Book Minx

Like everyone else who reads this series, I was really anticipating this one. Hawke and Sienna's relationship has been brewing in the background of the Psy/Changling series since the very first novel.

Sienna is an X-cardnial Psy. X Psy aren't known for having long life spans, their powers typically cause them to die a fiery death long before they reach their mid-twenties. So, when Sienna feels her powers slowly slipping out of her control, she knows she'll eventually have to leave the SnowDancer pack or risk taking everyone down with her. In the meantime, she's determined to try controlling it, but the angst filled relationship she has with Hawke is not helping matters. Hawke, the SnowDancer Alpha, has always caused Sienna's emotions to erupt into chaos and the confusing signals he's been sending have only added fuel to the fire.

Hawke has been a favorite side character of mine ever since he showed up in Slave to Sensation. I really loved seeing the playfulness of his character expanded on, in this story. However, in the beginning of Kiss of Snow Hawke's stubbornness concerning Sienna was annoying. He had a "kid in the playground" mentality about her. He didn't want to play with her, but no one else was allowed to play with her either. This, combined with their relationship throughout the other books, made me really wish that Singh hadn't gone the virgin route with Sienna. Going into this book, I had hoped that she would've slept with someone before this story. It was such a damper to see Sienna able to match Hawke in everything and then suddenly play the shy and naive virgin in the bedroom. She eventually gets out of that, but it still broke the tone of the story to have to sit through the "first-time" scene. (I HATE first time scenes).

Aside from that aspect, my only other complaint is that Singh decided to cram a secondary romance plot in. This really did not work here, as it felt like Lara and Walker got short changed. Similar to Sienna and Hawke, Lara and Walker's story had been quietly building over the course of the series, but they got slotted as a secondary romance. While their relationship was nicely done, it faded into the background because of the other major plot threads that were going on.( Such as: Hawke and Sienna's relationship, the Psy attacks, and even Lucas and Sasha's baby.) Because of this, I really wish that Singh had put off Lara and Walker getting together until another book or at least given them a novella where their story wouldn't get overshadowed.

Kiss of Snow really needs to be worked up to in order to appreciate the relationship developments and the events that are at the center of this story. So I would recommend you only read this if you have already read a few of the previous books.

Dylan MacLeod is the leader of a clan of dragon shifters. Due to a mysterious disease, members of his clan have been dying. Desperate to save his people, Dylan decides to seek out human aid. His quest leads him to Dr. Phoebe Quillum, who is a researcher looking for a cure to Lupus.

Phoebe is on a tight time constraint to finish her research because the department pulled her budget. While in the middle of searching for additional funding, Phoebe is approached by Dylan. He's willing to pay her 3 million dollars to search for a cure to the disease killing his people. At first Phoebe is hesitant, but the exciting combination of researching a new disease and having enough money afterwards to continue her Lupus research is too much temptation to resist. So, she agrees to Dylan's terms.

Dark Embers was a really difficult book for me to get into. While the main story was interesting, the relationship between Dylan and Phoebe was boring. Those two just didn't have much personality and their background stories were hinted at, but never fleshed out. This made Dylan's reluctance at wanting to keep Phoebe frustrating. Especially, when there was nothing given to show why he was so hesitant. For her part, Phoebe was a fairly interesting character. She was smart with her actions and didn’t let people push her around. However, I didn't appreciate her being punished for having a cool head in dangerous situations. In fact, the climax of the story just pissed me off. Phoebe rationally handles a difficult situation and the characters (Dylan in particular) take it as a huge betrayal. Due to the "betrayal" Dylan punishes Phoebe by throwing a huge man-child tantrum.

This brings me to my biggest problem with the book. The last sex scene is basically a rape scene. Read the following for an explanation of the scene.

