Jo Carlisle: Raina’s Fantasy

Raina’s Fantasy by Jo Carlisle
From: Ellora’s Cave

First principles, Clarice. Simplicity. Read Marcus Aurelius. Of each particular thing ask: what is it in itself? What is its nature? What does he do, this man you seek?

You know who I was rooting for in Silence of The Lambs? You might think it was Clarice Starling but you would be wrong. Sure it was Jodie Foster’s best movie role but she did not sell me her character. You know who made her shine? Dr. Hannibal Lecter made her shine, and that is who I was left rooting for at the end of the movie, not Clarice. It’s all about liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti.

The way it worked so well for me was that Dr. Hannibal Lecter was not an idiot, he was not some raging monster, he functioned incredibly well and interacted very intelligently far more so than any other character in that movie and even Clarice noted he had honor. He just did not share our sense of right and wrong, our social taboos. He ate people. Yet you and I wanted him to have an HEA at the end of that film. Oh, come on admit it.

Jo Carlisle, creator of Drakkon, come on down!

What shall I say about this story? OK here is what Jo initially sets up for us.

Johan Stone, Alpha Supreme, and his faithful yet sick side kick Zane Ramsey, are discredited Warriors (fantasy world cops) and Zane is starting to succumb to pneumonia while still looking good in a g-string. So Johan has a bright idea to sell their asses into slavery.
Vampire Queen Raina Zharov out bids the evil demon Drakkon and makes our boys her slaves.

Zane is totally into the slave thing they have fallen into and even the homo sex with his best buddy turns him on big time. With both feet he jumps right in. Johann on the other hand is ALPHA, so no go on the slave show. That is until he figures out that him and missy Vampire Queen got a thing going on. So basically the first half of this book you get this…

He’d do anything for Raina. For Zane.
Anything at all, no matter the cost to himself.
Was this…love?
Yes, he’d always loved Zane. Raina had him pegged on that score. If not for the extraordinary circumstances they’d found themselves in, would he ever have expressed those feelings toward Zane physically? Probably not.
But what about Raina? Truth be told, she’d done nothing but try to protect her men since she’d rescued them from Lash and whisked them from Drakkon’s clutches. She’d tried to comfort him, to convince him she wasn’t the enemy. Had worried over their safety as they’d gone into the night poorly armed to search for a killer. With Zane’s and Alexi’s help, she’d healed him from the demon attack, then saved his sanity when the ardin merged with his DNA.
Being the Vampire Queen, she must conduct herself in accordance with the law, but she wasn’t at all selfish and cold as she’d have others believe. Raina was sexually free, compassionate, beautiful—
Two truths hit Johan between the eyes like twin hammers.
Hadn’t he already guessed? The thread glowed brighter between him and Raina, illuminating his heart and soul, every fiber of his being, because she was…his mate. My mate! He couldn’t explain how he knew, but he did. The other truth?
Johan, former warrior-turned-slave, was falling hard for Raina Zharov.
Gods, how is this possible? My Queen, my mistress, my mate.
And he didn’t have a fucking clue how to avoid becoming entangled in her silken web. A bitter laugh escaped his lips. Too late. Damn it to Hades, he should leave. Take his chances and just go, as soon as possible.
At once, the bond screamed in protest and terror, a white-hot lance skewering his brain. The beast added to the cacophony, roaring in displeasure, coiling his muscles into a knot at the very idea of abandoning his mate. Mine!
Gritting his teeth, Johan gripped the chains and rode the agony, muttering a foul oath. Didn’t Raina know the shackles at his wrists and ankles were no longer necessary?
His own traitorous heart had performed the task just fine.
Trapped like the animal he’d become, with no way out.

Yeah, I know. Me ALPHA, you mate! Let’s fuck! *yawn*

But then, Jo gets us to chapter 16 and Missy Mate the Vampire Queen has a little public confrontation with Drakkon the Demon King…

“You consume human flesh, Drakkon. That’s wrong on so many levels, I can’t even begin.”
“Why?” He sounded genuinely baffled. “If a group of middle-class humans pickets a meat-packing plant with signs declaring ‘save the cows’, they’re dismissed as weirdoes. I, on the other hand, perform a service to humans and shifters by cleansing the earth of their lesser brethren. Through the slave system, I dispose of career criminals and other foul wretches no one wants littering the streets. They are my cows, if you will. The choice slaves I use for sex, same as any upper-class member. And I do all of this legally. Why is that wrong, yet your consumption of human blood and ownership of that lovely thrall isn’t?”
Zane glanced down at his mistress from under his lashes. The demon hit a nerve. Her lips were drawn into a grim line, her face taut with anger. The scary thing was, every word he’d said was true. A prime example of what made Drakkon such a dangerous enemy, of how he kept the Council in his corner. Smooth talker with a forked tongue. Typical politician.
“Touché. Be that as it may, I’m not here to debate with you. I’ve come to propose a trade, one of mutual benefit to us both.”

My bored mind suddenly came awake and my pop culture sensibilities came alive and I was… Oh Jo! You are not going there, are you girl?!

Oh and she did, oh she did! She has Zane, the happy thrall, get corrupted by Hannibal Drakkon!

Oh Clarice NO!

