"Dragon Bound" by Thea Harrison

Disclaimer: I purchased this book.

It has been a while since I last posted a review (my "review" of J.R. Ward's latest was more a pseudo review than an actual review, in all honesty, but mostly because I was rather pissed off with what the author did with the story than anything else).  Anyway, when I finished reading Thea Harrison's "Dragon Bound" I started this review, but somehow never got around to actually finish it, so here I am, finally posting some thoughts about it. 

Time and Setting: Present day New York/alternate universe

Characters:

Pia Giovanni was blackmailed by her ex to steal something from the hoard treasure of Dragos Cuelebre.  He's the only living dragon, extraordinarily powerful in more than one way, and very much feared by everyone.

This is the blurb.  Sorry, but the book has been out for a while now, so there is plenty of information circulating on the net pertaining to the plot as well as many reviews, hence, not going to summarize anything.

Overall Impressions:

I found that I liked it more than I expected.  Main reason is that I have been growing tired of paranormals, and have become very selective as to what paranormals I pick for reading.  I am now mostly sticking with the tested and true works of my personal favorite authors.  Right now I can't even remember what convinced me to try this one, I do think it was a either a comment or a review from someone whose taste I know resembles mine.  I am very glad I followed my gut and purchased the book.

Basically, if you like Kresley Cole's Immortals after Dark or Shelly Laurenston's paranormal series, you are bound to like Thea Harrison's paranormals.  This particular book, the first of the series, I still think is the best of the lot.  Both main characters were a lot of fun to read.  There was a lot of bantering going on, an Alpha male (though I didn't find him to be much of a jerk, contrary to other books with similar heroes) having to deal with a very smart yet vulnerable heroine who I thought was quite likeable.

The pacing was quick, so I felt the story was a breeze to read.  To me pacing is important.  If a book starts up "slow" , to my taste, I quickly lose interest and that's when the book turns into a DNF one (pacing and the characters are at the top of my list when it comes to deciding if I am going to finish reading a book or not).  Thankfully, my main elements of criteria were met and exceeded my expectations.

The book is fully stand-alone though it is the first of what is supposed to be a series.  This means it has a beginning and a full end as it pertains to the main characters love story, there is no cliff-hanger as it pertains to those two characters.

I have yet to catch up and continue reading the series, so I am hoping I will enjoy them as well.

"Lover Unleashed" by J.R. Ward

Disclaimer:  This book was a personal purchase, in hard cover.


I am not going to go into a long winded review or use my standard format for reviews. There are already too many spoilers as it is, and frankly, I don't need to "illustrate" that much to make a point across.

To make the story short, the BDB is no longer a paranormal romance series, it is an urban fantasy series. This book in particular had 1 main plot: Vishous/Butch/Jane and several subplots one of which includes Payne and Manny Manello's love story. And this is the root of my problem: I was expecting more on Payne and Manny, not a Book 2 on Vishous/Butch/Jane. For me, that came completely out of left field.

I had been getting more and more disappointed with the series, but with "Lover Avenged" I felt that it was still worth my spending money on these books on release. "Lover Mine" was a an okay experience, but this one, well, suffice it to say this one is the last one I buy in hard cover. From this point forward, I'll wait for the paperback. I don't have the same sense of anticipation I used to have towards this series.

In all honesty, I didn't appreciate all of the distraction involving Vishous/Butch/Jane, then the m/m subplot involving Quinn & Blay, then the standard lesser issue, and to put the cherry on top, a character that belongs to her other series. Was it really necessary to convolute things further with a character that is supposed to be part of a future book in her other series with a mystery/murder subplot kind of deal?

Bottom line, this series is no longer part of my auto-buy list. I just can't spend money on books of which I end up skipping more than pages than I actually read just to get to the parts that I am actually interested in.

I have to add that it saddens me.  I was so thrilled with the Black Dagger Brotherhood series, the first 3-4 books were fantastic.  A blogger reviewer mentioned once that she never felt the series was paranormal romance.  Frankly, I never thought otherwise until Book 5.  Of course, hindsight is 20/20 and all those subplots should have clued me in. 


Mireya

"Wicked Intentions" - Book 1 of the Maiden Lane series

Disclaimer: The version reviewed was a personal purchase.

Time and Setting: London, 1737

Characters:

The hero, Lazarus Huntington's (Lord Caire) description immediately brought to mind a mental picture of Lucius Malfoy as depicted by Jason Isaacs in the Harry Potter films.  I thought the actor looked intriguing and very sexy and (to use the author's own words when referring to the hero a couple of times, "exotic").  And of course, Jason Isaacs in his natural form is very handsome to begin with.  I just couldn't help picturing Lazarus with those features, even down to the cape and the cane. *sigh*  Anyway, he's an Alpha hero, sometimes an outright jerk, and full of hidden depths.  I fell in love with him the second I started reading about him.

The heroine, Temperance Dews, is a woman with even more hidden depths.  She has been punishing herself for years (not going to spoil so don't worry).  However, even when the hero refers to her as his "martyr", I didn't really think of her as such.  She comes across as strong and brave, at least to me.  I liked her a lot, and felt for her, and I even related a bit to her.  I think she provided a good balance for Lazarus.