Dylan is furious at Phoebe for not telling him of her speculations that another clan was the one killing off his dragons. Her reason for not saying anything is because she first wanted proof before saying anything that might begin a war and put lives at risk. Smart, right? Instead of seeing this as a mature and level-headed thing to do, Dylan flips out. He forcibly drags her to another room, hurting her in the process. Then, upon returning later that night, he finds Phoebe asleep and decides to have sex with her. At first Phoebe is with him, but then she changes her mind because his mood is too violent for her. That’s when this happens,

“For the first time, pain pierced the haze of pleasure that surrounded her, and again Phoebe struggled to get away. But he held her to him, careful not to hurt her despite his violent emotions and the heavy thrusts that brought him fully inside her…. The need to orgasm rose again, sharp, and insistent, and she tried to fight it. She didn’t want it—not like this. Not when Dylan was so angry with her…. But he didn’t give her a choice, and eventually her body betrayed her…. When it was over, he pulled out almost instantly and rolled away from her with a groan. He was asleep within moments, but she spent the rest of the night staring at the ceiling, tears leaking slowly down her face for all that they had found and lost” (271)

Then, to really drive it home,

“When she finally climbed out of bed the next morning, Phoebe was stiff, uncoordinated. Her body felt used, and not in a good way. She turned on the shower and then stared at herself in the mirror—at the marks Dylan had made on her last night, with his passion and his rage. There was a large bruise on her right shoulder from where he’d bitten her, a scratch on her right hip… Bruises ringed her wrists from where he’d kept her hands pinned against the bed…. She closed her eyes, barely able to look at the destruction- of her body and their relationship.” (272)

And one more disturbing quote about Phoebe’s emotions afterwards,

“…last night hadn’t been about desire or need or love or even hate. It had been about rage, about a fury so deep the only way he could express it was physically.” (272)

This scene completely killed the book for me. The number one thing that I cannot stand in books is rape scenes written under the guise of angry sex. What really infuriates me is that after this, the scene is never brought up again. It happens, the story moves on. What was the point? Dylan's character was just decimated and we're supposed to shrug and move on? I don’t give a flying crap if Dylan later saves Phoebe. I don’t care if he later saves the entire world. It doesn't make up for his abhorrent actions or magically redeem his character. And what about that reaction Phoebe had in the aftermath of that scene? Did she just randomly get over those feelings we saw her expressing about what Dylan just did? She said he had just destroyed their relationship but NOTHING came from it. Honestly, if I hadn’t almost been done with this book, I would’ve put it down after that scene. But since there were about 50 pages left, I chugged on and just ended the book pissed off.

A lot of people have enjoyed Dark Embers book. I can see why, Adams has a smooth writing style and her plot is fairly well fleshed out. But that last 25 percent of the book just killed it for me.

I find that I enjoy Love's books the most when I'm emotionally drained. That's usually the time that I want a low drama story that will still hold my attention. Love is pretty good for this, yet I almost always end up criticizing her for having too little drama. So... I'm a bit of a hypocrite. Especially, since the near zero drama going on in this story was one of my complaints.

Killian is a demon minding his own business down in hell when suddenly he finds himself standing in the middle of a girls' slumber party. The girls in question had been messing around with a spell that would summon a demon to grant the caster's wish. If Killian ever wants to return home, he has to find a way to grant the wish. Only problem is that the wish was from a little girl who just wants her older sister, Poppy, to find a boyfriend. Too bad Poppy isn't interested in dating.

Truth or Love was a really light and humorous story, but there's not much going on. A couple of minor obstacles appear during the plot, but they're quickly dealt with. Resolving the little issues this way, I didn't mind too much. What I did mind was that the biggest issue of the story was handled with the same quiet fizzling out. I mean come on, Killian is a demon and Poppy doesn't know it. Yet, they start a relationship. So I'm sitting there expecting some kind of blow out to eventually happen. However, when Poppy finds out what Killian is, she just automatically accepts everything. There's no freaking out that he works for the Devil. There's no turmoil over the fact that she probably can't trust what he's been telling her. There's not even some minor concern show over the fact that her little sister summoned a demon. I mean come on! Your little sister is practicing witch craft and it worked! How does that not cause some sort of reaction? Instead, Killian returns from hell (because Poppy's little sister did another spell) and Poppy just runs into his arms. The End. This was just way too neat of a wrap up for the story. I know its supposed to be a light paranormal...but still.