“Mercy,” he croaked.
“No, because you do not want me to stop. Tell me what you really desire. Say it!”
“H-h-hurt me…please…”
The strikes redoubled, falling with ruthless precision. Each one sent shocks to his dick. The fog thickened until he reached and found the prize. Rapture.
“Yes, yesss,” he sobbed.
As if sensing he’d broken the thrall at last, Drakkon tossed aside the whip. He dragged two fingers through the blood on Zane’s skin and came to stand in front of him once more. Slashing open his own wrist, he watched as the dark liquid beaded on the surface. He rubbed the crimson fingers into his wrist, mingling their blood, then held his wrist to Zane’s lips.
“Taste.”
On instinct, Zane tried to avert his head. Restrained as he was, Drakkon dabbed his lips with little effort and out of sheer reflex, Zane’s tongue flicked out to clean off the droplets.
“Ohh!” His heart and lungs seized, his brain spinning. He’d never mainlined heroin, had avoided that deadly Venus flytrap, but this is exactly what he imagined the high to be like. An addictive rush bleeding to every fiber, carrying him toward his destiny, black and final.
When the demon’s wrist touched his lips again Zane didn’t resist. He latched on hungrily, drinking with greedy swallows, loving the heady nectar pouring down his throat. Taking the essence of his master inside him.
“Now you are mine,” the demon approved, stroking Zane’s hair with his free hand. “We will keep our secret for a while, but I am your master in truth. Only I will be able quench the dark fire burning within you. After tonight, I will stay away until your urgency to submit to my touch drives you mad, until your sanity hovers on the brink. And when I call, you’ll come to me eagerly. Beautiful thrall…mine forever.”
“Yours, my lord, to do with as you wish,” he whispered, nuzzling his face into the beloved hand. The awesome instrument of sadistic cruelty, carnality stripped to its most primal elements.
What am I saying? What have I done?
Drakkon smiled, caressing his cheek. “That’s right, sweet boy. The others will try to fill your head with lies about me, but you will not listen. If you betray me, you’ll accomplish nothing but your own destruction because your body and soul cannot survive without me. Have I given you anything except what you so desperately need?”
“No, my lord.”
“Have I done anything to your delicious body that you did not desire?”
He closed his eyes. “No.”
The hand left his face and he felt the absence of the sensual touch like a physical blow. Blinking, he sought his captor…and sucked in an appreciative breath. Drakkon stood naked in his most human form, clothing vanished. Ebony hair tumbled past his shoulders, framed his massive, gorgeous chest. He was all muscled perfection and olive skin. The enormous penis jutting between his thighs and the weighty orbs beneath testified he wasn’t anywhere near human. In true demon form, supersized all over, could Zane house all of that magnificent length?
A feral, determined expression hardened Drakkon’s face. He stepped around the rack, positioning himself behind his prey. He parted Zane’s ass, nudging his tight hole. Pushed in just the head, teasing. “My thrall.”
“Please,” he begged, reason gone. “If you don’t take me, I’ll die.”
“Never forget it.”

YES! Fucking YES!

My inner editor came out during the standing ovation and wanted Jo to go back shift as much as possible to Zane’s POV, dump a couple of characters, and let Missy Vampire Queen and Johann (I’m an ALPHA) do their thing on the back burner. *yawn* Zane was the one I needed to watch slowly be setup for the downfall.

So you see, this is not a perfect book. None of the other sex scenes besides the one in chapter 16 hit me because everybody recovered so easily from the dramatic moments. Even the straight guy, Johann (I’m an ALPHA DAMN IT!) and his side kick Zane fucking away did not register because there was no real solid angst to hang off of, no moments of OMG, before or after. I was not really sold any sense of trepidation.

But… this wonderful Demon King and Zane? Oh hell yes!
When Drakkon is impressed with Zane all hung up and ready to fuck crying for him to “do me Daddy” in his native form, he did not want a bed time story, that was true love right there baby.

I could really tell where this writer was having fun and honestly if this is her fun then honey take those old Romance rules in both hands and go *SNAP*. If I wanted safe I would not be buying eBooks, I would buy Harlequins. Jo, you had me begging for you to turn the tables on my ass and let the bad guy and his angst ridden corrupted love slave get the HEA. All Romance says is there has to be an HEA, it does not say WHO gets one.

I suddenly wanted a whole book dedicated to Zane as he betrays his (cardboard cut-out) friends at the whims of his Dark Lord and Master, Drakkon the Evil Demon King. I want that sweet sweet evil demon lovin PLEASE.
They are that good together.

I have argued with myself over this grade girl. This is may have not been in your plans Jo but you hit on some great characters in the second half and saved this dang book from an average score.
Great villains with great sex scenes deserve Grade B at the least.

Tags: BDSM, Bisexual, Ellora's Cave, Grade B, Jo Carlisle, Ménage à Trois, Vampire Romance

Treva Harte: Home

I guess you might say I have become a fan of the eBook and the eBook writer. Up until recently my keeper shelf was a entirely made up of hard to find or very select books. Books that for their time redefined SF or helped define a genre like Gay Romance. Now through wonderful websites like Samhain and Loose-Id and even Ellora’s Cave (at least their back catalog) I am finding exciting new voices breaking the old bland Romance Rules.

