. Here's the thing, I have this big pet peeve about having knowledge the characters in the book don't have. I like being kept in the dark with the characters. It makes me cranky and sometime unfairly angry at the characters when they can't figure out what I already know since the author threw that big “hint” right in front of me early on. Since it pretty obvious that Sunshine is a reincarnation or soul of Talon's late wife early on, I was inpatient for them to figure it out.

While most people seem to really like Sunshine, I really just didn't. I mean good for her for being free with herself and not having problems with sex. And while being free with yourself is good, I don't think having sex with some injured guy you picked up that you know jack shit about is the brightest idea. I actually found Sunshine kind of a creeper. I mean she brought her mom with her to gawk at an unconscious naked guy and talk about how hot he is. This is not funny to me, I would be really disturbed if I woke up naked to have a bunch of strange guys around me talking about how hot I was. My fucking god though, I know everyone is forgetful once in a while but I was thinking she had an early form of Alzheimer. I just really didn't like her character at all.

Another issue, there was no plot but lots of sex(at least early on in the book). I like sex, but I like the slow burn kind. You know the whole build up of sexy banter and hot steamy stolen looks at each other.

Not just oh hot guy, jump his bones repeatedly and as soon as possible.

I also didn't really like Talon. Here's the thing, usually when I talk bad about the hero it's because he's a grade A douche bag. The ones you want to kick in the balls repeatedly(I know I'm a very violent person =P) That was not Talon's issue. He was fucking boring, I rather watch cement dry kind of boring. There is really nothing more to say about him...

I also hate the Artemis/Archeon relationship and was hoping it wasn't what I thought it was. Alas, it was. T-T Since I did skim read about the other characters cause I was definitely more interested in them.

Anyways, I shall continue on reading the series especially since the next book was one of my faves years ago. I heart Zarek. Hopefully it's as good as I remember.

Well, I'm totally reading this series out of order.  I tried to read the first one but because it had insta-love, I couldn't finish it.  I'm not a real big fan of insta-love.  

I decided to try some of the author's later works to see if it's worth going back and reading the first one.  In my opinion, it is though there is still insta-love in this one but both characters ignored it for 15 years to become best friends.

This book is about Ryan Sullivan, superstar pitcher, finally getting the girl he has loved for 15 years, Viki, the sculptor.  Viki moved to San Fran her sophomore year of high school at 15 years of age.  Viki is used to moving around because her dad is in the military and so she stopped making friends since she will be gone in a year or so.  She has a major crush on Ryan but thinks she is no good because jocks don't go out with artists. She sneaks peaks at him a lot, telling herself it is for her sculptor since she is doing it on laughter and he loves his laugh.

So one day, some crazy ass driver in the high school parking lot(I almost think all high school driver are crazy) almost runs Ryan over but Viki saves him.  After that moment, they become friends.  

15 years later, Viki is back in San Fran, a year after she divorced her asshole of a sculptor husband in Italy.  She plans to start anew and is trying for a fellowship which is a competition for artists that will get her noticed.  One of the judges tricks her in being alone with him and has a plan to seduce her.   She panics and calls Ryan to rescue her.  Ryan, who is very protective of Viki, rushes over to save the day. He plays along with her plan that he is her boyfriend.  After the creepy judge leaves,  Ryan demands that Viki stay with him while she is living in San Fran.  She, with reluctance, agrees. 

So the story begins of this kind back and forth relationship. Both Ryan and Viki are worried about ruining their friendship.  Viki doesn't really believe that Ryan would be with her since he had tons of girlfriends and he is a jock. Ryan is afraid of being rejected.  It was kind of sweet that he feared her rejection.

Finally, Ryan realized that he never wanted to live without Viki ever again and would do anything to keep her. He plans to use the whole fake boyfriend thing to his advantage.  Viki is skittish, especially after her bad marriage.  Actually, it did get a little annoying.  She would jump to false conclusions pretty quickly.  There was a lot of miscommunication.  But once they got it right, it was oh so right.  Plus, really hot sex.

I really like Roxanne St. Claire's writing but this book totally missed the mark for me.  Usually I like the whole reunited lovers and all the angst it brings.  Well I felt no angst nor did I feel the love. Beyond that, this book really pissed me off by both character's stupidity.

Let's start this from the beginning. This review will have LOTS of spoilers!

Max worked and was a friend of Cori's father.  They were both DEA agents.  Cori met Max when Cori's father was having a gambling night with his co-workers.  She joined in playing poker with them all.  Cori and Max dated for a year.  They planned to get married and tell Cori's dad about it.  Her dad is not so happy about this and they argue.  Both her dad and Max leave in anger.  The next day, Cori's dad was dead, killed in a drug bust.  Max say he was too slow in saving her father.  Cori thinks he was purposely too slow.  Tells the DEA this to purposely fuck over Max.  Max get demoted without the ability to rise in the ranks ever again.

