Review Date: 6/25/2007

This Regency Romance features Miss Charlotte Arkendale who was betrayed by her stepfather and forced to make her way alone in London with her 14 year old sister. She creates a business for herself - looking into the affairs of potential husbands for spinsters and widows who have recently come into money to ensure that the men are worthy of marriage. She wants to save them from the fate of her own mother's terrible match with her stepfather. When one of Charlotte's clients, Miss Drusilla Heskett, is killed, Charlotte feels that she must investigate the murder to ensure that the murderer was not one of the suitors that Charlotte had advised her to reject. Baxter St. Ives is also investigating Miss Heskett's murder - and Charlotte is his prime suspect. I really enjoyed this light romantic murder mystery. Charlotte is a heroine with a lot of backbone and almost no fear.

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Review Date: 8/4/2007

Helpful Score: 1

Lydia Smith has had a run of bad luck. She got lost in the alien catacombs for an entire weekend and as a result, lost her job as a professor of para-archeology. Now, she is working part-time at a third-rate dump of a museum. She is also trying to start out a new career as a consultant and Emmett London is her first client. Unfortunately, the first thing that happens is that Lydia finds a dead body - not a good way to start out a working relationship with a client who wishes to remain low-key. This was a fun romantic murder-mystery set on a different planet with several plot twists. I enjoyed it.

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Review Date: 8/23/2007

Helpful Score: 1

This is book 2 of the series - and you really need to read book 1: After Dark to truly understand all of what is going on.

Lydia Smith is basking in the glow of her new romance with Emmett London when Mercer Wyatt, the guild boss is shot and nearly killed in an attempted murder. On his way into surgery, Mercer names Emmett as the new temporary guild boss to take over until he recovers. Lydia despises everything about the guild as guild politics tend to trump other authorities on the planet Harmony. In the meantime, Lydia is having difficulties of her own, a man has summoned her to see him indicating that he has information about her "lost weekend" when she got lost in the alien catacombs beneath the human cities, but when she goes to see him, he is dead. So Lydia and Emmett are both trying to solve their own mysteries.

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Review Date: 7/27/2007

Helpful Score: 9

This is a collection of three short paranormal romance stories.

First, Masquerade by Amanda Ashley, the story of a Jason Blackthorne, who was unwittingly turned into a vampire 300 years in the past. He is ready to end his life by meeting the dawn when he encounters the beautiful Leanne who reminds him of his now long-dead wife. Can Jason keep his darker side in check while he dates Leanne, or will he turn her into a vampiress so he no longer has to be alone.

The second story is Dark Dream by Christine Feehan. Dark Dream is the story of Falcon, one of the ancient Carpathians sent out on a dangerous mission by the prince of the Carpathian people centuries in the past. He has been a hunter of vampires for many centuries. He has decided that he can no longer stand the darkness spreading in his soul, so he has planned one last trip to him homeland in the Carpathian mountains before he ends his life by facing the dawn to prevent himself from turning vampire. Along the way, he encounters Sara, his lifemate, who has been hunted by a powerful, ancient vampire for nearly her entire life. Falcon promises to protect both her and the street children she wishes to adopt from the vampire. Sara and the children all have psychic abilities, which is what draws the vampire to them.

The third story is Midnight Serenade by Ronda Thompson, the story of Rick Donovan, a veterinarian who has been bitten by and turned into a werewolf three years in the past. He moved to the wilds of Montana and built himself a cabin way out of town and led a solitary life so that he would not be a danger to those around him. Stephanie Shane went to Montana to film a documentary about wolves. The first night she encounters some poachers shooting at the largest wolf she has ever seen. Her interference saves the wolf, but she can't figure out where he went. Rick warns her to leave and tries to tell her she is in danger. She thinks he means in danger from the wolves, when what he really means is in danger from him. But, did he bite her the first night when she saved his life from the hunters? Will she also turn into a werewolf?

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Review Date: 8/13/2007

Helpful Score: 8

This is the second Nora Roberts book that I have read and I thoroughly enjoyed both of them. In this story, Reece Gilmore is trying to put her life back together after being the sole survivor of a brutal crime back in Boston. She has been drifting around the country and settles down in Angel's Fist, Wyoming because that is where her car broke down and she ran out of money. She takes a job as a short-order cook in the local diner and tries to act as normal as possible. She is doing an okay job of it until she goes hiking one day and witnesses a brutal murder. She is the only witness, and the police can't find a body, or a missing person, or any evidence of a crime. No one believes her except for a gruff loner named Brody. Everyone else thinks she is having flashbacks from the crime back in Boston. Reece must prove that there was really a murder or else she has fears for her own sanity. I just couldn't put this book down - the mystery kept me guessing until the very end.