With all my negative comments though, Love has an easy and light writing style that sucks you in. And in all fairness I'll probably pick-up another novel by her in the future.

After reading Demon Angel I wasn't very excited about picking this one up. While Colin was an interesting character in the first novel, I wasn't keen on reading an entire book about him. Surprisingly, I ended up loving him.

Demon Moon is hard to explain, so I'm going to be lazy and copy/paste the backcover blurb here: No one would call vampire Colin Ames-Beaumont kind, but one would call him unnaturally beautiful. For two centuries his tainted blood has kept him isolated from other vampires, sustained only by his beauty and vanity -- bitter comforts. since a curse erased his mirror reflection, replacing it with a terrifying glimpse of Chaos.

Colin started off a bit annoying because he's narcissistic and cocky, but over the course of the story you really begin to see how much he values the few friendships he has. Those friendships are quite old though and Colin hasn't really tried to form new ones in a long time. This made watching him try to cultivate a relationship with Savi really fascinating.

Brook has a knack for writing characters who stand a little outside of human society because of their age or what they are. That gap between Colin and human society really came across in some scenes. But Savi was the character who stole the show. She's a computer genius who relies on her intelligence to get her out of the situations she finds herself in and this never wavered throughout the story. When the book opens, she's having a very James Bond-ish moment in an airplane that made me love her almost instantly. However, she has her limitations and she's aware of what they are. All in all, I really loved this installment of the series which turned out to be sweeter than I had anticipated.

Lothaire has found his Bride, the woman who brings his body back to life and is his destined mate. The problem is that two souls currently inhabit his Bride’s body. One is an evil goddess who lives for blood, violence, and all around nefarious deeds. The other is Ellie, a mortal hillbilly who is content to live-out life on her family’s land. Naturally, Lothaire assumes that his Bride is the evil goddess and begins planning a way to exterminate Ellie’s soul.

After waking up covered in other people’s blood, Ellie decides that the only way to stop the goddess from murdering is to kill the body they share. The problem with this plan is that every time Ellie devises a way to kill herself, Lothaire pops-up out of nowhere to stop her. After one close call, Lothaire decides that the safest place to keep an eye on Ellie is close by. With this in mind, Lothaire hauls Ellie off to his penthouse where she'll be prisoner until he discovers a way to kill her soul, so the goddess can assume total control of the body.

I had some major problems with the way the relationship between Ellie and Lothaire played out. The biggest one was the captive heroine storyline. I don’t usually enjoy stories where the heroines are taken captive by the hero and they fall in love. If done incorrectly (which it typically is) the romance takes on a creepy vibe that makes the relationship seem more like Stockholm syndrome. Despite that, I’ve read a couple captive heroine stories that I’ve enjoyed. This… was not one of those.

After taking Ellie prisoner, Lothaire immediately begins emotionally torturing her. He mocks, he threatens her family, he laughs, they boink, he has a violent episode, he sneers; wash, rinse, repeat until the end of the book. While the emotional torture is going on, Lothaire is also still hunting for an item to kill Ellie’s soul with. Eventually, he begins to realize that Ellie might actually be his Bride, which leads to a few tiny scenes where Lothaire regrets how he’s treated her. However, these moments are over in a blink of the eye and Lothaire immediately goes back to being a douche.So, by the end of the book, I hated his ass. I was actually hoping that Ellie would gain a backbone and run off with a different character.

Yes, Lothaire had some really awful moments in his life and at first I did feel sympathy for what he went through, but as the story progressed (and he just kept getting worse) that sympathy died. He was horrendous to Ellie and he never atoned for his actions. In the final ten pages he finally comes around, but after 300 pages of him being a total dickhead I needed a hell of a lot more from him than what we got.

The saving grace for this book was Cole’s writing style. I love Cole’s use of mythology in this series and I give her huge kudos for writing these books as if all the plots are happening at (or around) the same moment in time. I imagine that takes some serious effort.