There is a secondary cast of characters as well, which of course include the heroine of the next book in this series, Lady Hero, and likely the hero as well, though I am just guessing at this point, as there is a rather mysterious character whose identity was not revealed (I have two "candidates" for that role though).


Plot:

You can find the blurb here.  I find it's quite accurate, so you can rely on it to have an idea of what the story is about.

Though I don't want to gush, fact is that this book turned out to be a fantastic read.  I consider Elizabeth Hoyt one of my favorite authors, but a couple of her stories didn't hit the mark with me, which is pretty much why I usually try not to over-hype myself when I get my hands on one of her books.  However, this one is now among my top 3 favorite stories penned by her, and I would dare say, among my top 10 favorite historical romances read in 2010.

The first thing that hit the mark with me, were the main characters. And since to me it is all about the characters, this book was a winner from the very beginning. If the author manages to "hook" me with her characters from the very beginning, chances are that I will consider the book a good read.


This historical romance is one of the most sensual books I have ever read.  Take it from someone who discovered romance when she started reading erotic romance.  The sensuality and eroticism is so palpable that I was squirming on my chair.  Now mind you, the book is not much more explicit than other mainstream sensual historical romances out there, but the manner in which the author chose to build the sensual tension was nothing short of masterful.  It literally arouses the senses, and the book isn't an erotic romance at all.

I do have to mention that some things are off-the-wall unbelievable, and there definitely is historical "license" involved, particularly with the use of certain words.  However, none of this took from my enjoyment of the story.  I admit that I tend to be very forgiving because to me, a historical romance is something I tend to read as if I were reading a fairy tale.  I am too aware that what I am reading is fiction and frankly, I like things that way, so I am not a stickler for linguistic accuracy or historical detail.

"A Little Bit Wild" by Victoria Dahl

Disclaimer: I purchased the book.

Time and Setting: Victorian England (Lincolnshire, 1847) 

Characters:

I have to admit that one thing that had me a bit worried was the way the heroine was described in some reviews I read. I do tend to prefer the "proper" lady type of character, even if the lady in question is older chronologically speaking or someone with sexual experience but who is not particularly promiscuous. So I picked up the book not entirely sure if I was going to be able to get past the first chapter. As you have probably guessed by now, I was quite happy when I didn't find myself put off by Marissa.

Marissa is in her early 20s, but despite her age and the way she behaves, she does come across as somewhat naive, believe it or not. She doesn't know herself, she doesn't really understand lust and her own impulses, she's somewhat spoiled though not exactly bratty. She's also intelligent and she does care for her family despite her being the sort that responds to her own lusty impulses, though some may argue that giving headaches to her mother and her brothers isn't exactly the way to show that she cares.

Jude is in his late 20s. He is big, brawny and described more than once as flat out "ugly". He looks like a brawler more than anything else. He's the bastard son of a Duke, though his father recognized him and embraced him as his. He had a good life while living with his father and though he is a bastard, he's fine with his lot in life. His mother is a French courtesan.

I can't recall when was the last time that I read a hero that was sensuality incarnate. He's flat out SEXY. I loved that his sensuality was almost palpable. Another thing that I loved about him was that he truly accepted Marissa as she is and even liked her for being how she was, having noticed her "wildness" when no one else seemed to. Apparently Marissa was considered a paragon of propriety... but Jude knew better. I think I now have Jude at the top of my list of favorite romance novel heroes. I truly fell in love with him. I felt for him when, almost at the end, he is suffering because of a few things Marissa said without really thinking.


Plot:

I don't think I need to go into a lot of details about the story. Marissa, in one of her impulsive moments, loses her virginity and gets caught by her own family once the act is over and done with. Though the man that took it wants to marry her, she refuses as she's not in love with him and much less, after he pretty much reveals that he planned to ruin her in order to force her into marrying him (she had rejected his proposals twice). As the family discusses what to do and decide that the only viable solution is to have her find a proper suitor and fast, Jude steps in (he's a close friend of Aidan's, one of Marissa's brothers) and offers to fill in that role. He likes the York family and has been attracted to Marissa for quite a while, though she never noticed him at all. She couldn't even remember who he was even though they had been introduced in the past. She pretty much didn't take any notice of him because of his ugliness, as she tends to prefer "pretty boy" types.

The story unravels as they get to know each other better and Jude endeavors to make Marissa want him for a husband, because he wants her for keeps.

The story also has a bit of suspense almost at the end, the conflict between the couple happens almost at the end as well and is resolved rather quickly, though it did not bother me at all, I hate melodrama.

The author's writing style flows nicely and I didn't feel that the story dragged/bored me at any point.

Although the sex scenes didn't depart from the current standard in mainstream historical romance, they were nicely written as well. I really didn't feel that there needed to be more sex in the story to make it work, though.

Overall, I really enjoyed watching Marissa grow as a character and also how she learned the difference between lust and love, when she realized that she had fallen in love with Jude. Though I am not exactly sure Jude was exactly in love with Marissa at the beginning of the story, it was definitely a certainty midway through the story. I would have loved to learn more about his past and also to see Marissa's meeting with his mother.

I am looking forward to the next installment in this series, though from what I could see online, I am in for a LONG wait, as it doesn't come out until next year :(


Mireya