These eBook writers I know will never get reviews on the pages of fearfully homophobic rags like Romantic Times or be invited to submit stories to crap mongers like Harlequin. *sob* heh

But… I will love them, I will say they are far superior than anything those fools will ever provide. In fact I think next time I make an order to Amazon I will let you guys see just the type of paperback books I am now buying.

But meanwhile let’s hit a fine example of an entire series that blew me the fuck away. Let’s all focus on the twisted styling of Treva Harte.

Walk Away ~ Alpha Series Book 1 by Treva Harte
From: Loose-Id

Grey already had his pants down to his boots, and Lowell audibly swallowed at the sight of Grey’s erection. The noise made Leila shift her feet. Should she do … something? Grey shoved his cock into Lowell’s mouth, and the younger man’s lips closed over him without any more words.

“Let’s see if we can fuck the sass out of you, pup.” Dek’s voice was almost gentle, yet the words held just enough threat to make Leila wonder.

But Lowell didn’t seem worried. The moan he gave as Dek thrust from behind wasn’t from pain or fear. Leila knew just what that sound was because she’d made it often enough when Dek fucked her. Lowell writhed again, but this time both men over him grunted with satisfaction.

Dear heavenly wonder from above. Leila had seen things in bars and outside them, but she’d never … she’d never …

It was beautiful. Frightening and strange, but beautiful. The three of them rocked together in as intimate an embrace as any trio could have, a mix of force and anger and pure sex. And tenderness. As they moved together, she could see all of that in how Lowell tilted his head back for Grey. How Grey clutched the omega’s hair. How Lowell sighed when Dek moved inside him. How, in turn, that sigh against Grey’s cock made Grey cry out with pleasure. She stared as they paused. The tableau shifted from moonlight to shadow, skin gleaming bright and then hidden again, teasing her with a glimpse of the male mating dance.

Leila realized her hand was still over her mouth and she was biting it to keep from shouting out with them. Her other arm was wrapped tightly around her waist, the way she wished she was being held.
Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Grey was moving again, rapidly, pumping in and out of Lowell’s mouth.

“Swallow the whole fucking thing, pup,” Grey rasped out. “Take my come like it was candy.”

She could feel a wet trickle run down her leg when Grey moaned his delight with Lowell’s response. His fists dug into Lowell’s back for a moment, then slowly relaxed. Lowell dropped his head down once Grey was done and hid his face in his hands, working his ass harder, grinding it against Dek.

“Got the spot, didn’t I?” Dek sounded like he was speaking through gritted teeth. “Not so unhappy about me pounding into your ass now, are you?”

“God, no.”

“You don’t want me to stop, then?”

“Jesus, don’t stop now, Boss. I’m so … fucking … close …”

A half-second later, Lowell’s howl rose up, uncertainly at first, then stronger. He bucked, almost as if to dislodge Dek, and then stiffened in place. Dek stepped back, and Lowell dropped to the ground, panting.

“Who is top dog, pup?”

“You are.”

“Fucking right. Don’t forget that.”

Wow! Devlin Kinkaid and Leila have a sorta messed up romantic history with each other. She was raised in an abusive household and he, being the Big Bad Wolf he is, not only got her out of it but he also got her pregnant in doing so. They meet up a few years later and much to his surprise Dek meets his little girl Lin that he fathered right before running off to form his own pack. Leila is not especially happy meeting up with Dek again, but after a bit of huffing and puffing with the Big Bad Wolf she lets him blow her house down so to speak and winds up back at the pack house. She then meets the members of his pack Grey and Lowell who will become stars in their own books later on here.

As you can tell from the excerpt above this book not only has some twisted sexual content, the main hero of the book spreads it around so to speak and Leila finds out she likes to watch him do it. I do not think Harlequin would have gone for this story line. But damn, it is hot and despite the feeling I get that most of the characters could use several years of professional therapy. I figure they have this uneasy truce between their werewolf side and their human side and it does not lend itself to a nice mellow lifestyle or sex life.

Stay ~ Alpha Series Book 2 by Treva Harte
From: Loose-Id

“Weres and non-weres can’t breed. I don’t know what Leila is. I thought she was some kind of latent were when I found out about Lin. Maybe Leila is. But our children aren’t. If they don’t change to were, true were, I don’t think they can mate. Not a one has become were, and they’re long past the age I was when I first had the change.”
“Lin fucking well can mate — err, sorry.” Lowell blushed at Dek’s glacial stare. “That wasn’t what you meant anyhow. You mean you think we won’t have children?”

“I’m almost positive.”

No children. The reason one struggled to become alpha was to mate and breed. The whole purpose of the pack was to protect each other and the future.

“I see.” Lowell stared down at his hands, avoiding Dek’s gaze as the older man had avoided his earlier.

“You know … we both know … what that means. We love her dearly but if you want to void your — arrangement — with Lin, we’d understand. I’d understand if you want to walk from all of us. There’d be no bad blood between our packs. I’d explain to her.”

Black loss roiled up in Lowell. He was alpha. He owed the future to his pack. Fuck owing. Fuck the future. He wasn’t going to face it without Lin.

“No! You could never explain that to Lin because it’s not an arrangement. It was a mating. She’s mine.” And I’m hers. “We can work out something. Packs have lost litters before and managed. Hell, packs have killed pack heirs before and thrived. When other alphas took over, your parents’ pack gave killing you a damn good try. You survived. You created another, stronger, better pack.”