Where is the trust even?  I'm not feeling it.  I'm not seeing it.  Cori seemed like a bitch to me because she obviously had no faith in the man she says she was deeply in love with.

The sad part is that Max actually lied...her father jumped in front of him and saved his life by losing his own.  

So instead of telling Cori how heroic her father was, he lies for no fucking reason.  NONE!

Let's move along.  In less than a year, Cori marries a man 35 years older than she is, whom is a billionaire.  Okaay....I'm not against dating older people but when they can be your father or hell, even your grandfather, that is getting a little creepy for me.  She gave up her dream of being a lawyer, to be with an old billionaire even though she doesn't care about money or publicity and shit like that. 

5 years later, her husband is dead.  There is some suspicion thrown around that she did it.  There was also an incident where someone tried to run her over.  Cori hires a bodyguard under the guise of keeping her stepson, a drug addict, away from her when actually she want to look into her husband's death.

Lucy give Max the job as a test and to see if Cori actually did it.

And so the story goes.  Cori gets attacked a few times.  Usually when Max isn't there.  She even has a TSTL moments when she decides to leave her bodyguard behind and sneaks out to talk to people even though someone has already tried to kill her a couple to times. Even Max wasn't immune to TSTL moments when he leaves Cori with someone he doesn't trust because she begs him to.

The little four letter word was brought up a lot but never shown.  There wasn't really that many flashbacks and none showed the couple falling in love.  And after believing that Max killed her father, she really did have that much of a problem of him being her bodyguard, or him sexing her up.  Actually they had sex before he even told her to truth of what really happened that night.  

This is what I'm truly pissed about.  There was nothing showing why this couple loved each other, they just were.  The never really even talk much about the past.  It's like we're suppose to believe they are in love because of the past but were never shown how they fell in love in the past nor in the future.  No drama about her accusing him of killing her father.  No blame placed on her for ruining his life at the time.  Nothing.  He sexes her up pretty quickly, like the next day.

I thought the plot was alright, another double whammy of having two villains.  One you knew from early on and got his POV and the other revealed at the end. It still wasn't enough to save this novel.

Oh well, on to the next novel with all hope it will be much better than this.

I had decided not to try this series after reading Heart of Stone by the same author and DNFing it cause it was utterly boring. But lately I have been hearing a lot of great things about this series so I gave it a try. 

DNF - After Chapter 1

Reasons why:

1- The heroine is in a plane that is up thousands of feet in the air and can see all this in the dark with only a street light for illumination:

- that a 'man' stepped out of a car
- that that man was playing around with a 'knife'
- that a 'girl' is running from a pack of dogs
- the girl's 'gait'

No, just fucking no. I don't care if the plane aborted landing because somehow the tower was so fucked up that they didn't know that two planes were about to try and land at the same time on the same runway. The plane would still have to be at a certain altitude when banking and circling back around. Meaning the plane is still very fucking much high in the air. It isn't like we're told the heroine has super amazing vision. She can just amazingly see all this detail. 

2- After they land, the heroine, who wants to hurry and save the girl, wastes time by arguing and threatening the pilot before she finally pulls out her badge. *smh* You know, people are a lot more cooperative if you would have pulled your badge out first. She knows she sounds crazy but still expects the pilot to do whatever she wanted him to do( I have know clue what she wanted him to do) without showing him her badge. So pilot was just suppose to listen to the crazy lady? -_-

At first this book starting out really good for me. It was fun and though Mia confused me sometimes, I really liked Winter. Then came the middle of the book and I was like WTF!?! Winter did some really stupid things for someone who is supposed to be part of an elite black ops team.

A. He takes someone who is being chased by baddies to his home where his mom and infant daughter are. Despite the blurb, the safe houses weren't compromised.

B. He tells her she can borrow his car and go buy a dress in town for their date the next night even though she is still being hunted. 

C. He leaves Mia alone with his infant daughter and goes too far away too help when the baddies come to get her. 



*sigh* 

I'm stick me with a fork done with this book.

Pretty much loved this book.  Even though I wasn't sure about the two love interests, I ended up loving both of them at the end and I'm not sure who I want her to end up with.  I didn't like Jeb for most of the book because I couldn't see how he could date someone who bullied his friend/girl he likes.  Still don't get it but I do feel like he loves Alyssa.  It was obvious Morpheus was pulling Alyssa's strings but I think he also proved that he loved her.  I'm interested in seeing how all this will unfold.

