Lauren Dane: Standoff
March 27, 2008
Cascadia Wolves: Standoff by Lauren Dane
From: Samhain
From my review at The Good, The Bad and The Unread
First off, let’s get one thing straight here. If you have read the most excellent Cascadia Wolves eBook series, you are gonna buy this book. No question! You will get this book and read it because Enforcer and Tri Mates was Werewolf Romance crack. Read more
Tags: Grade D, Lauren Dane, Samhain Publishing, Werewolf RomanceWhat I Am Reading ~ Sienna Black: Wild Frontier
March 24, 2008
What I Am Reading ~ Treva Harte: Carry On
March 11, 2008
What I Am Reading ~ Jez Morrow: Shadow Of A Wolf
March 11, 2008
What I Am Reading ~ Lauren Dane: Cascadia Wolves ~ Standoff
February 1, 2008
Cascadia Wolves: Standoff Read more
Lauren Dane: Wolf Unbound
December 31, 2007
New review posted on The Good, The Bad & The Unread Read more
New from J.L. Langley
November 15, 2007
With or Without: With Caution by J.L. Langley
From: Samhain Coming November 20th!
Read An Excerpt
A brother’s vow. A lover’s promise. Both could put them all at deadly risk.
Remington Lassiter is trying his best to stay out of trouble while he learns the ropes of being a werewolf. When his little brother turns up covered in bruises, he is driven to finally bring their abusive father to justice. To do it, he must face a past he hides behind his cocky, trouble-making attitude. A past so dark it haunts him only in dreams.
Jake Romero, a crack private investigator with a bad-boy biker image, realizes he has his work cut out for him when Remi asks for his help. From the first moment he turned Remi into a werewolf in order to save his life, Jake has been fighting to keep his inner demons at bay. He’s torn between the desire to tell Remi they are destined to be mates, and the need to first let Remi get used to the werewolf life.
Jake will do anything to protect Remi and help him break the cycle of abuse he has endured all his life, but his investigation is about to uncover something far more sinister and deadly than they ever imagined.
A past that could put all their lives at risk.
Cascadia Wolves: Wolf Unbound by Lauren Dane
From: Samhain Coming January 1st!
Read An Excerpt
Tags: J.L. Langley, Lauren Dane, Samhain Publishing, Werewolf RomanceTegan Warden has lost her heart and her mate. It’s a devastating thing for anyone, but for a werewolf, the consequences are even harsher without her anchor. She’s spent the last four years alone, putting all her energy into her job and protecting the Cascadia Pack.
Ben Stoner is a hard edged cop with a taste for sexual dominance but a need for a woman who’ll be his match.
Through happenstance, the two come into contact and the universe of the Cascadia wolves unites, challenges and threatens them both - as a couple and as individuals.
Dani Harper: Heart Of The Winter Wolf
October 31, 2007
The Heart Of The Winter Wolf ~ Dunvegan Wolf Clan Series Book One by Dani Harper
From: New Concepts Publishing
Tendrils of smoke rose ghostly white against the night sky like escaping spirits. Two days had passed and the house had collapsed to one side in a heap of charred beams and ash. No human could have survived such devastation.
James Macleod was not human.
Far beneath the blackened beams, he lay burned, bleeding, and broken, close to death but as yet unable to embrace it. Now and then, he broke the surface of unconsciousness, only to be dragged under again by relentless agony and despair.
The waning moon hid its face as James opened his eyes at last. For a fleeting moment he thought he was blind, then realized night had fallen, although which night it was he had no idea and didn’t care. He was still alive–barely–and didn’t care about that either. His broken ribs screamed at him as he began to cough up more blood and soot, but this time oblivion stubbornly refused to take him back.
Evelyn. He couldn’t see her beneath the debris, but he could just reach her delicate fingertips. They were cold and unyielding. He felt again the slash of agony in his heart that was far greater than the pain in his body. She had been human, vulnerable, both she and the child within her, his child. He had failed them both, failed to protect them, failed even to discern any danger to them. He had been moving the cattle to summer pasture in the deep coulees along the river when a calf blundered into the fast-moving water. Saving the young animal and regrouping the herd had set him back an hour, then two. Just two scant hours in which all that was dear to
him was left defenseless.
He’d known at once. James had barely turned his truck for home when cold terror had suddenly clawed his heart and his wife’s voice echoed briefly in his mind. Gunning the old pickup, he’d kept it on the rough dirt road by sheer force of will. Faster, faster, heedless of the rugged terrain. He had to get home, had to reach her. When an axle broke, James left the crippled truck and raced flat out, first on two legs, then on four.
The house had been strangely dark when he reached the yard. Evelyn always left a light on for him. Always. And then he had spotted the smoke churning from an upstairs window. He caught no stranger’s scent as he ran into the burning house, as he shifted shape and shouted for his wife. He had smelled blood, however, even mixed with the thickening smoke. He followed the metallic tang of it straight to the dining room, knowing and not wanting to know that it was her blood, and that there was far too much of it. Dear God. James had squeezed his eyes shut against the ugly gunshot wounds that had stolen her life even as he cradled her small body against him. She was gone. Their child within her, already loved, was gone, as well.
