The Romanceaholic

Expected Release Date: August 2, 2011 (Available Now!)
Publisher: Self Published
Imprint: N/A
My Source for This Book: Amazon.com

The Blushing Bounder by Meljean Brook

Author’s Website:  http://meljeanbrook.com/
Part of a Series: Yes, Iron Seas 1.5
Series Best Read In Order: Yes
Steam Level: Steamy

Official Blurb:

A Tale of the Iron Seas – While the search for a killer puts Constable Newberry’s life in danger, he faces a danger of another kind: to his heart, by the woman forced to marry him. What will it take for this prudish bounder to convince his wife to stay?

Contable Edward Newberry and his wife, Temperance, are “bounders”, people whose ancestors fled England when the Horde first attacked, and now that the threat are over, are returning to England.  In this universe, while the New World still follows the social mores of what we would call the Regency era (ie a woman’s reputation is everything, and any kind of contact between the sexes is frowned upon without a proper chaperone), but England is much more relaxed and practical about such matters.

Temperance was a governess in Manhattan City, and formed a very sweet (and very chaste) friendship with Constable Newberry, whose blushes never failed to charm her.  However, she fell very ill with consumption and made the decision to invest the small inheritance she’d gained from her grandfather into a quiet hospice setting at a sanatorium.   As she was about to leave, she realized Edward had come to say goodbye to her, only, Edward had different ideas.  He kissed her, of all things, which immediately set into motion a hasty marriage and banishment to the awful and filthy city of London.

Temperance might have been able to forgive him, had he merely been overcome by passion, but when she asked him shortly following his marriage if he had planned all of this — their marriage, his receiving her inheritance, and their move to London — he confirmed that it had indeed been his plan.

Now dying and miserable, Temperance despises her new husband (though she can’t help but to notice the nice fit of his trousers or the way his broad shoulders fill a doorway every now and again), and she merely wants to find some quiet enjoyment before she dies.

Things are never as simple as that, however, because Temperance witnesses a murder in the alley below her bedroom window, and worse, the murderer got a good look at her as well.

Willing to do absolutely anything to protect the woman he adores, Edward puts both his life, and his heart, on the line.

What Worked For Me:

• I, of course, love anything that comes from the Iron Seas series. I fangirled all over Here There Be Monsters as well as The Iron Duke, and here I am, fangirling all over this one.  It was wonderful to see Mina and her brothers, as well as to be introduced to new mechanical appendages that I don’t recall having seen before.
• Two words: Virgin Hero *dies* I do love me some Constable Newberry, with his shy attitude at odds with his physical size, and seeing him with Temperance was absolutely wonderful.
• I really enjoyed getting the POV of a bounder for once, as the previous works in the series have both been from the POV of an English character. It was fun seeing both their reactions to the wanton and sometimes downright shocking social mores of London, and the misconceptions and prejudices they had from having lived in a different country.

What Didn’t Work For Me:

• It didn’t really bother me, but I think that readers unfamiliar with the series will be a bit lost what with all the references to Bugs and The Horde, as well as the physical modifications that most residents of London have undertaken.  New readers will also likely not appreciate Mina’s character (she’s the heroine of The Iron Duke, by the way), nor the references to her family, which is a shame.

Overall, I of course loved it. In fact, the entire reason that I bought this anthology was I read the EXCERPT ON MELJEAN BROOK’S WEBSITE and got sucked right back into the world of The Iron Seas.  While I think that new readers might be fairly lost, any fan of the series will definitely appreciate the cameos and references to other characters, as well as the insights as to the lives and attitudes of bounders.

That said, however, this story could also serve as an admirable intro into the world of The Iron Seas for readers who haven’t had the opportunity to read earlier works.  Of course, I personally think new readers should immediately go out and read both Here There Be Monsters and The Iron Duke instead, but I’m a bit biased on that front because I enjoyed both of those stories so much.

Recommended for fans of steampunk done the right way, of being forced into a marriage of convenience, and of allowing yourself to finally embrace the love that’s been waiting for you all along.

Keywords: Meljean Brook, Steampunk, Steam Level: Steamy Forced Marriage, Marriage to Avoid Scandal, Plain Heroine, Spinster Heroine, Serious Illness or Injury, Series Best Read In Order, Virgin Hero, Virgin Heroine

5/5 Stars

Vixen by Jill Myles

Author’s Website:  http://jillmyles.com/

Part of a Series: No
Series Best Read In Order: N/A
Steam Level: Hot

Official Blurb:

Miko’s denied her were-fox nature for far too long and turned her back on her vixen heritage. But when she meets two very sexy cat-shifters, she has to decide if she truly wants to give up on her frisky side, or embrace it. Because the were-fox in her doesn’t want to choose between both men…it wants them both. 

Miko is a were-fox, or, as her mother Japanese mother prefers, kitsune.  Just like vixens in the wild, were-fox females tend to be extremely promiscuous, needing more than one mate to satisfy their needs.

Determined to avoid mimicking her mother’s harem of men, Miko lives in the middle of nowhere in Texas. Her theory? Since she can’t control herself around men, the best thing to do is to avoid men altogether.

However, when a local (and illegal) fox-hunting group forms, her mother sends along two very sexy cat-shifters to protect her until the hunters can be stopped.  Now, forced to live in close quarters with not one but two extremely desirable men, Miko knows that she can’t choose between the delectable Sam and Jeremiah, and luckily for her, she might not have to.