I love the writing and really felt that the book came alive.  I love the creepy version of Wonderland and can't wait to come back to it.  I was really engrossed in the story, I feel really bad to all my family and friends who tried to interrupt me while I was reading.

I apologize for feeling like you guys were flies every time you tried to talk to me.  My humble apologies.

DNF- 7%

I did try but OMG what a mess. 

The word beautiful is used 189 times.  I looked it up on my kindle and yes counted them all because I couldn't believe how many times this word showed up.

It's time for an author to meet a thesaurus when a word gets used that many times, on consecutive pages and on the same pages.  

I felt that dialog between Luke and Natalie was super cheesy.  Actually, I just really didn't care for the writing at all.

Luke came off as a creep.  Really, he glares and gets angry at Natalie for offering to pay for her half of the bill. Then he acts weird out in public but you know our super smart heroine drives him home and goes in his house the first day of their meeting each other. 

And Natalie who doesn't know abut movie stars and such because she has no time to watch movies, knows about the Kardashians. *smh* 

And the last thing was that I felt everything was about outward appearances.  Okay, I like to be called beautiful every once in a while but I would also like be complemented about other things as well. These two just kept on going about how beautiful each other was.  

I'm just happy I got this for free. 

This will be short but the more I read, the more I was like 'WTF?'.  Things kept on pulling me out of the story so I just gave up.  Glasses fogging up every time heroine looks at the hero. Umm...yeah, that just doesn't happen.  Hero hiking up a mountain he planned to snowboard down.  Umm...the snow has to be pretty deep to snowboard down so I think it would be really difficult to hike especially with a bum knee.  

What bugged me the most was how the hero crashing at a snowboarding event was treated.  The author treated it as if the best snowboarders never fall so when the hero did, the media made it seem like he was taking drugs or hungover.  You just have to watch the Olympics to know how wrong this is.  Snowboarders fall, even the best ones. It's inevitable. I wasn't even sure what event he actually fell on (I guess I didn't read far enough to find out) but I'm guessing the half pipe since some of his medals were from the winter x games. If that is the case, then the whole thing is stupid because snowboarders fall all the time on the half pipe especially when they are trying new tricks.  

Anyways I couldn't get over this, so I put this in my DNF shelf.  The characters seemed okay but the book kept pushing on my 'that isn't realistic' button.  I expect my contemporary romances to be more realistic and this just wasn't.  From the girl who lived in Northen Utah and used to wear glasses.  

I did enjoy this book a lot.  There were a few minor things that kept me from giving it higher but I definitely want to continue this series.  I enjoyed the characters a lot though Nick did have that whole 'I'm not good enough for you' going on for a while but it didn't really bug me because it seemed to fit with his character more.

Nick Rixey:

*heart*  I loved this guy.  He at first had this grumpy asshole attitude when he first met Becca but I don't really blame him since Becca's father totally fucked up his life.  Anyways, he turns into this sweet caring guy who is just awesome and supportive throughout the whole book.  His injury that he suffered and will suffer for the rest of his life because of Becca's father was a little heartbreaking.  It was sad, how he couldn't lay on his back or stomach or just how sitting down caused him so much pain.  I liked how realistic it was though.

Becca Merritt:

I really liked her.  She was not TSTL and was actually pretty logical about everything.  I'm glad her characterization fit her.  Her job was a nurse at an ER so her being able to reason things out and stay calm in most situations fit her.  I do think that maybe she took the news about her father rather well.  She was only pissed about it for a little while(mostly because Nick kept it from her) and she really didn't go into denial which is odd since she said she loved her father and looked up to him.  

Tripod? Shiloh?:

The little three legged german shepherd puppy Becca found.  She was adorable and it was funny how every one was throwing names out.  I liked the name she ended up with because it was both girly(like Becca wanted) but also made fun of the whole three legged thing.   I'm totally a sucker for puppies though. =)

Okay, now for the few things that I didn't like.

1- The back and forth of calling Nick, Rixey.  Like the author couldn't make up her mind what name her hero should go by.  So throughout the book, Nick and Rixey were very interchangeable.

2-  The climax was a little bit of a let down.  I didn't really feel the suspense that had been building up throughout the book.  Maybe because it was so short and didn't feel like much happened or maybe it was too easy. 

Anyways, all minor things for a really enjoyable book with very likable characters.  So, hell yes, I'm totally getting the next one.

I'm really mixed about this book.  The last 25% were really good and the things we found out about near the end helped boost my rating.  On the other hand, the first 75% seemed like a bit of a train wreck.  This being the 6th book of the series, I was hoping for more.