If you haven't read any of the other novels in this series, I would not start with this one. I think Lothaire requires more background knowledge (which you gain in the other books) to really appreciate and understand all the events going on in the story. Also, if you didn't like the first book in the series (A Hunger Like No Other) you definately won't like this one as it has a similar vibe going on.

Magic Dreams by Ilona Andrews
Rating: 5

Love love loved this short story by Andrews. Magic Dreams is set in the Kate Daniel's world, but centered on the side characters Dali and Jim. Dali is a really quirky character. She's a vegetarian white tiger shifter who can't stand the taste of blood. When Dali comes home one night she discovers Jim, jaguar shifter and chief of the Pack's security, asleep on her bedroom floor. Everything about Jim screams "mate" to her, but he seems to only notice her when she's done something wrong. So, finding him napping in her bedroom means something is wrong. Soon Dali finds herself racing to figure out what is plaguing Jim before it's too late.

I've re-read this story several times since I bought this book. For being only about 70 pages long this is a pretty detailed story. Several shifters have turned up missing and everything about their disappearance screams magic is the cause. Since Dali is the only shifter who's well-versed in magic, Jim seeks out her help. Dali was a refreshing narrator primarily because she doesn't rely on her physical fighting skills. Instead, she's forced to use her intelligence and magic abilities, which is a nice contrast to Kate. My only complaint is that this wasn't a full length novel, but I'm excited to see if the rumors about Jim and Dali getting their own book are true. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Ice Shards by Yasmine Galenorn
Rating: 2

Ice Shards wasn't my cup of tea. I ended-up skimming a lot of it. I don't even remember much about the plot except that Iris was accused of murdering her ex-lover and was stripped of her powers. A few centuries later she goes on a quest to confront him, so that she can marry her new lover. The world here was really vague. It had a couple of interesting elements, but I just couldn't bring myself to get attached to any of the characters. I probably won't be picking up any of Galenorn's novels in the future.

Double Hexed by Allyson James
Rating: 3

Double Hexed is part of James' Stormwalker series. Never read any of those books, so this was a bit of an introduction. James' has a nice writing style, but the plot here was a little dull. It reminded me of the creative writing exercise where you trap a bunch of characters in a room and see how they react to each other. In this story, James' traps her main characters in a hotel and puts them at each others throats. The heroine, Janet, struggles to figure out a way to break the curse detaining them amidst all the tension. The story was entertaining enough that I'll probably eventually pick up the first Stormwalker book.

Blood Debt by Jeanne C. Stein
Rating: 2

Another one that didn't really capture my attention. Anna is a vampire/bounty hunter who was hired by some witches to kill someone. That kill has come back to bite her on the ass though. Anna accidentally broke sanctuary and is now facing trial for the crime. The trial was interesting, but the development of a relationship here seemed really rushed. Also, I couldn't really get a feel for any of the characters in the story. However, Stein's writing style was nice and the world seemed interesting. I might pick up the first book in the Anna Strong series eventually.

Maggie has a knack for getting into embarrassing situations. One such situation? Having the entire town know that she's in love with the local priest, Father Tim. Second situation? Going to a big church dinner completely smashed and declaring her undying love to said priest. Now Father Tim is determined to hook Maggie up with someone suitable. The dates end up being one huge disaster after another, but at least they're entertaining the locals who patronize Maggie's diner. While being stood up by one of those dates, Maggie finds herself cornered by her ex-boyfriend and his pregnant wife. Surprisingly it's Malone, the local recluse, who comes to her rescue.

I loved Malone. He remains an extremely quiet man throughout the book, but Higgins manages to show how much he likes Maggie through his actions. Maggie on the other hand was annoying. She's constantly making bad decisions that put her in embarrassing situations and reading those scenes was pretty painful. Maggie also sort of stalks Malone a few times and has the tendency to run her mouth off. I seriously wanted to shake some self-awareness into that girl and tell her to get a grip on herself. Despite my annoyances with Maggie, I enjoyed the storyline and side characters. I'll definitely be picking up another Higgins novel soon.

