Reliquiae Challenge Completed!

A few days ahead of the deadline - Jan 15th - I have just completed another challenge. I really enjoyed the books I read and I do plan to continue reading urban fantasy. Although it wasn't just that genre the majority of what I read can be included in that and I found that I quite enjoyed them.



I had entered for the Haunted Nights level, meaning read 6 books by Jan 15th.

Books read:

Christine Feehan - Turbulent Sea
Christine Feehan - Hidden Currents
Nalini Singh - Branded By Fire
Lara Adrian - Kiss of Midnight
Patricia Briggs - Blood Bound
Patricia Briggs - Iron Kissed

Iron Kissed - Patricia Briggs

When her former boss and mentor is arrested for murder and left to rot behind bars by his own kind, it's up to shapeshifting car mechanic Mercy Thompson to clear his name, whether he wants her to or not. And she'll have to choose between the two werewolves in her life-whether she wants to or not.

As mentioned in my last book review I couldn't resist starting this one immediately after finishing with Blood Bound. If, in the previous book, Briggs shows us the vampire world she has created then this one is mostly dedicated to the Fae.

There is a murder on the loose among them and Zee, Mercy's Fae friend asks for her help in smelling the crime scenes to see if she can help them. They prefer to solve it and keep it quiet so as not to alert the humans who look at them, and at werewolves and vampires, with distrust. But before Mercy can reach a definite conclusion the main suspect is found dead and Zee is arrested on suspicion of murder. With Fae ready to let him take the fall for all murders Mercy seems the only one interested in saving him and in investigating she manages to make a few more enemies.

Briggs also develops Mercy's love life... She is wooed by two Alpha werewolves, Samuel and Adam. Both in the last book and this one I think Briggs brought us closer to Samuel and I was wondering where that was going to lead. We know his motivations a lot better and he gets to spend more time with Mercy. I won't ruin it for everyone by saying who she finally chooses but I felt Briggs handled it beautifully and I really liked Mercy's conversation with the one she is leaving behind. We, and Mercy, are also made more aware of pack politics and the importance of being declared a mate by the Alpha and how that affects the whole pack in a negative way when it's not acknowledged. Although my romantic side would like to see the third party have his own book I am definitely happy that this situation is solved and that they can all go on with their lives and to new adventures.

But all is not well as the story ends on a very tragic note. I'm not sure where Briggs is planning to take us with that part of the storyline since it is obvious to me that Mercy won't be magically healed from this. We saw the beginning of that but I felt the book definitely ended with a darker tone and I am very curious to know what she will bring us in book 4.

Grade: 4.5/5

Blood Bound - Patricia Briggs

Mechanic Mercy Thompson has friends in low places-and in dark ones. And now she owes one of them a favor. Since she can shapeshift at will, she agrees to act as some extra muscle when her vampire friend Stefan goes to deliver a message to another of his kind.


But this new vampire is hardly ordinary-and neither is the demon inside of him.

It took me a long time to pick up this book 2 in Mercy Thompson's series but now that I've read it I can't wait to continue with it. Iron Kissed is what I'm going to read next! Mercy is a walker; a shape shifter than can turn into a coyote her world is filled with vampires, werewolves, fae and occasionally humans.

In this story Mercy receives a request for help from her friend Stephan, the vampire, in the middle of the night. He is going to investigate a sorcerer turned Vampire that he fears can dominate him with magic but won’t dominate Mercy. His fears are confirmed and he and Mercy end the night a bit worse for wear while the sorcerer/vampire goes off to do more horrific things.

Stephan vows not to endanger Mercy again and goes off to destroy the entity on his own but not only he disappears as Warren, Mercy's werewolf friend is found almost dead, and Mercy is asked by Marsilia, the head of the vampires, to find and destroy the sorcerer that is on a murdering spree and calling the cop's attention to both vampires and werewolves.

There were two things I really enjoyed in this story, first that we find out a lot more about how the vampires are organised, about their powers and how they "work"; secondly that it made Mercy a very strong heroine, capable of defeating her enemies without turning into a machine with no feelings.

On the romantic front Mercy is still divided between Adam and Samuel and seems unable to make a choice since doing so would mean letting go of one of them. While this could easily seems the work of a needy and manipulative person I think Briggs handles it with much success by making us aware of Mercy's feelings that truly make her a well rounded character.

