Gracie

1 of 1 members found this review helpful.

• Rated 5 stars

“Gracie C. McKeever (c) October 2009

DarkRiver sentinel and alpha leopard female, Mercy Smith begins to wonder if she is cut out to have a mate or will she ultimately wind up alone. She thinks the latter will be a reality for the mere fact that no mere submissive changeling can please her but neither will an alpha submit to her leopard. What's a female alpha to do, especially when she's attracted to an alpha wolf who wants nothing better than to have a submissive homemaker as his mate?

Riley Kinkaid is a SnowDancer alpha wolf and lieutenant to his Pack's alpha. Riley is known as the Wall to those in SnowDancer and DarkRiver. He prides himself on his control and refuses to let anyone get the upper hand with him or get passed his Wall, especially not the infuriatingly sexy and sizzling leopard, Mercy. Sex is one thing, but anything more intimate with a woman as indepdent and stubborn as the red-headed firebrand is out of the question. He has lost too much already to open up his heart or let his guard down again.

Mercy and Riley have been rubbing each other the wrong way for years but now that their Packs have formed an alliance, they will have to finde a middle ground in order to work together. The truce, however, does nothing to cool the fires between the pair, instead heats things up even more.

When a young genius researcher changeling is snatched from his home by the Human Alliance, Mercy and Riley must work together to get him back and find out who is behind the recent violence in their territories and the random Psy violence that has been breaking out all across the country.

Through adversity and the possibility of all-out war between the Psys and changelings, Mercy soon learns that there is a lot more to her annoying alpha wolf than meets the eye. Once she realizes what is really behind his control issues and overprotectiveness, can her leopard accept the possibility of breaking with her Pack in order to accept the mating bond?

A riveting, fast-paced story, scorching and off-the-charts h/h chemistry, and engaging and multi-layered plot and sub-plot characters makes this the best story yet in the psy-changeling series for me.

I highly recommend it!”

Gracie wrote this review Monday, October 5 2009. ( reply | permalink )

1 of 1 members found this review helpful.

• Rated 3 stars

“A gifted ex-jazz pianist turned teacher, Camille King was married to older jazz musician Elroy before his tragic death a year ago. Elroy was more interested in his career than starting a family. To appease Camille's dreams of becoming a mother and to make sure time doesn't run out on their ability to conceive at the right time, Elroy stores his sperm at the Hadley Clinic. After his death, Camille conceives a child through alternative methods with her dead husband's sperm.

Nicholas Cardoneaux is a talented and rich architect and closet artist with a respected family name and social prestige. But what he wants most in the world is to have a child. He and his wife Lauren lost four children in miscarriages. Each one was more heartbreaking to the married couple than the last, but the last preganancy passed the danger point when Nicholas' wife was involved in a car accident and miscarried as a result. Unable to deal with the aftermath, Lauren files for divorce despite Nicholas' arguments against it.

Nicholas and Lauren had also been clients of the Hadley clinic, their last conception, in fact, taken care of there.

Through a cruel twist of fate, Camille and Nick are introduced at the clinic one day and what they discover will turn their whole world upside down.

This wasn't the worst book I've ever read though there were some problems that pulled me out of the story at times, specifically issues like the mechanics (e.g., POV shifts mid-scene, tense shifts, scene shifts with no delineation or transition, whole sections of inner thoughts that should have been italicized all of which proved a little jarring). But despite all this, there was something about the characters and the storyline that pulled me in and kept me interested and reading until the end to find out what happens. I cared about the characters and wanted to know what their final fate was.

Though the plot and characters had cliched moments, the premise was inventive and original. As far as the enjoyment factor goes, and my ability to suspend my disbelief, Clark has produced a page-turner.

I recommend this book for fans of the genre. ”

Gracie wrote this review Sunday, October 4 2009. ( reply | permalink )

1 of 1 members found this review helpful.

• Rated 2 stars

“Gracie C. McKeever (c) September 2009

First off, I didn't finish this. I made it to page 220 after three months of half-heartedly reading it and finally gave up. I just couldn't go any further. I never warmed to the hero and heroine, didn't really like or care about them as people and I didn't like the storyline.

I still love Singh's writing but this book, this series, just isn't my cup of tea. ”

Gracie wrote this review Thursday, October 1 2009. ( reply | permalink )

1 of 1 members found this review helpful.

• Rated 3 stars

“Ivan Drake is a hybrid vampire witch born with a great burden on his shoulders. Before his birth, his parents, a powerful witch and a vampire phoenix, mortal enemies, fell in love and conceived him. Unfortunately, they made a bargain, through no fault of their own, to give up their first born to Himself.

Twenty-one years after his birth, Himself comes to claim payment, taking Ivan's soul and appointing him the devil's fixer.