Ethan is a guardian (essentially humans turned angels) who has been keeping an eye on Charlie. Charlie is an ex-singer who is struggling to recover her life after a self-destructive streak. She's being watched by the guardians because her sister is currently dating a demon who wants to find a cure for vampires' bloodlust. Unfortunately, the demon has made plans for Charlie in order to secure her sister's cooperation.

Honestly, I wasn't too enamored with Demon Night. The storyline was good, but it dragged in some places. I also wasn't really able to get on board with Charlie and Ethan's relationship. Ethan by himself was great and Charlie was an interesting heroine, but something about them together just didn't click. The side characters really made up for the lack-luster relationship though.

We see a lot of Jake, a young guardian who was a Vietnam vet before being changed. He offers a lot of humor to story and it's great to see the way he interacts with Charlie. I also enjoyed how Brook used this plot to muddy the lines between good and evil. The first two novels in the Guardian series really have that "demons are pure evil" vibe going on. Even Demon Angel does despite having a demon heroine, because her "goodness" is subtly attributed to her being half demon. Demon Moon really starts to blur those lines through showing the relationship between Charlie's sister and her demon boyfriend. Yes, he has an agenda but it comes across that he really does love his girlfriend. However, the sister's attitude to what he does to Charlie pissed me off. Then again, the sister in general annoyed me.

All in all, this is a really great paranormal series, but if you're going to start reading these books, I would suggest doing it in order.

The hero in When Beauty Tamed the Beast is based off of the character Gregory House, from the TV show House M.D. This made me unsure about picking up the book. While I love House, I was afraid this would read like really awful fanfiction. Luckily, that wasn't the case. When Beauty Tamed the Beast is very light and humorous with engaging characters. There are also a few homages to the TV show casually thrown in (such as the mention of a patient with the last name Cuddy) but they weren't annoying.

The thing that really made this book enjoyable was the amount of time the two main characters spend together. It was a nice change of pace from other historical romances where the main characters are forced into a marriage and then spend half the book trying to avoid one another. Instead, Linnet and Piers get to know each other over the course of the story. So, you slowly start to see why they would be drawn together.

Also, the way Piers didn't have a sense of personal space was pretty amusing. The morning scenes when he'd come to wake Linnet up to go swimming where probably my favorite parts.

I don't think I'll read any more of the books from this series, but I would recommend fans of Historical Romance give this one a try.

This was a pretty dull read for being a MaryJanice Davidson book.

Princess Alex has severe insomnia, so her family's psychiatrist decides that a break from her normal surroundings might help and suggests that Alex takes a trip to help with the opening of an aquarium. However, when Alex gets there, she meets Dr. Sheldon Rivers who isn't happy at the prospect of having her bothering him while he works. For whatever reason, Alex thinks Sheldon's rudeness and grumpy behavior is hot. From there, the story devolves into a back and forth between the two either having sex or bickering.

My biggest problem with The Royal Pain is that there is no conflict. The story is entirely motivated by Alex and Sheldon bickering. I'm a fan of character driven stories, but not when their personalities never even clash. Everyone gets along, there's no real build up about Sheldon hating royals or even Alex's insomnia. In fact, those two problems hardly got mentioned after being brought up. Sheldon's attitude about rich people was mentioned once in the very beginning and then never brought up until the last couple of pages. As for Alex's insomnia.... Yes we see that she's not sleeping through most of the book but everyone is pretty "meh" about it, so when she does finally manage to get some sleep its not a big deal. Even though towards the end I started missing her insomnia because it was the one thing that made her character interesting.

I probably won't be continuing this series.

Paul is trying to get into gorgeous flight attendant Autumn's pants, but it's clear that she has no real interest and is just flattered by his attention. In the hopes of getting laid by Autumn in the future, Paul agrees to go to a family party with her less gorgeous sister, Gwen. At the party, Paul is shocked by how much fun he ends up having. Days later, he's still thinking about how relaxing it was to hang out with Gwen. So he tracks her down at her favorite bar and starts out on a quest to befriend her.