Grade: 4.5/5

Kiss of Midnight - Lara Adrian

INSATIABLE DESIRE. ENDLESS SEDUCTION. ONE TOUCH IS JUST THE BEGINNING.

He watches her from across the crowded dance club, a sensual black-haired stranger who stirs Gabrielle's deepest fantasies. But nothing about this night--or this man--is what it seems. For when Gabrielle witnesses a murder outside the club, reality shifts into something dark and deadly. In that shattering instant she is thrust into a realm she never knew existed--a realm where vampires stalk the shadows and a blood war is set to ignite.

Lucan Thorne despises the violence carried out by his lawless brethren. A vampire himself, Lucan is a Breed warrior, sworn to protect his kind--and the unwitting humans existing alongside them--from the mounting threat of the Rogues. Lucan cannot risk binding himself to a mortal woman, but when Gabrielle is targeted by his enemies, he has no choice but to bring her into the dark underworld he commands.

Here, in the arms of the Breed's formidable leader, Gabrielle will confront an extraordinary destiny of danger, seduction, and the darkest pleasures of all . . . .

I must confess that I was a bit wary of reading this book because there are so many vampire stories out there already. But a friend lent it to me with a high recommendation and I decided to give it a go. I did enjoy it, but I'm not sure how original it actually is. After I finished reading it I exchanged some comments with my friend and while I felt some parts were a copy of Feehan's Carpathian world, she felt that some parts were a copy of Ward's Brotherhood series. On comparing notes I realised we were both right, there are similarities to both series.

Despite that I think Adrian managed to write an enjoyable book. Gabrielle is actually an interesting character, even if she doesn't seem to have a real job which I think could have made her a bit more real, with her zeal to see justice done and have the police investigate the murder she saw. Lucan, is the older vampire and the leader of those sworn to protect humans and vampires from those who embraced evil by giving in to the bloodlust. He is a bit more mysterious and even his friends seem to keep a distance from him. He looks for Gabrielle thinking of erasing her memories so she won’t tell other people what she saw, but he quickly finds that things are not as easy as he is instantly attracted to her and then discovers that Gabrielle is a breed mate. One of those rare women who are destined to mate with one of his kind.

Gabrielle soon becomes a target of the evil guys and Lucan solution is to take her to the compound, the place where all the vampire warriors live together with their mates. There they get to know each other better and Gabrielle starts learning about the vampire way of life.

There were some nice original details like the breed mark or the unexpected betrayal one of the vampires faces but other than it follows much of the same storyline we've read elsewhere. And of course there are all those other warriors who are just dying to have a book of their own... and one of these days, if I feel like it, I might just read them. Because they're fun...

Grade: 4/5

Branded by Fire - Nalini Singh

Though DarkRiver sentinel Mercy is feeling the pressure to mate,

she savagely resists when Riley Kincaid, a lieutenant from the SnowDancer pack, tries to possess her. The problem is not simply that he pushes her buttons; the problem is that he’s a wolf, she’s a cat, and they’re both used to being on top.But when a brilliant changeling researcher is kidnapped from DarkRiver territory, Mercy and Riley must work together to track the young man—before his shadowy captors decide he’s no longer useful. Along the way, the two dominants may find that submitting to one another uncovers not just a deadly
conspiracy, but a passion so raw that it’ll leave them both branded by
fire.

Let me start this review by saying that I think this is one of the best books in the Psy/Changeling series. Ever since I read the first book in the series and enjoyed it so much that I've waiting for another such story to grade as a 5 out of 5 and this one is definitely it.

This is the story of Mercy, the Darkriver leopard sentinel and Riley, the Snowdancer wolf sentinel. They work together because they were assigned as the liaison for their respective packs. Mercy and Riley are similar in many ways, both alpha with the same amount of responsibility and devotion towards their pack. Things are especially tough for Mercy because as an alpha sentinel she knows there is a good possibility of never finding a compatible mate. While the human in her wants to love and be loved leopard may just be too independent and dominant to let itself be tamed in the name of love.