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Review Date: 6/20/2007

Lori Shepherd grew up on stories of Aunt Dimity. She always thought that Aunt Dimity was someone her mother made up in order to tell her bedtime stories. Imagine her surprise when a law firm summons her to a reading of Aunt Dimity's will. Down on her luck Lori gets an all expense paid trip to Aunt Dimity's cozy English country cottage. All she needs to do is figure out the secrets held within Dimity's large accumulation of letters. This was a lightweight cozy mystery which I enjoyed reading.

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Review Date: 6/18/2007

Helpful Score: 12

This is a non-stop action thriller. The story starts out at the end of WWII as the Nazis are trying to hide all of their scientific knowledge from their enemies. Then you jump to present day in the Himalayas where a mysterious illness is killing people and animals alike. From there, you go to Denmark, where a simple observation mission turns into something more sinister and an agent is running for his life. Next, you go to South Africa where a game warden is being hunted by a creature that seems to be more nightmare than reality. Of course, you know that all of these seemingly unrelated incidents will come together - and they do. They are all related to the German experiment - which sought to interfere with the process of evolution. Kept me on the edge of my seat all the way to the end.

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Review Date: 10/29/2007

Helpful Score: 1

Gillian was orphaned by the plague at the age of 10 in the year 1349. She is found in the woods by two Upyr elders. Both offer to convert her, so she must choose if she wants to be converted to Upyr and by whom. After she makes her choice, she goes to live with a pack of Upyr shapeshifters. She becomes dissatisfied with her life and seeks to leave the pack to explore the world. She takes on the shape of a falcon - and is promptly captured by Aimery Fitz Clare, the mortal second son of a powerful lord. He takes her in and trains her for the hunt not realizing her true nature. Since this is a romance, you know they fall in love ... but even with the predictability, I still enjoyed it.

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Review Date: 6/24/2007

Helpful Score: 8

This next installment of the Dark Series was sooo much better than the previous book. As in all the previous books, this is the story of a Carpathian male (Julian) who has nearly lost the will to continue living meeting up with his "lifemate" (Desari) and trying to convince her that she belongs with him. A lifemate gives color, emotions, feelings and meaning back to his world. In this book, the heroine actually had some backbone and power to stand up to the powerful Carpathian. Julian learns that the ancient women of his race have power - just a different kind of power than the men. I also really liked the interaction between Desari's brother and Julian. More is revealed about the "Carpathian" race in this book as well.

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Review Date: 6/27/2007

Helpful Score: 2

In the continuing story of the Carpathian race, it is Darius' turn to find his lifemate. Desari, the singing sensation, has hired a female mechanic to care for the vehicles in their touring company. Darius is Desari's brother and in charge of security for the band. As soon as Darius sets eyes on Tempest, he claims her as his lifemate. Tempest, however, is human, and terrified of Darius. Darius decides to court Tempest, but dangers threaten all of them as the group of assassins threatening Darius' sister Desari are closing in and they see the new mechanic as a way to get close to their prey.

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Review Date: 7/15/2007

Helpful Score: 9

This is the best book in the series so far. Once again, another powerful Carpathian male discovers his lifemate. This time it is Lucian, Gabriel's twin. His lifemate is Jaxon - a tough, no-nonsense police officer. Several of the plot devices made sense to me. One, Lucian "stalks" her before making her aware of his presence - learning what he can about her rather than just walking in, stating that she is his lifemate and demanding that she fall in line. Two, she reacts like a normal human to him - she threatens to shoot him! I liked the fact that although he is very powerful, she is no shrinking violet. I also just loved hearing more about Carpathain history and how it is that Lucian was able to hold off the "darkness" in himself longer than any other Carpathian male.

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Review Date: 6/18/2007

Helpful Score: 1

Savannah Dubrinksi meets her Carpathian lifemate: Gregori, the Dark One, the most powerful of all the ancients. Gregori, of course, finds himself befuddled by Savannah. This book wasn't as good as the previous 3 in the series, because it was the same thing over again: powerful domineering Carpathian male meets his lifemate, who rejects him at first, but then succumbs to his advances. They are endanged by vampires or vampire hunters and end up having to work together to save themselves.

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Review Date: 9/24/2007

Helpful Score: 5

This is one of the better Carpathian novels by Ms. Feehan. At the end of Dark Celebration Manolito De La Cruz had been injured so badly that it took the great healer, Gregori, to pull his soul back from the dead. At the beginning of this book, part of Manolito's soul is still in the shadow world. His lifemate, MaryAnn is the only thing anchoring him to the real world. He is concerned that instead of her bringing him into the real world, he will drag her into the shadow world. The whole shadow world concept was interesting - kind of like purgatory. I liked it. I also liked how strong MaryAnn was even though she was completely out of her element in the Rain Forest (although the whole freaking out because she was wearing dumpy clothes thing was totally ridiculous!)