“Rogue weres, blood coups, and badly managed packs exist. But what would your pack want from you? What would Lin want?” Dek tapped his fingers on the porch railing.

His pack had always been ready to eat him for breakfast. He’d never been fully accepted since he first took over. Maybe he’d made a few wrong choices at first, but that had come from inexperience. This — this — was different. It was a deliberate choice to flout what the pack needed.

Dek’s pack would have to decide, too. If they put the choice off for the next generation, it would only be more desperate for Dek’s children.
Old habits died hard. Somewhere deep down, Lowell still believed Dek was the smartest were. The worthy alpha. Dek’s ex-omega fought asking the question and lost. If he admitted he needed advice, so be it.

“What do you want to do about your own pack, Dek?”

“After Rome, there will be no one.” Dek swallowed. “We haven’t taken in anyone else since I realized what the future meant.”
Oblivion. That’s what no children meant for a pack.

“The hell with that. We still don’t know if what you think is true. But if it is, my pack will make a different future if we have to.” Lowell gripped his old mentor’s shoulder, wondering if he’d have it bitten off. He’d questioned Dek. Defied him. “Damn it, Dek. I intend to find that new future with Lin next to me.”

When he first saw Lin, he hadn’t chosen her because she’d be a mother to his children. Maybe he’d figured that would all happen later. But it was Lin who had call to him above all.

Something eased in Dek’s stance. “The future will come when it does and how it wants. Not even an alpha can change that.”

“I’ll take care of my pack. And I’ll do whatever I have to for Lin.”

So, at the end of the first book Lowell, after a short but sweet BDSM scene between him and Leila, decides to head out and find a pack of his own. Lin Kinkaid, Dek and Leila’s daughter, grows up and on her eighteenth birthday she grabs Rossi and heads out bar hopping. She then dumps drunken Rossi and runs right into, big Alpha about town, Lowell fresh from getting his ass fucked in the back alley by a male patron of the sleazy bar they meet in. Ah yes, young love!

Anyway, Lin Kinkaid reignites Lowell’s interest in having an Alpha Bitch at home to share his Alphaness with and off they go to mate happily ever after. Well, maybe not “happily” seems from the excerpt above that there are some skeletons in the old Kinkaid family closet that have to be dealt with and Lowell has a few of his own sexual proclivities that will come to light.

As the series progresses the story arc just gets more and more fucking twisted and the characters more and more fucked up. This is not your grandmas idea of romance, but who wants that anyway? I read that and bought the t-shirt already, show me something new. The characters are not messed up in any seriously horrible way though because Treva Harte obviously cares deeply about each and every one of them. Even the background characters here are interesting and have depth and hidden, not always understandable, motivations. I love it!

Home ~ Alpha Series Book 3 by Treva Harte
From: Loose-Id

“I’ve heard some packs let betas have mates. Have children.” His eyes were holding steady on her but she wouldn’t look. “It’s just that out here, there are so few of us. So few women. I’ve only heard it was possible, never actually seen such a pack.”

“What are you getting at, Grey?” Mia traced the rim of the mug. “I never heard of you wanting a woman. Or children.”

“I haven’t. I don’t. Exactly.” When his hand touched her side, she jumped. “I’m sorry.”

Ridiculous. After all the things they’d done to each other in some were lust-induced madness, it was stupid to be so nervous because his fingers skimmed her hip. Mia forced herself to smile. Relax her muscles.

“No, I am. I’m being stupid.”

“Maybe.” He almost smiled. She could see it in his eyes as they warmed. “I just started wondering, probably the same as you, about what happens now. If you are pregnant.”

“I might be.” Mia looked down at her stomach. “Rome and his family figure he can’t get any were pregnant. So if I was — ”

He knew that. They all knew it. That was why he was here, wasn’t he? Why she was letting him do all those incredible things to her. At least that had been the reason.
His hand, huge and brown and callused, slipped over her stomach. Rested there.

“I do want children. I never thought it was possible, so I never let myself imagine it. But — ” he stopped.
They stared at the hand against her jeans.

“You’ve got big hands.” Mia laughed, no longer nervous. “I didn’t mean that as a comment about your other…parts…though they’re big too. But your hand is almost as long as a new baby.”

“God.” He breathed the word out, staring hard at his hand.

“I’m scared about having a baby, Grey. About everything that’s happening.” Mia let herself admit it. This Grey, the Grey she was discovering, would understand.

“Me, too.” He moved his hand away, the faint warmth still lingering. “Guess we’ll be scared together.”

Last but not least we have the final story of Grey who we met in the first book, Mia whom we met in the second book and Dek and Lin’s son Romulous Kinkaid. Romulous what a name, HEH!, those crazy Werewolves!

Seems that a new pack nearby is causing issues for both our fine wolfen families and they decide they need to start farming out a new generation of Werewolves, now with more fertile females. They grab Mia and have Grey go find Rom and they get them together to make babies. Jerry Springer is gonna have a field day with all of this I tell you. So basically, this is a menage romance between our throughly gay Grey and sweet innocent Mia and Rom, the bisexual Alpha. I told you, more and more twisted with every book.