What worked for me:

• I admit, polyamory is not really my go-to genre of romance. That said, however, this one was not only sweet and sexy, but also believable, which is a definite plus for me.
• I definitely enjoyed that Jere and Sam had shared a woman in the past successfully, because that meant they weren’t likely to have fits of jealousy in the future. This makes the HEA much more believable, and I don’t have to worry about them splitting up in the future because they suddenly decide they don’t want to share.
• Sam and Jeremiah were both absolutely delicious, and I loved that they were so different.
• The action scenes (not those types of action scenes, you pervs!) were thrilling and added a needed sense of danger and urgency to the story, as well as giving some needed tension between Miko and the guys.
• The love scene was nice and tasty without delving into the kinkier realms of most menage stories, which I enjoyed.

What didn’t work for me:

• There was a definite TSTL Moment for Miko.  While I understood her independent nature, as well as the fact that had she told Sam or Jere about her plan, they’d have put a stop to it, but even so, it pushed the limits of what an intelligent person would do.

Overall, this one was a lot more enjoyable than I’d anticipated. I’m not typically a fan of polyamory simply because I don’t find it realistic, but the fact that Jere and Sam had previously been in a polyamorous relationship made things much more believable to me.  Add to that the danger of the fox hunters, and the delicious sexual tension throughout, and this one gets a solid 4/5 from me.

Keywords: Jill Myles, Menage, Polyamory, Shapeshifters, TSTL Moment, Steam Level: Hot

Kitten-tiger & the Monk by Carolyn Crane

Author’s Website:  http://authorcarolyncrane.com/
Part of a Series: Yes, Disillusionist Trilogy 2.5
Series Best Read In Order: Worked well as a standalone
Steam Level: Steamy

Official Blurb:

Sophia Sidway, Midcity’s most dangerous memory revisionist, seeks out the mysterious Monk in the wasteland beneath the Tangle turnpike, hoping for redemption…but it turns out that the Monk is not all that pious, and the turnpike is no turnpike at all.

Sophia Sidway is a memory revisionist. She has the ability to remove a person’s memory from up to a day prior, and to replace them with very realistic memories of her choosing. While she cannot replace emotion, she’s become a master of designing replacement memories to coincide with the emotions of the original memory, making her talent both amazing and incredibly dangerous.  The daughter of a notorious mob boss, Sophia has used her powers for all sorts of evil over the years, including ruining the life of her one true love, Robert.

Now, she’s so very tired of it all, and seeks the Monk, a mysterious and dangerous Disillusionist, known for being able to “reboot” criminals and send them on their way as productive citizens.

Unfortunately for Sophia, the only man who knows how to contact the Monk turns out to be the one man she thought she’d lost forever.  Facing Robert is one of the most painful things that Sophia has ever had to do, but she is willing to do absolutely anything to put an end to her life as a revisionist, even if it means opening up old wounds.

What worked for me:

• I really appreciated that this book worked so well as a standalone.  While I was vaguely familiar with Ms. Crane’s Disillusionist series (it’s been on my TBR list for quite a while), I felt that I had all of the information necessary to follow along in what is obviously an incredibly rich and diverse world.
• Robert was absolutely delicious.  The epitome of a tortured hero, Robert had lived through many disappointments, but none so much as the ultimate betrayal from the one woman he had given both his heart and his trust to.  Now, so many years later, he’s a bitter man who has turned his greatest act of vengeance into his greatest masterpiece.
• I loved that Sophia wasn’t as slick as she thought she was.  Robert was well aware of her powers even though she thought he was clueless, and that made both of their actions so much more poignant in the end.
• The entire world with the Tangle, the cannibals, and the Disillusionists is so incredibly fascinating that as a reader, I couldn’t help but be sucked in, joyously waiting to be chewed up and spit out by the grit and darkness of the world Ms. Crane has created.
• Though I haven’t read the other novels in the series, I have a feeling that fans of the series will enjoy a few small cameos and references to characters who are obviously from the rest of the series.

What didn’t work for me:

• ….
  ….
  I got nuthin.  Seriously.

WOW.  Simply. Wow.  While I purchased this book solely for Meljean Brook’s story, The Blushing Bounder from the Iron Seas universe, I have to say that this story would’ve made the purchase worth every penny.  I have never had the pleasure of reading Ms. Crane’s Disillusionist trilogy (an oversight I intend to rectify as soon as possible), but this story was able to grab me and draw me into a world of dark crime, incredible powers, harrowing danger, and lost love.

An incredibly solid 5/5 Stars, and no joke, I would rate it higher if possible.

Keywords: Carolyn Crane, Estranged Lovers, Serious Illness or Injury, Steam Level: Steamy, Urban Fantasy, Part of a Series, Secret Identity, Tortured Hero, Tortured Heroine.

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Overall, this anthology is a must-have for fans of paranormal romance. It literally has something for everyone: steampunk, shapeshifters, urban fantasy, polyamory,  forced marriages, and estranged lovers. It runs the gamut from a virgin hero and heroine to a rather promiscuous heroine and everywhere in between.

Only $2.99 at Amazon, I would gladly have paid that price for any one of these novellas by themselves, so for all three, this is an incredible bargain, that fans of PNR would be fools not to purchase.

Final rating, a delightfully solid 5/5