It was his fault, all his fault, although James had no idea who had done this. Few people could even find his ranch. It was remote, all but hidden, with the nearest neighbor miles away. He knew no enemies in this country, yet in his shattered heart he also knew it was no random act that had taken his loved ones from him. He should have known better. He should have known. His family’s entire sept of Clan Macleod had been forced to leave Scotland more than two centuries earlier, when fear of Changelings had caused all wolves to be slaughtered to extinction there. Why had he thought it would be better here, safer now? Why had he assumed humans were any more civilized now, any less driven by fear and hatred of those who were different? But then there had been Evelyn, and she was wholly, completely human. Evelyn, who embodied all that was good about humanity, who knew what he was and accepted him, who loved him with a heart that was bigger than she was. Evelyn who had just paid for that love with her all-too-human life.
Already half-mad with pain and grief, his own human side wanted nothing more than to follow his loved ones. Changelings were long-lived and tough, gifted and powerful. But they were not immortal. His Changeling nature was automatically trying to heal the horrendous wounds, weakly attempting to regenerate burned skin and tendon, repair and replace broken bone. But with so much damage and so little energy left, the process was winding down before it had really begun. Soon it would stop altogether and he would get his wish.
For one clear moment that wish coalesced in his mind–a soul-deep desire for death. James embraced it without reservation, forgetting that his wolf nature was driven by a powerful and primitive instinct to survive. Without warning, fresh agony suddenly slammed into him from every direction. His heart was being squeezed through his ribs. His very bones felt as if they were exploding. The animal within had gone completely wild. Unbidden, it frantically clawed its way to the surface.
Dark clouds diffused the moon, hid the massive wolf that crawled out from under the charred wreckage, veiled the singed white fur in shadow. Sides heaving, the creature limped on three legs to the edge of the clearing and collapsed. James lay there for a long time and regarded the wreckage. Fists of sorrow beat inside him, but his lupine eyes could not weep. Instead, a cry of anguish was ripped from his throat, gaining in strength as it sliced through the silence. It rose and became an ululating howl echoing over the ruins of his home, his heart, his life.
As he howled out his grief, the sky cleared. The moon was far from full but still it blanketed him with pale silvery light, lent him its peculiar strength that only Changelings knew. James stood. So his wolf nature wanted to survive? Then it could damn well do it without him. He would set it free and never walk upright again.
The wind picked up. Although only three legs would obey him, the white wolf began to run. Run, to outpace the agony that could rip and tear a human heart. Run, to outdistance the human grief that could not be borne. Run, to be as the moon, a swift white shape gleaming in the night. Run, to be a wolf and only a wolf.
As he raced away into the welcoming arms of the night, James was only fleetingly aware that he had just buried his human self alongside Evelyn. And then he was aware of nothing.
Our adventurous heroine Jillian Descharme arrives in Dunvegan Canada shortly after getting the massive bill for veterinary school. She’s there to help out Conner Macleod (All around nice guy and family pimp) at his little veterinary clinic in the big woods and eventually gettin frisky with Conner’s mysterious, tormented, long haired, older brother, James Macleod all doggy style like.
Happy Halloween everyone! The frost, she be on the pumpkin and Winter is most definitely on it’s way. So it’s time to stock up on those fuzzy socks and fluffy robes and Swiss Miss Instant Cocoa with Marshmallows. Not to mention some really good “comfort reads” for those long Winter nights.
Dani Harper has, I think, written a dang good Paranormal “comfort read” right here with Heart Of The Winter Wolf. This story is not about ground breaking or risk taking, gonna make you see werewolves in a whole new light kinda way. It does not blast you with mating scene after mating scene. In fact underneath it is actually a slow burn, old school style Romance book where the focus stays on the characters and the small events in the growth of the relationship.
In other words the term “Mate!” might be used but not as an excuse for short handing the relationship building between the hero and heroine to get them into bed as quickly as possible. Which happily fits right into the world Dani built here where the magic is simple and invisible, only seen if you catch it at just the right moment. Nothing of huge import or epic proportions happens here, the magic gently helps things along in an practical and natural way making the story feel sensible but not totally predictable.
What really impressed me was despite the HUGE tragic past torment Dani heaps on these characters yet they never come across as overly whiny or extremely indecisive angsty “I am such a victim!” messes. Well OK, the hero was the more indecisive angst ridden mess of the two, but I never really stopped liking them both or not understanding where they were coming from. Now that says talent to me big time.
I had to read this book a couple of times to come to a decision in how I felt about it. I enjoyed it, each and every slow moment, but I can see how the lack of action or prominent sex scenes for the first two thirds of the book and the simmering relationship build might drag on certain readers. I also caught a few messy editing mistakes (One particular scene where I could have sworn James is speaking to Jill and suddenly he is Connor.) but that’s probably more New Concepts fault than Dani’s (Did I mention their website is THE WORST EVA! Unless they meant it to be a homage to the early 90’s internet. I was looking for the “Made by AOL” symbol at the bottom.) so New Concepts and their slacker ways get all the blame in my mind.
Heart Of The Winter Wolf is a gentle and quiet story and not one you are gonna take big bites out of and finish off in one sitting. It will definitely go great with hot cocoa and fuzzy socks and a long Winter’s night in my opinion.
Grade A for a nice relaxing read. I bought this in paperback also. It’s going on my keeper shelf. Yeah, it’s that good.
Tags: Dani Harper, Grade A, New Concepts Publishing, Straight, Werewolf RomanceTreva Harte: Home
August 16, 2007
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 RomanceWhat I Am Reading ~ Dani Harper: Heart Of The Winter Wolf
August 4, 2007
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
