eBook Pricing For What It’s Worth
January 30, 2008
One of the noted customer complaints lately has been ePublisher’s pricing coming closer to the amount paid for paperbacks. Read more
Tags: eAuthors, eBooks, ePublishers, pricingThe Politics Of Dancing
January 23, 2008
I was trying to put my thoughts together on a review I am doing of Amber Green’s Bareback. Then it occurred to me that I would probably spend the entire review simply relating an issue I have with some Gay Romances in general when it comes to using the old Straight To Gay Male Character Story Arc. Read more
Anne Cain ~ Kassie Burns: Starbound
January 23, 2008
Cover art by Anne Cain
Who cares about the damn book when looking at this gor-fucking-jesus-christ-almighty cover? Read more
Tags: Anne Cain, Cover Art, eBooks, Samhain PublishingThe Romance Of Reading
January 2, 2008
Dear ePublishers,
I don’t mean to pick on any one of you because let’s face it, you all do this, but why is the eBook format at least for the setup parts of the eBook you guys print always so minimal and bland? I remember the golden days of TOR. Read more
All I Wanted For Christmas Was…
December 30, 2007
Guess what I got for Christmas yesterday! Read more
Brilliant Marketing Idea: iPhone Wallpaper
December 30, 2007
Now here is a brilliant marketing idea Read more
TGTBTU: The 12 eBooks of Christmas
December 15, 2007
In case you missed it I did a little list for The Good, The Bad, The Unread that I felt summed up my year of reading. Just some plain solid eBooks to enjoy.
After reading the finalist for the 2008 EPPIEs and the eBooks they had to select from… My list is better, maybe not complete, but then I actually bought them, read them, and enjoyed them and I am not out to set you up with some off the wall pretentious reading selection *cough plagiarism cough* or to select other eBooks that seem destined to fail when compared to my PRE-selected winner others on my list. Oh mymymy!
Lauren Dane: Cascadia Wolves
April 2, 2007
Lauren Dane and her Cascadia Wolves Series was one of the first to get me started buying eBooks. I found her werewolf world building to be fun and dark and her characters for the most part are damn sexy. I still am waiting patiently for the next book to come out but let’s review the ones you can pick-up from Ellora’s Cave.
Enforcer introduces us to Nina and her brother Gabriel Reyes. Gabriel has recently become a werewolf and joined the local Cascadia Pack. Nina being human stays well out of it till her brother asks her for money so he can hide saying that werewolves were trying to kill him. Nina of course thinks that he is on the run from the Cascadia Pack so when Alexander Warden shows up on her doorstep she sticks a shotgun to his balls and tells him to leave.
Lex Warden happens to be the second in charge of Cascadia Pack “The Enforcer”, his brother Cade Warden is “The Alpha” and as the book progresses we come to find out Nina Reyes is Lex’s mate. Magic werewolf love takes place in a story fraught with dark politics and Rogue packs and Mafia types galore.
This book was a mixed bag for me. Nina is written to be this head strong, smart mouthed, street fightin chick but… I swear instead she becomes progressively more and more annoying as the story goes on. I really wanted to like her, in fact I did at first, but things like Rushy McRushter, Floozy McSkank, Principal McGruff, Professor McLecture, Mister Shouty and last but not least Mayor McTouchy kept coming out of her god damned mouth. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
I wanted to kick her so hard if she said one more stupid, senseless thing. Fuck you Nina McDumbass! People who cuss, fucking cuss, they do not play at cussing like some five year old.
The other problem I had was minor in comparison. Character issues are more disruptive to me than story logic. The whole Tri-bond thing Lauren cooked up so Cade could have sex with his brother Lex’s mate Nina… OK, it was hot but… In essence it is explained as a sexual Pyramid Scheme. A higher ranked male wolf must be chosen to have sex with the female mate soon after mating occurs to create a Tri-bond or the two wolves mated go nuts. So easy-peasy, two for one, menage sex is to be had with every mating. That’s OK and all, but what does the guy at the top do?
See, my brain works this way and I just can’t turn it off. Maybe it’s just me. Grade B for this book but in some parts it’s annoying.
Oh, and Lauren wrote this short story for the series called Reluctant which is about Sid and Layla. Remember those idiots Tracy talked to Nina about when giving her the low-down on the ho-down werewolf Tri-bond deal?
I found the story it self to be so so… but I really thought it’s premise was all just a little far fetched. I can understand a human having trouble with the menage setup but a full blooded, born into a noble Alpha family, Alpha werewolf woman, who would have the slightest chance of even remotely having issue with the whole Tri-bond deal. I am sorry but Lauren Dane cannot have this type of thing both ways. Either these werewolves are still part animal and have come to some type of compromise between their wolf side and their human side so this type of thing comes as no surprise and they are raised to understand it or they are completely domesticated and have risen above their animal instincts and can subvert the base reactions they might feel so that Layla’s whole problem would be more understandable. Otherwise she really is TSTL (Too Stupid To Live). This story goes towards the domestication argument and yet Lauren then writes it different when it comes to mating. Ehhhhh, I don’t know, it seems a bit conflicted and confused in the long run. Grade D for this one.
Tri Mates, Ah so much better! Here we go, this was actually the first book I read in the series and I liked it. We meet Tracy Warden (Cade and Lex’s sister.) as she heads off to a meeting between the Cascadia Pack and the Pacific Pack to help mediate an agreement between the two. When we get there we run into Gabe Murphy, Mediator for the National Pack and Nick Lawrence, Enforcer for the Pacific Pack. Magic werewolf loving happens and Tracy gets not one but two stud muffins in a freak Tri-Mate accident.
Please note: I have discovered that werewolves have an intense need for glider swings on the front porch. This is an undocumented instinct that I have identified that must have some significance.
This book has it all. No nasty Nina nonsense! No Tri-bond angst-o-rama! Just hit me with that wolfee sex and lot’s of it and give me lot’s of dark wheeling and dealing and betrayal and everything I so like about a Lauren Dane werewolf story. Lauren delivers the goods here and does so with relish, spicy mustard and a wet wipe! In fact even Cade and Nina come across as having far more interesting feelings for each other in this book. In fact so much has changed there that I sent Lauren a quick email about it all asking if she was planning to do away with Lex and let Cade have some Nina lovin. See, that’s just how evil and wicked I really am. Anyway, the answer I got was not to my liking, but oh well. Grade A for this one.
Since the problems I had were in the earlier books I am gonna enjoy buying the next in this series. I hope to see Cade get his woman at some point, oh to hell with it, I gotta admit I would really want to see Cade on his hands and knees crying “deeper daddy!” as some mega Alpha werewolf male gets a piece of fine Cascadia Alpha ass.
I am a pig you know.
Grade B, but improving greatly with each book and at the very least you are not relying on formula. Thank you Lauren!
Tags: eBooks, Ellora's Cave, Grade B, Lauren Dane, Ménage à Trois, Straight, Werewolf Romance