I liked all the characters quite frankly. I loved how the men in this series were not totally straight and not totally gay, they were Werewolves and did what came naturally to them in regards to wolf pack dynamics. What happens here makes sense if you think along the lines that they have this intense animal nature just below the surface. The love stories between the hero and the heroine in each book are emotionally charged but the sex is not traditional in any sense and the series handled it as naturally as every other quirky Werewolf thing they did. The world here is not a nice, safe place with built in safety features and these characters are not nice, safe people with built in safety features either. They have serious issues, emotional scars and tons of problems but under it all they are decent people trying to survive some crazy ass shit.

Grade A for a top notch series. Thank you Treva Harte for a fine example of what exciting stories eBooks are capable of telling.

Tags: Bisexual, Grade A, Loose-Id, Treva Harte, Werewolf Romance

Buffi BeCraft-Woodall: Weremones

Weremones by Buffi BeCraft-Woodall
From: New Concepts Publishing

The intense stare never wavered, making her search for something else to say.
Excuses, excuses, excuses, her conscience taunted. Chicken.
“I mean, I only started dating again. And look how that turned out.”

“I told you ….” Adam was eerily patient. He reached to pull her into his embrace. She stopped him, pushing against his chest. She couldn’t help but feel how nice it was under her hands.
Slut! Her conscience screamed. Every man in the house was not fair game.
Yes they are! Her hormones rallied.
“No. Keep your hands to yourself. You didn’t want me to date anyone.”
“No, not anyone. Just me.”

She huffed a breath and told her hormones to shut up. She’d been stabbed. She didn’t need to roll around on the mattress.
“You are so aggravating. Why me? I don’t want to be involved. Why not find a nice wolven girl to bother?”
Adam tried to process what Diana was saying. He wanted her trust so that she’d agree to do the mate’s bond. She probably wouldn’t appreciate him doing Richard Ridley bodily harm, or rapping some sense into that kid of hers either. It was getting idiotic to claim that neither she nor Mack were pack. Or Karen. The boys worshipped the ground the Ridley females walked on. And whether she admitted it or not, Diana doted on the boys. She loved them. Adam saw and felt that plainly though the pack bond.
Adam rubbed at his breastbone with the heel of one hand. He sucked in a breath of the thinning air in the room.
Trust. It all came down to trust. There was so little in his pack, he was falling victim to the effects. He hardened his resolve. Adam J. Weis was no victim.

“Adam?” Diana’s soft question brought him back to the present. Adam looked down and studied her pretty face for a moment. She had so much love to give. Selfish him, he wanted it all. He gave her a half smile before wiping his
damp hands on his jeans.
“I haven’t given you a chance. I’ve bullied and pushed at you to get what I want. Just as you haven’t given me one.” He waved at her to let him finish, his nervous steps taking him back and forth across the room. He was going out on a limb, like he’d never done before.

“Hear me out. All right?” He took a breath.
“I came here last year, looking for my fiancée, Amanda. Garrick and his pack killed her.” He held up a hand before she could interrupt. “Before you get upset, let me tell you that most wolven matings are arranged. It was all worked out long before Amanda and I met.” He looked at her for reassurance that she hadn’t completely closed from him.
Diana nodded again.

“Anyway, Garrick was a sick bastard. He did … bad things to the pack, to the boys.”
“I know. Don’t explain, please.” Her voice held a combination of anger and sorrow.
“Someone here tipped off my pack in Tarrant. So I came to find her.”
He stopped to look out the window, hands shoved in his back pockets.
“I did, eventually. Her skin was nailed to a wall, in his basement, the scent of violence and sex still on her fur.”

Diana shuddered. So much of their short relationship involved violence.
There was a mix of anger, grief, and guilt that churned in him.
“They raped and killed your fiancée. What did you do?”
“I didn’t love her. It was all arranged.” He recovered old ground. Guilt swamped him, then anger. “I killed them. I was supposed to report back. But I killed them because they touched what was mine. And because I found out what was happening to the boys.” To Brandon, but he didn’t want to go into that story. He’d pretended to be a stray
so that Garrick would allow him close enough to snoop. He’d snooped all right and found both Amanda’s pelt and the violated child in the same basement. After that Garrick and the pack wardens were as good as dead. They just didn’t know it. The sick bastards were supposed to be protecting the pack from harm, not causing it.

“Reporting back to Paul, my Pater Canis, was a technicality. I knew Paul would give the okay to clear them out. “
He looked back at the bed to gauge her reaction.
“Only he didn’t. He called it a duel for ascendancy and wouldn’t let me come back. Someone else was moved to the beta spot.”
His half-brother Dom, the lawyer, got the beta spot. Adam’s laugh was dry, humorless. Dom, who Adam had challenged and beat for the position, was back at Paul’s side.
“A moving truck arrived a week later with my stuff.”

“I knew from the first that you were an alpha.”
“No.” Adam shook his head. “I was Paul’s beta warden. I protected the pack.”
Diana smiled at the lost tone. He didn’t realize how hurt he was that his old pack leader wouldn’t let him go home.
“I think you are confusing rank with personal power. I’d bet that you were already an alpha at heart when you showed up here. You were more than ready to be on your own and your old leader knew it.”