The need to mate is pressuring Mercy and she needs a release, when Riley challenges her to give in to their attraction they soon are involved in what she thinks is a "one time only" kind of thing. Riley, however, has other ideas and keeps tempting Mercy.

I loved it how both characters were changelings and how that could be a problem for their relationship. Not only Mercy has the problem of being dominant and needing a strong mate but she also thinks about what their eventual future children might face and which one of them would have to have their link to the pack broken so they can follow the other. I think Mercy was a very rounded character facing many problems women face and adding to those by being a changeling. By bringing all these problems into the open Singh made me realise how complex the world she built is and how I really enjoy spending time in it.

Riley also has a few problems to deal with. He is the quiet one and definitely has a dark side where he hides all his secrets, all the anguish he suffered when his sister Brenna was abducted and tortured, and Mercy was the only one who could make him open up. I loved how Riley fought for his relationship with Mercy and, in the end, he was ready to put her happiness above his own. Both characters felt very real and human. I loved how they complemented each other, how Mercy was such a strong woman but she was still caring and nice and how Riley was so closed up in himself but totally changed with Mercy.

While there was an external plot about some people being knidnaped and the Human Alliance agenda the truth is that Mercy and Riley's relationship does take center stage and that's what I was interested in. I can't wait for the next book to come out.

Grade: 5/5

Hidden Currents - Christine Feehan

From afar, Sheriff Jackson Deveau has always loved Elle Drake, the youngest telepath of seven magically gifted sisters. After a long time away she's finally returning home to the small coastal village of Sea Haven. But someone has been following Elle, someone who doesn't want her to make it back. And when Elle fails to arrive, her disappearance strikes fear in the hearts of everyone who loves her. Now it's left to Jackson to uncover the mystery of Elle's vanishing, and rescue her from an unseen danger. But Sea Haven is no longer safe for anyone, and it'll take the powers of all the Drake sisters and their men to survive the coming storm.

Hidden Currents is the last book in the Drake Sisters series... I've really enjoyed the series so far and I must say that I think Feehan came up with a very different and definitely darker book than the others to close the series. While I had no problems with it the number of negative reviews on Amazon surely attests to the fact that a lot of readers do.

To begin with, Elle, who is an undercover cop is found out and tortured by the man she was investigating. Not only that but he wants to break her completely by using pain and there are several descriptions of Elle being tortured and I can tell that some thrillers don't go as far in the descriptions as Feehan went.

The man who is torturing her also has some paranormal powers so while her sisters can tell Elle is alive than cannot discover where she is and how to help her. Her only chance of surviving and maintaining her sanity intact is the fact that Jackson, the man destined for her, can actually get into her head and sooth her the way she did for him when he was a prisoner of war.

After Jackson discovers where she is, he with the other men in the family does mount a rescue operation to save Elle. During that operation we discover that one of the men guarding her at the bad guy's orders is actually Ilya Prakensky brother and he may not exactly be what he seems (can't wait to find out more about him) and while they do rescue Elle the bad guy gets away.

The bad guy is Stavros and he is one of the leaders of a human trafficking ring that Elle was trying to stop. He is powerful and obsessed with Elle so they all will have to come together to keep her safe even after she is recues and is healing.

Jackson Daveau has been avoiding Elle since they both met. A survivor of an unhappy childhood and torture as war prisoner he never felt he would fit into the loving Drake family not to mention that he never felt he could be a good parent (and Elle is supposed to carry on the family tradition and have 7 children). But now, with everything that's happened, not only he is the right man to help Elle recover as maybe he has come to realise he can also be a family man.

The only part in the story that I found less than convincing was how quickly Elle healed both physically and mentally after her ordeal. It's a problem I also had with some of the previous books and even with magical help it seemed too fast.

Regarding the graphic detail of Elle's torture I can only say that so many times stories hint at really bad things that in the end don't happen, that, for me, it was surprising in a good way that the horrors promised were delivered. In the real world if an undercover cop gets caught by the bad guys what are the odds he will come out of it with minor scratches? Some people might want to skip those few chapters but I felt Feehan really went out with a bang and managed to end it with something different.