Paul is the main narrator of this book which was an interesting change of pace. Gwen also has a good chunk told from her perspective, but the story starts and ends with Paul's voice. This made for a really interesting story, because it became less about Gwen's hang ups and more about Paul's quest to transform his life. So instead of the heroine being sucked into the rich and powerful hero's world, its about the hero finding happiness in the heroine's life.In this respect, it was nice to see Paul's transformation with Gwen acting as a kind of guide. Watching them develop a friendship and really get to know each other before diving into a relationship was fantastic and really made them more believable as a couple.

My problem with the book, however, was a pretty big one. The climax of the story was really contrived and the blow-up that happens as a result seemed insignificant. It made Paul and Gwen's time apart look childish because of how small the problem was. The melodramatic cause for their separation made for a really unsatisfying reunion. There was also the smaller problem I had with Gwen's family. They were really cruel towards her for no apparent reason, which made them all seem like a bunch of cartoon villains.

Despite this though, I enjoyed most of the book and would recommend it to anyone looking for a quick read.

Jordan runs a wine shop in Chicago and also happens to be a billionaire heiress. One night while getting ready to close up her shop, two FBI agents approach her with a deal she can't turn down. If she helps the FBI get an undercover agent into a high profile Valentine's Day party, they'll spring her brother from prison. But the operation goes wrong when the FBI's target becomes jealous of Jordan's mystery date and hires a private investigator to dig up some dirt. So, now Jordan is stuck with an undercover FBI agent as a fake boyfriend.

Jordan was a wonderful character. She was sarcastic and really cared about her family. I loved that she didn't live in a bubble either. She had friends, family, and work obligations that are displayed in this story. I also really adored her relationship with her twin brother, the one who she's trying to get out of jail.

Nick, the hero, was also great, even if he did sometimes come across as a little bland. He was funny and I liked that you saw him struggle with the idea of a committed relationship and what that means for his career.

All in all, I would recommend this book for fans of Susan Elizabeth Phillips and Jennifer Crusie.

Wow this book was seriously demented. And not in a good suspense thriller kind of way, but in a disturbing uncomfortable way.

John Miller is an FBI agent who has taken the undercover case to trap a serial killer. His mission is to attract the attention of the black widow killer named Serena. A woman who marries men and then kills them soon after the wedding. A woman I couldn't help but picture looking like the Debbie from Addams Family Values. Anyway, Johns mission is to marry Debbie... I mean Serena and then expose her when she goes in for the kill. Conflicts arise however when he starts falling for Mariah, the woman Serena has manipulated into thinking she's her BFF.

When I say this book was demented I mean that the characters were all unlikable and the hero's actions throughout the entire book are extremely reprehensible. Mariah is such a flat character. She is a pure victim with nothing about her personality that gives her depth. She's also portrayed as a complete angel. She swoops in and fixes all of John's personal problems, builds homes for the poor, and rescues children from trees. In between her acts of saintly-ness Mariah bemoans the fact that she's divorced and is too tall. All this made her not only a dull character, but also pretty annoying to read about.

For his part, John isn't likable either. His whole role in the book is to complain about how he better not do "insert random action" because it'll hurt Mariah and then he goes and does it anyway. Yes, he's undercover but seriously... [spoiler]

He sleeps with Mariah and then a couple hours later marries Serena.[/spoiler]

Yick, whats worse is that he suffers no real consequences from Mariah for his actions. Mariah instantly forgives John for everything and they essentially confess their undying love for each other.

At the end of this book I was just left squicked out. I had the feeling that Mariah was only with John because she saw someone she could fix and John was just a sad sack who put Mariah on a pedestal. Love with the Proper Stranger has seriously made me leery about picking up a full length novel by Brockmann.

Eternal Kiss of Darkness follows the romance of Mencheres (a side character from Frost's Night Huntress series) and Kira, a private investigator.

Mencheres has grown weary of life and has put into action the means for him to commit vampire suicide. At least that's his plan until Kira stumbles into his life and unwittingly saves him from going through with his first attempt.