Adam considered her insight. A heaviness in his chest lightened. Maybe Paul had tossed him from the nest, so to speak, in the only way he knew how. Paul Sheppard was a sink or swim kind of guy.
“I thought that after I cleared out Garrick and his ilk, I’d take the boys back with me.”
“Instead, he worked out a way so that you were obligated to stay here. I think your title fits you, Father Wolf. I’d bet he thought so, too.”
“He’s my father.”
Her surprise prompted him to explain.
“He didn’t raise me. My mother married a man, a psychic, named William Weis. Will’s my dad. Paul Sheppard is …” Adam made a loopy gesture with one hand. He crossed back to the bed and sat on the edge. If he didn’t finish this he’d go insane.
“As proposals go, I’m sure this one sucks.” He took her hand.
“Listen before you say no again. You give us something that is missing. Hope, I think. The boys need someone who cares enough to make birthday cakes and cookies. To fuss at them when their clothes are wrinkled.”
He was right, the proposal sucked.
“You want me to be den mother to your pack? To ride herd on a bunch of teenage werewolves? That’s why you’re proposing?”
She pulled her hand free. Not that she’d have said yes anyway. But, well…it sucked big time. A girl wanted to know that her man wanted, needed her for himself.
“Hello? I don’t get furry. And I’m not likely to either any time soon. You might try negotiating for another of your kind.”
“You’re angry,” he said.
Damn skippy she was angry. Diana narrowed her eyes. She kept her jaw locked before she told him what to do with his proposal. She did not want to marry him. Den mother indeed.

Good lord! Have you ever felt like you just ran a triathlon after reading a book? Just look at this excerpt. It’s supposed to be the tender moment in the book where our hero tells the girl of his dreams his desire to be her mate. Unfortunately it gets distracted half way through and starts providing, for no reason I can determine, exposition on stuff we read earlier about Adam. I still can not figure out how any of it helped him in expressing his current intentions with Diana.

I really wanted to like this book. The hero Adam seemed very much the alpha with a heart of gold. He has proven he is all badass after having killed the bad guys that were abusing the cubs and had violently killed his ex-fiance but the big softy then went about raising this mangy group of disturbed teenage werewolves on his own. That was sort of a touching and unique and interesting story line and it immediately worked to grab my attention and buy all three books.

The author also went about world building with a vengeance creating the heroine Diana being this quirky psychic chick with a quirky psychic teenage daughter and Mack the quirky ex-military sidekick. Fun stuff, although I started to cringe with all the other were-whatever-characters. Why do people do that? Just a few were-animals per world keeps it magic and special… Too much and it is not special anymore.

The problem was Buffi did not know where to stop or how to edit. So we have here, from what I could tell, about two and a half major plot lines stuffed into one book.

There is Adam raising the cubs and meeting Diana and there is the coyote delinquents trying to confront and run off the young werewolf pack. That had potential to be different, not many stories about coming of age werewolf teenagers growing up in a pack. There was the old psycho greasy werewolf hunter putting our heroine and her daughter in danger. That might have been OK for a run of the mill short story but at least the characters are interesting. Then there was Mack, Adam’s human sidekick, who secretly wants to be a werewolf and the two stray biker wolves that show up out of nowhere wanting to join the pack and all the pack politics that Adam our hero has to deal with without blowing a gasket.

“I think it’s beginning to work.”
Karen’s worried gaze met his.
“She feels warmer.”
Karen’s hands fluttered over her mother’s face. She checked the chest wound before tearing off her blouse for a compress. This would work, she told herself. She’d seen it done before wolven injuries. She’d heard of one human, near dead, stabilized with wolven blood. It would work.

“Now what?”
Bradley wadded the stray’s coat up into a pillow and situated Ms. Ridley so that she wouldn’t choke any more than necessary when she started coughing out the blood in her lung.

Mack had had a hell of a time with the coughing, but the man’s lungs had only received minimal damage, Brandon remembered. Garrick’s claws had ripped open Mack’s abdomen, then he had nearly chewed his arm off at the shoulder. The man’s total recovery was due to Adam sharing his blood as soon as he saw the man lived. Then Adam continued treatment over the next couple of days because he couldn’t afford to give the psychic too much of his blood in case any of Garrick’s followers had escaped to regroup.

“I’ve got to deal with … him.” With his muzzle, Brandon indicated the dead man outside the car. “Won’t take long. Then we go.”

There is also several big confrontations, two happen at the same time, confusing actions and diffusing any chance of suspense building clearly towards any sort of goal. Was there really a justifiable need for Diana to have to be dramatically attacked and healed twice in one book? Was there a need to rehash the old psycho werewolf hunter plot on top of the big territorial challenge? You could see how the writer was running into problems when we kept switching between two separate confrontations going back and forth head hopping so badly it caused me to lose track of who was doing what to whom and where.

Oh and then I read the next book… WTF? I swear so much goes on between this book and that one (Diana’s daughter has already gone through a bad marriage.) that you will swear you missed a book. I spent most of it scratching my head wondering how much these people had changed that I did not understand and trying to catch all the explanations of what I missed.

This book and it’s sequels have some great potential, fun characters and lots of thought went into them in fact I keep thinking a great editor would make these books shine. I only wish the story was more simplified down to maybe two plots with an effort to focus on the struggle with the coyotes and this crazy pack of teenagers, not to mention their father Adam along with Mack and Diana.