Kara has always been meh to me, didn't love her, didn't hate her but didn't really care because the plot always made up for it.  I can't say that the plot this time made up for Kara's immaturity.  I really, really disliked her this book.

All the reasons I hated Kara this book:

1- She stormed/stomped off twice to her room, slammed the door and had a cry fest this book when her 'friends' brought about things she didn't like.

2- Her whole immaturity about love is created a problem.  She loves Ryan/Szerian more than a friend but she also loves Mzatal.  She admits to wanting both since demon lords don't have problems with fidelity.  O_o  I read menage romances every once in a while but I do not want it to all of a sudden pop up in my UF series.  And I don't get why all these guys are drooling after Kara anyways!?! 

I don't think Rowland does well with love triangles.  I never liked her love triangles in any of her books and I still don't.  When I thought in the last book of this series that the love triangle had ended, I was fucking happy about it.  Only to come crashing down because Mzatal become another love interest and we had another love triangle. I'm pretty much begging the author to stop with all these love triangles, they are not interesting but annoying as hell.

3- Her forgetting about her aunt and her situation.  Kara was going to tell Mzatal that her aunt had been tampered with since he was the only one who could help but forgets and has sex with him instead. She tells Mzatal the next day and then calls her aunt who is going on a trip with 'the old man' to Switzerland(i think) on the off season.  This doesn't raise alarm bells to Kara at all but she is just happy that her aunt is going somewhere safe.  My question is one- who is the old man? Maybe I'm missing something here, but I don't remember anyone being mentioned as 'the old man' in this series.  2- As far as I can tell, Tessa is a bit of a homebody so why all a sudden a trip especially during 'off season'?  3- If your aunt has been tampered with already, why can't she again?  My guess, is she is in enemy hands right now and Kara will have to deal with it in the next book.  

4- Excuses.  Kara makes a ton of excuses to why she forgot or acted a certain way.  She is tired, stressed, blah blah.  I hate excuses!

5-  A small annoyance but Kara never called Mzatal by name when they were together.  It was always 'Boss'( I hate that nickname) or sweetheart, or some other endearment but not his name.

Added in that 75% of this book was just them sitting around Kara's house making plans and doing a lot of talking.  Seriously, they went to one crime scene, to the police station once, to her aunt's house once, to her friend's house once, and to the pet store once.  The rest of the time was spent at Kara's house and it was boring.

There was so many times I about quit reading this book.  I felt like I was being tortured. If it wasn't for the end of this book, I would be done with this series.  However, if I have the same problems with the next book, I'll be quitting this series.  It should not feel like torture to read a book! Even though I find the overall story arc interesting, I will not continue if I have to deal with Kara's immaturity much longer. 

I'm thinking this book is going to be an uphill battle for me.

Maybe I've outgrown this series or something because I keep putting it down and not wanting to pick it back up.

Kara has the maturity of a 13 year old so far. 

She says these things to Ryan, one after the other.  

"The lords don't really do the monogamy-jealousy thing"

"And I do care for Mzatal, love him even."

"Ryan, I do love you.  And not just as a friend."

When Ryan gets the right(!?!) idea and thinks she wants a relationship/sex with both him and Mzatal, he questions her values(who wouldn't). She gets pissed off, yells at him, doesn't listen to what he has to say and storms into her room, slams the door and cries.  Yep, maturity is thy name.

I have only listened to one other audio book and that was when I was a teenager.  I find that I quite like listening to a book while I'm out walking my dogs and it is much safer then reading while I'm walking.

I also think I liked this book better because the narration. Damn, the narrator totally sounded like a guy when she did the guys voices.  On the other hand, the story was still a bit of a let down.  It was just like hearing about a newly wed couple trying to fit their lives together after they marry.  There was no tension of would they or wouldn't they stay together.  It was really irritating how they both loved each other but wouldn't tell each other because they didn't want to scare the other away.  These two characters are really tight lipped about everything.  Things that should have added tension, Kyle having a threesome with Celia's brother and sister-in-law 2 years ago, were pushed aside rather quickly, like one scene quickly. 

Really not sure if I want to keep reading this series especially for how much the books cost.  I much prefer the author's Rough Rider series.  But for sure, if I do continue this series, it will be quite a while before I pick up another one.

Narration: 4 stars

Story: 2 stars

To say I'm disappointed in the final book of this series is an understatement.  It wouldn't have been so bad if there wasn't so much time spent on the love triangle whom everyone knew the outcome of.  I thought everything in this story got shafted for McKenzie whining about the bond and Aren repeatedly.