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Review Date: 8/5/2007

In the continuing saga of the world of the Carpathians, Byron Justicano has found his lifemate: Antonietta Scarletti. Antonietta was blinded in a terrible accident when she was five, the same accident that killed both of her parents. In spite of her blindness, she is a famous musician. Byron is drawn to her music. Unfortunately, someone is trying to kill Antonietta and members of her family. It is up to Byron and Antonietta to unravel the mystery. As this series continues, I like to see characters from previous books enter into the story line. It enhances the view of the world of the Carpathians. You definitely want to read these books in order!

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Review Date: 6/18/2007

Helpful Score: 3

Sookie Stackhouse is a cocktail waitress in a small town in Louisiana. She has a "disability" in that she can read people's minds. She keeps this a secret, and most of the people in town think she is just crazy. One day, she meets a vampire named Bill. She is intrigued by him because she cannot read his mind. She falls in love with Bill, which causes all kinds of problems. There have been several murders around town and all the clues point to a vampire doing the killing. Sookie doesn't know if she is falling in love with a murderer. I enjoyed the pretend world of vampires mixed in with the murder mystery - and the mystery part of the book kept me guessing up until the very end.

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Review Date: 9/9/2007

Helpful Score: 4

Finally, after the last two books, a good Dark Hunter story again. I was about to give up on this series! This is the story of the Sumerian Fertility God: Sin. He isn't exactly a Dark-Hunter as he never died, he was drained of his powers by Artemis' trickery and left to die. Acheron found him like that and trained him to be a Dark-hunter so that he could continue to protect the world from Sumerian demons. Artemis gets mad at Sin and sends one of her handmaids: Kat Agrotera to kill Sin ... but, of course, it isn't that simple. Sin is the only Sumerian God left which means he is the only one who can save the world from the Sumerian demons. Kat and Sin decide to work together to rid the world of the Sumerian demons. Of course, this is a romance, so they fall in love in the process. Enjoyed it very much. It finally answered A LOT of questions about the characters in this series.

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Review Date: 6/21/2007

The further adventures of Lavinia and Tobias (as started in Slightly Shady) ... Lavinia and Tobias, now lovers and business partners, are in search of a killer. Celeste, the wife of an old family friend of Lavnia's is murdered. To complicate matters, a priceless bracelet is also missing. Lavinia and Tobias figure that if they can find the bracelet, they will find the killer. Of course, they aren't the only ones searching for it. This was a charming, light read that made me chuckle. I especially like the lively interaction between Lavinia and Tobias.

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Review Date: 7/31/2007

Helpful Score: 6

In this mix of fantasy and romance, Arikos is a dream god condemed to live in a world without emotions by the God Zeus. The only time he can feel any emotions is when he is inhabiting the dreams of others. He is drawn to the dreams of Dr. Megeara Kafieri. Megeara "Geary" only relaxes in her dreams. In the real world, she is continuing her father's quest for Atlantis. The quest that ended up destorying her father. Arikos is so drawn to Megeara that he makes a deal with Hades, two weeks of being human in exchange for one human soul - Mageara's.

I really liked the way that Arikos struggles with the differences between dreams and reality. He truly doesn't understand why Geary doesn't react to him the same way she does in her dreams. He's totally clueless about the mundane things in life - the things that people skip over in their dreams.

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Review Date: 8/2/2007

Grace Alexander is a sex therapist who has been celibate for 4 years after her first terrible sexual experience with a horrible self-centered man. Grace's best friend decides that Grace needs to break out of her shell, so she summons Julian of Macedon to help her out. Julian of Macedon has been cursed into a book as a love-slave, existing only to give pleasure to the women who summon him for one month - and then he is gone from their lives forever. Grace doesn't want to use Julian the way she was used by her former boyfriend, so she treats him like a human being instead of a love slave and, of course, sets out to try and free him from the curse. A fun, light, romance novel!

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Review Date: 10/24/2007

Molly Murphy has set herself up as a private investigator, taking over for the recently deceased Paddy Riley. She is disgusted with divorce cases and ends up taking on two cases. One case involves discovering who is stealing designs from a garment manufacturer. The other case involves locating a daughter who has run away from Ireland to the USA. The story exposes the horrible working conditions of the garment workers in New York City at the turn of the century. This book combines history, mystery, and romance Fun reading!

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