Grade D for distracting and disappointing because there is so much here I really want to like.

Tags: Buffi BeCraft-Woodall, Grade D, New Concepts Publishing, Straight, Weresomething Romance

What I Am Reading ~ Angelique Anjou: Tears Of The Dragon

Tears Of The Dragon by Angelique Anjou
From: New Concepts Publishing

Trapped in a world where females come ‘in season’ and male dragons battle to claim their mates, Khalia Peterson realizes very quickly that this can be a very dangerous world for a human, or at least half-human, female who knows no season. General Damien Bloodragon, sent to protect the hereditary queen of Atar, discovers it can be a very dangerous situation for him, as well, particularly since he’s no more immune to Khalia’s charms than the bulls he’s trying to fight off of her.

Tags: Angelique Anjou, New Concepts Publishing, Straight, Weredragon Romance

Samhain In Print Top Ten Bestsellers August 12th 2007

The following list is a look at ePublishing from the “in print” perspective of the Amazon.com sales ranks of books from Samhain. I thought people might be interested in seeing how things stack up this way.

People constantly get on my case about promoting Samhain (Even though if you note Loose-Id has more m/m in the top ten but then take a look at what they could put into print and why are they not going with their strengths?) but if this was a hand of cards this is the one I would pick. Not heavy on any one writer and with a solid lineup with several showing up on other top tens. Samhain’s potential shines through. I hope Lauren Dane brings the Cascadia Wolves over, that would be interesting, and well I have to admit Annmarie McKenna has some solid numbers showing. Good job Samhain.

1) Blackmailed by Annmarie McKenna
Amazon.com Ranked #710 in Books

2) Mates: Checkmate (Book 2) by Annmarie McKenna
Amazon.com Ranked #496 in Books

3) Colters’ Woman by Maya Banks
Amazon.com Ranked #1,161 in Books

4) Mates: Seeing Eye Mate (Book 1) by Annmarie McKenna
Amazon.com Ranked #1,224 in Books

5) The Chase Brothers: Taking Chase (Book 2) by Lauren Dane
Amazon.com Ranked #4,823 in Books

6) Loving Lies by Lora Leigh
Amazon.com Ranked #5,398 in Books

7) Naughty Little Secret by Shelley Bradley
Amazon.com Ranked #2,934 in Books

8) Without Reservations by J.L. Langley
Amazon.com Ranked #9,331 in Books

9) The Chase Brothers: Giving Chase (Book 1) by Lauren Dane
Amazon.com Ranked #4,749 in Books

10) Seducing Simon by Maya Banks
Amazon.com Ranked #14,514 in Books

Tags: Samhain Publishing

Ellora’s Cave In Print Top Ten Bestsellers August 12th 2007

The following list is a look at ePublishing from the “in print” perspective of the Amazon.com sales ranks of books from Ellora’s Cave. I thought people might be interested in seeing how things stack up this way.

Oh My God! I love me some Lora Leigh but folks this is a bit much. Note to Ellora’s Cave… NEVER PISS OFF LORA LEIGH!

1) Wolf Breeds: Aiden’s Charity (Book 3) by Lora Leigh
Amazon.com Ranked #437 in Books

2) Bound Hearts: Shameless Embraces (Books 6 & 7) by Lora Leigh
Amazon.com Ranked #2,652 in Books

3) Feline Breeds: Tempting The Beast (Book 1) by Lora Leigh
Amazon.com Ranked #2,211 in Books

4) Feline Breeds: Kiss Of Heat (Book 3) by Lora Leigh
Amazon.com Ranked #3,148 in Books

5) Feline Breeds: The Man Within (Book 2) by Lora Leigh
Amazon.com Ranked #3,300 in Books

6) Bound Hearts: Submission & Seduction (Books 2 & 3) by Lora Leigh
Amazon.com Ranked #5,222 in Books

7) Men Of August: Heather’s Gift (Book 3) by Lora Leigh
Amazon.com Ranked #5,341 in Books

8) Men Of August: Sarah’s Seduction (Book 2) by Lora Leigh
Amazon.com Ranked #5,561 in Books

9) Men Of August: Marly’s Choice (Book 1) by Lora Leigh
Amazon.com Ranked #4,938 in Books

10) Against The Wall by Rhyannon Byrd
Amazon.com Ranked #4,028 in Books

Tags: Ellora's Cave

Loose-Id In Print Top Ten Bestsellers August 12th 2007

The following list is a look at ePublishing from the “in print” perspective of the Amazon.com sales ranks of books from Loose-Id. I thought people might be interested in seeing how things stack up this way.

Two things that stick out to me going over this list. If you spend the money to update the cover art when going to print why are you not making the effort to reflect that on your web site and in your PDF downloads? What is the point and does it make your company look sloppy? Next is why are customers having to upload and correct your own Amazon.com listings? Is it not important to Loose-Id that your books have a proper listing?

Just my take on what I am seeing.