McKenzie seemed very immature and needy in this book.  There is a fucking war going on and she is worried about Aren ignoring her or Kyol being able to feel her feelings. She spends 3 weeks working at the help desk of a library where she is so bored that she repeatedly checks her e-mail.  Does it ever enter her mind to practice shielding her mind from Kyol.  Nope.  Instead, let's complain about Aren not seeing her for 3 weeks instead of trying to fix something that is bothering her.

I do understand Aren having reservations about being in a relationship with McKenzie because who wants another guy who loves your girlfriend knowing when you have sex and how she is feeling.  Big roadblock and eww.  Do they do the adult thing and all sit down and discuss this.  Umm, no.   Aren becomes an ass.  He is hardly in this book and when he is, I just wanted him gone because he annoyed me so much.  I was so cheering when Mckenzie gave him an ultimatum  but she of course somewhat backtracks, and becomes needy again.  She just has to convince Aren that he is being stupid and that love conquers all things and they belong together.  Yep, that's all.

Then the plot holes.  

And what happened to Lorn? Dead? Alive? Who knows? Is she creating another story in this world because there are some things that still need to be explaining?

These things were not explained or solved. I'm hopeful that she will though I think maybe she should avoid love triangles the next time around. 

I still really like the world and I liked that people actually died in the war, though a bit sad especially about one certain death. T-T It was just sad.  I did enjoy the fight scenes and everything, I just wished there was more.  More action. more time with side characters that are not Kyol or Aren, more information on everything.  I was actually rooting for Kyol because he seemed much more interesting in this book than Aren which I thought I would never say. 

I do like the author so I'll read another book by her but hoping that it won't have a dragged out love triangle like this series had.

So, I have and love my two dogs but I also got this cat.  His name is Boots and he came to me unexpectedly.  He was just a kitten when he was out in the middle of the road playing with fireflies and my friend almost ran him over.  He just kept on playing so my friend picked him up.  She couldn't have any cats so she asked for me to watch over him for the night and that we should try to find the owners the next day.

Let me say, he was a handful even then.  He loves to attack feet and kept me up all night doing just that.  The next day we looked and found his owner.  She didn't want him so I ended up with a cat.  He is kind of dopey, loves to run into walls and likes to be hung upside down.  He has a tiny cry which he uses to demand attention.  He loves attention.  And he sleeps in funny positions, lol. =)

I read this because I have read one or two of Lynsay Sand's historical romances and liked them.  This was my second try at reading this because the first time I couldn't deal with the stupidity thrown at me in the beginning.  

The first 50%

As I said, I had a hard time getting around the stupidity at the beginning.  Lissi was like a teenager and not some 202 year old vampire.  She made many stupid mistakes that I couldn't understand why she wasn't dead or at least found out.  Then you have to deal with all the family members.  I had a hard time keeping them all straight, there was so many and they just kept popping up. 

But the worse offender was the hero, Greg.  He was so nonchalant about everything.  I can see a little confusion early on about why he went into the car's trunk but once he found out they can read his mind, shouldn't that have been a clue that something weird was going on and that maybe he wasn't in control of stuffing himself in the trunk.  But really he took things so easily, from being kidnapped, to finding that these people could read his mind, and even when he found out they were vampires.  He never panicked or freaked out and just accepted it like it was something normal. But he sure was stuck on wanted to be a sex slave.

I did enjoy Lissi and Greg's romance.  It was sweet and saved this book for me.  I especially liked it when they got away from the rest of the family. I also like the idea of how vampires came to be in this book.  It was something new and different, a little sci-fi-ish

But the villain, OMG, was so stupid.  I knew who it was and why in the first couple of pages of this book.  Most people will figure it out really quickly.  I couldn't help but think Lissi was an idiot because she couldn't figure out who was trying to kill her.

I mean really, it was so obvious.  At at the end, I wanted to roll my eyes.  Of course, let's all be nonchalant when there are guns pointed at us.  Yes, let's just make jokes and oh, let's try not to kill anyone because they are just confused. Pssh.

On the last note, I hate books that describe the women so lovingly but we never get a description about the males.  This book went on and on about all the woman and their eye color and hair color but practically described nothing about the men except maybe Greg's chest. *sigh*

I will at least read the next one since there was also a few things that usually just don't work for me anyways but I think this series has potential to be good.

I found this book to be terribly dull.  I felt like I have seen it all before and this was neither a better version of it or added anything unique.

I did not like the switch in perspective.  The heroine is in first person and then Jessi, one of her love interests, is in third.  The other love interest is for some reason in love with the heroine though she used him three times for sex.

I didn't really get the heroine.  If your so unique and there is only 6 nulls that are known of then why would you believe Dashiell would kill such a valuable asset as you are? 

Just didn't work out for me.