Grade: 4.5/5

Turbulent Sea - Christine Feehan

The star: Joley Drake was born with a legacy of unexpected magical gifts, but it was the gift of singing that made her an overnight sensation--a rock-and-roll goddess trapped by fame, fortune and ambition. Heated by the flush of success, Joley can have any man she wants. And there's only one man who can give her what she really needs.The bodyguard: Ilya Prakenskii, cool, inscrutable, dangerously sexy and working in the shadow of his infamous reputation-- that of a secret Russian hit man on the payroll of a notorious mobster. He's the last man Joley should get close to, yet when her life is threatened on tour, she has nowhere left to turn. But in the seductive safety of Ilya's embrace, is Joley really as secure as she imagines?

Ever since Ilya Prakenskii was introduced as a secondary character in this series and possible love interest for Joley that I have been convinced that their book would be one of my favourites. I love mysterious bad boys with a dangerous aura and Ilya, from the first, seemed exactly one of that kind.

I have realised that in my latest reviews of the series I have been somewhat remiss in mentioning the Drake sister’s powers and how that influences their stories. The truth is that sometimes I think Feehan goes a bit overboard in the magic department and since I tend to ignore what I don't like I just review them as contemporaries and that's that. It helps that they do live in a contemporary world and their most used powers are the knowledge that one of them may not be well and telepathy. Each has individual powers but they are only called into action when needed.

It's not as easy to ignore them in this story. What makes Ilya so interesting is the fact that he has powers much like the Drake sisters, in fact as the story progresses we realise he alone may have almost all of her powers. That is what enables him to make such an easy contact with Joley using telepathy whenever he wants and what allowed him to mark her as his - a scar in her hand that burns whenever...

The problem is that for a time it seems that Ilya may well be one of the bad guys. He is the bodyguard of a notorious Russian mobster and it is undeniable that he has killed more than his share of people at his boss's orders. This leaves all the sisters nervous as well as Jonas, Hannah's husband and the usual male protector the girls have. Especially as Joley, a superstar singer (yes Feehan also goes overboard with the kind of jobs she gives the sisters) usually attracts the wrong kind of male attention. Her power is precisely that with her voice she can attract, convince people to do what she wants.

A big part of the book is devoted to Joley and her band's life style, the problems with groupies and drug abuse and to a possible human trafficking ring that may have abducted a young girl who was a fan of the band. I must confess that I was not as interested in this as in knowing more about Ilya and in that Feehan does not disappoint. He may be brooding and mysterious but in this book he is clear and direct, he wants Joley! He has always been alone, having been raised to be a sort of super spook (spy) and his current job is part of an undercover operation. Although this somehow reassures the Drake's there is still the problem, or mystery, of his powers and what he really is. I really enjoyed knowing that and I'm looking forward to know even more about it as it seems a new series is already in the works. I can't really say much more without it being a spoiler but I guess it's no news that by the end of the story Ilya is accepted by everyone even though had to fight her sisters a bit in the beginning to make it so.

Joley and Ilya do make an interesting pair even if Joley does take a bit too long before trusting him. It can't be easy to put your trust in a possible Russian mobster but once the truth about him was revealed I think it was more her fears of commitment especially to such a determined alpha male that took centre stage.

It has occurred to me that fans of Anne Stuart's Ice series may well enjoy this book although Ilya ends up being a much lighter character than Bastian and his friends.

Grade: 4.5/5

Reliquiae Challenge

I'm joining another challenge, this one is organised by A. and A. and it's about Paranormal fiction so quite irresistible for me at the moment. Here are the rules:


1. Challenge runs from July 15th 2009 to January 15th 2010.

2. Choose the number of books you want to read by selecting one of the reading levels we’ve proposed (see below).

3. Books must fall under one, two or all of the categories we’ve proposed depending on the number of books you wish to read (see above).



Levels:

Bite on the Neck: 3 books.
Flying Cauldron: 4 books.
Deadly Red Moon: 5 books.
Haunted Nights: 6 books.




I have yet to choose the books but I'm going for the Haunted Nights level. You can join the challenge by visiting the blog.

Books read:

Christine Feehan - Turbulent Sea

Christine Feehan - Hidden Currents

Nalini Singh - Branded By Fire

Lara Adrian - Kiss of Midnight

Patricia Briggs - Blood Bound

Patricia Briggs - Iron Kissed