1) The Tin Star by J.L. Langley
Amazon.com Ranked #2,852 in Books

2) Dinah’s Dark Desire by Mechele Armstrong
Amazon.com Ranked #32,433 in Books

3) Leashed: More Than A Bargain by Jet Mykles
Amazon.com Ranked #152,594 in Books

4) Hard Candy by Angela Knight, Sheri Gilmore, Morgan Hawke
Amazon.com Ranked #49,558 in Books

5) Interstellar Service & Discipline: Victorious Star by Morgan Hawke
Amazon.com Ranked #85,227 in Books

6) Passionate Ink: A Guide to Writing Erotic Romance by Angela Knight
Amazon.com Ranked #146,857 in Books

7) Howl by Jet Mykles, Jeigh Lynn, Raine Weaver
Amazon.com Ranked #203,706 in Books

8) Dangerous Cravings by Evangeline Anderson
Amazon.com Ranked #288,366 in Books

9) Strength in Numbers by Rachel Bo
Amazon.com Ranked #237,453 in Books

10) Courtesan by Louisa Trent
Amazon.com Ranked #404,783 in Books

Tags: Loose-Id

Nica Berry: Venom’s Bond

Venom’s Bond by Nica Berry
From: Loose-Id

Krait’s unmistakable red hide squatted next to Anole’s. A limp form rested against Krait’s chest. Jared. Marquez watched in horrified fascination as one clawed hand wrapped around Jared’s wrist and brought the paper-thin flesh to his snout. He bit
A chill rushed through Marquez. “What are you doing?” The ball dropped from nerveless hands and rolled behind him. He took a step forward, and another, until a pair of strong, scaly arms encircled his waist. “Let me go!” His voice rose high, panicky. “They’re going to kill him. Let me go, let me go!”
He flailed and kicked at Gharial, but the lizard refused to let go. He tried to drag Marquez backwards, but Marquez grabbed onto one of the roof supports for the dwelling so he couldn’t be moved.
Eilis rushed over and clapped a hand against his mouth. “Hush! You’re only making it worse. Leave them alone. They’ll take care of him.”
Furious, Marquez shook his head. Over her shoulder, Jared lay, limp as ever in Krait’s arms, a new expression of pain on his face. As he watched, Anole drifted over on all fours next to Krait. The green lizard stripped the loincloth from around Jared’s waist and then from around his own. The lizards had no external genitalia; instead, they had a sort of pouch at the base of their tails. Marquez watched, half-sick and half-aroused, as Anole’s genitals emerged, shiny and red and thick.
The lizard had not one phallus, but two, and he clearly meant to use them on Jared.
Marquez would have shrieked if it weren’t for Eilis’s hand. He wriggled and struggled while Gharial gently pulled him backwards, trying to make him loosen his grip. With her free hand, Eilis pried at his fingers. “You have to trust us, Marquez. If there were any other option, they would have done so.”
Gharial sent, although the emotion was overlaid with concern. Not for Jared, but for him.

This book asks the question… Do you think the Geico gecko is sexy? Would you do him?

I have to admit that after reading the scene above I suddenly understood the warning Loose-Id provided for this book. Publisher’s Note: This book contains explicit sexual content, graphic language, and situations that some readers may find objectionable: Sexual torture in a medical setting, violence, dubious consent, M/M rape, M/M interspecial, M/F interspecial, voyeurism.

In fact Nica may have written a single book that encompasses almost every major plot device that might turn me off. Child like men being raped, Ilsa, She Wolf of The SS style female guards and doctors torturing men and killing gay men, Gang rape, bleeding anuses, sex with creatures that in no way are humanoid but look exactly like lizards. Any one of these situations I have seen handled by writers before and made to be acceptable within the story they were telling. But… here you are smacked in the face bluntly with no finesse.

This story crossed every line and dotted every T as far as making me gag on some raw subject matter. I find myself lacking the stomach to even go into a detailed analysis of where this book went wrong so let’s just say “from the beginning”. I fail even to think of anyone who might consider this a gay romance, but if bestiality and rape is your turn on… here ya go. I myself am going to try and forget I read any of this.

I will not say that Loose-Id should not publish books like this or rant about censoring their content, I am very open minded but I must say simply that none of it was even remotely sexy in my opinion.

Grade F from me due to mislabeling torture/bestiality as gay romance. Sorry.

Tags: Gay, Grade F, Loose-Id, Nica Berry, Sci-fi Romance

What I Am Reading ~ Dani Harper: Heart Of The Winter Wolf

Heart Of The Winter Wolf by Dani Harper
From: New Concepts Publishing

Was it only coincidence that the white wolf Jillian had depended upon for years in times of need to comfort her came back into her life at the same time that she met James Macleod, the giant of a man with the pale blond hair and the look of a Viking?

James Macleod was a Changeling who’d lost everything dear to him in a single night of blood and fire. Devastated by guilt and driven by grief, he became a great white wolf and vowed never to walk as a man again - until a small blonde veterinarian shook his resolve and his world. Now James must remember how to be human and walk in his human skin again in order to solve a frightening riddle: Who is this beautiful woman and why is his wolfen side hunting her?

I wish ePublishers would make it easier to discover their really good books especially these smaller out of the way sites. I understand they are trying to sell the newest or the latest eBooks but it would be so helpful, to me at least, if they provided a “best of” list or a “bestseller” list on their sites main page.

It would give potential customers a better idea of the quality of writing available and the really good authors would get the praise and sales they deserve. It might even inspire better writing in the work submitted. Just a thought.

Tags: Dani Harper, New Concepts Publishing, Straight, Werewolf Romance