This would have been a really boring book if it hadn't been for Mencheres and eventually Vlad. I felt Kira was way too "mary-sue" for Mencheres. I loved that she was portrayed as level-headed and strong, but nothing about her was interesting. She had no grief about her past (despite being abused by an ex-husband) and selflessly devotes a large chunk of her income towards her dying sister. Kira just had no emotional settings aside from acceptance and concern. She found out vampires existed and was like "oh okay". In fact, that was basically her reaction to everything in this story. "Oh Mencheres you can fly? I guess that's okay." "Oh, some bad ass vampire is framing you and trying to force you into killing yourself and giving him your power? Well, okay then." "Oh! You're being forced to kill me and make me into a vampire and I have no say in the matter? Hmmm okay. I won't even be upset when I wake up." I mean holy crap lady, have a reaction about something that's happening around you!

Other than that, the story was okay. I always love a Chicago setting and a large chunk of the book takes place in that area. I also really loved Mencheres penchant for water, for some reason I found it rather cute. I just really really wish that he had been paired with a more interesting female character.

I would recommend this to fans Frost's Night Huntress series, because I think that without having a familiarity with the characters from the other books some of the charm would be lost.

The Last Twilight was an action packed thriller that had me sitting at the edge of my seat several times.

Rikki is a virus hunter doing work in the Congo, who unknowingly becomes the target of two different men needing her expertise. Both want her alive and are willing to go to extreme measures to ensure that she's taken captive.

Rikki was a pretty kick ass character. She's emotionally and psychically scarred which has caused her to take a rather jaded outlook on life, but despite her pragmatic approach to things, you can tell she's a compassionate person. Also, despite being the only human in a cast of supernaturals, Rikki is highly resourceful and can hold her own when things start to get dangerous. I always adore the heroines in Liu's books, because they're always well rounded characters who can kick a little butt.

Because of the threat to Rikki, her boss has hired Dirke & Steele to protect her. Amiri, a cheetah shifter, and Eddie, a guy who can light things on fire with his mind, are dispatched for the job. Amiri and Rikki both have some interesting pasts and as they get to know each other, you can see exactly why a connection between them forms. They know how to relate to the other and it's wonderful to see a relationship in a romance where you completely understand why the two characters are drawn to each other.

One of the other things that made this story so compelling for me was the Congo setting. The majority of the action is our heroes running for their lives through the jungle from two different pursuers. The atmosphere of the Congo really added to the suspense, because they were isolated with no way of contacting anyone who might be able to help. The jungle also added a level of creepiness in the "forest has eyes" kind of way. I just loved it.

My only regret is that I haven't read the series in order. I was all over the place with these books, reading the ones that sounded the most interesting to me first. So, while the Dirke & Steel series can be read as stand-alones, I would recommend reading them in order because there's a story arc that runs through the whole series. Unfortunately, some of the nuances of that arc were lost on me because of the way I've been reading the books.

Pleasure Unbound really took me by surprise. This one had been sitting on my "to be read" pile for months and I've just been ignoring it because honestly I couldn't remember why I had picked it up. But I was pleasantly shocked at how fun of a ride this story ended-up being.

Eidolon, an incubus, runs a demon hospital where the motto is: they have to treat everything that walks through the doors in need of assistance. Even baby munching demons and members of an organization that indiscriminately kill demons. Eidolon starts kicking himself for making that motto when Tayla, a member of one of those organizations, comes in with some bad injuries. Not only does he have to fix her up but he also has to keep his staff from killing and torturing her.

Ione does incubus demons right. Eidolon was fantastic and I enjoyed how steamy the read was. The only thing that got a little annoying for me in the story was Tayla's determination to hold onto her prejudices surrounding demons. Even after her organization tried blowing her up, she was still desperately clinging to her belief that they were the good guys. But the reason behind Tayla's stubbornness was explained really well and saved her character from becoming too obnoxious.

If you're looking for a fun, fast paced paranormal romance I would recommend this book.