Seven years later, still a babe in years, but having seen and done things no mortal or immortal being should have to see, Ivan is well into his service as the devil's fixer when Himself comes to him with an assignment that will prove most vexing and enlightening. Himself wants the Grand Grimoire, a book of every witch's spell ever cast. Ivan must go through the keeper of the book, a beautiful and powerful centuries-old witch named Desideriel Merovech, to get it.

Dez lives on the outskirts of the picturesque and small town called Willow Cove. She runs a perfume shop and grows flowers, but after so many centuries of being on her guard, the solitude and exclusion is getting to her. She wants more than anything to be friends with the people in the town and not have them look and walk the other way in fear and revulsion when they see her. But the flapping lips of a would-be lover has ruined this little fantasy. Maybe if Dez weren't bound to protect the Grand Grimoire at all costs, bound to the book by her very blood, she could live a more normal life. Then again, with her background, maybe not.

When Ivan comes to town all smoldering charm and sensual heat such as she's never experienced before, not even she can say no to him. At least not when it comes to her letting him escort her to the Rose Club's bash in town. It's the first time she has been allowed an in with the townspeople, and she can't refuse the chance at the companionship. Not even at the cost of entertaining her mortal enemy in Ivan the vampire witch.

But soon Dez learns that she and Ivan have much more in common than either believes. Neither considers the other an enemy. How can they when Ivan is both witch and vampire and his parents have helped formed the Gray Council to mediate and end the escalating war between vampires and witches? If it weren't for one tiny little element, that being Ivan's status as the devil's fixer and his mission to try and get the Grand Grimoire from Dez, they could very well be at the beginning of a grand romance. But Himself has other ideas--that of using the young hybrid and the witch's greatest vulnerabilities and temptations against them to get what he wants.

Both Dez and Ivan were engaging characters with realistic motivations and well-rounded histories. I loved their chemistry and the subplots involving Ivan's parents and the Gray Council were a nice added touch.

This was an entertaining follow-up to Kiss Me Deadly and an enjoyable read. ”

Gracie wrote this review Sunday, September 27 2009. ( reply | permalink )

1 of 1 members found this review helpful.

• Rated 3 stars

“Gracie C. McKeever (c) September 2009

Eiliza Tahan is an Assistant Editor at J Press who becomes the suspect in the murder of her less-than stellar and bitchy boss when said boss turns up the victim of a vehicular wreck with an author's rejection letter left at the scene. And Eliza is the one who signs all the rejection letters. So is she the next victim or is she the culprit?

Eliza also has a tragic past that affects her a lot more than she thinks and until she digs deeper and deeper on her own into who might have been responsible for first her boss's death and now her roommate's accident, she thought she was doing a good job of taking care of herself and healing.

The first-person narrative was an instant turn-off for me, but I guess I should have been prepared since a lot of mysteries and whodunits are written in this style. I couldn't really relate to Eliza, she didn't have the greatest chemistry with Adam (and since I didn't get his point of view, I couldn't relate much to Adam either), thus I didn't connect with the characters as much as I would have liked.

Overall, this was an okay romantic whodunit with the ending and final reveal a real surprise I didn't see coming and the saving grace of the book. Otherwise, I probably would have given it a two. ”

Gracie wrote this review Thursday, October 1 2009. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 4 stars

“Gracie C. McKeever (c) September 2009

Tasting Fear is a collection of three novellas all linked by the three heroines, the D’Onofrio sisters, and the mysterious circumstances behind their adoptive mother’s death.

In “Outside the Limit” oldest sister Nancy is the reliable sister, the organizer that everyone counts on. She’s also the manager of several musical acts and is a bit of a workaholic. When her mother is killed and clues pointing toward foul play connected to the Nazis and hidden treasures begin to mount, the sisters are on their guard. But it’s not enough to prevent Nancy’s near abduction in the stairwell of her own apartment building. Except for Liam, the carpenter her mother hired to renovate her home before her death and whom she intended for Nancy to meet, Nancy would have wound up in the hands of her mother’s killer.

Liam is big and steady as an oak. At thirty-seven, he’d love to settle down with a woman in his upstate home, someone who likes to cook and sew, a homebody. And ambitious and independent Nancy D’Onofrio is so far removed from his ideal that he can’t imagine getting involved with her. But his body is another matter and has ideas of its own.

In “Ask for More” Antonella, or Nell to her friends and family, has a mammoth crush on one of the customers who comes to the restaurant where she waitresses part-time. He comes the same time every day and never raises his eyes from the laptop he brings with him. He orders the same thing every day too and doesn’t seem to notice anything outside of his laptop screen. Nell’s employer and self-appointed surrogate mother and her co-workers refer to her crush as Strip Steak and though they encourage her to “go for it” and get him to notice her, they think he’s too unimaginative for her. For Nell, a poet and the family linguist pursuing her doctorate in literature, Strip Steak aka Duncan Burke and his inflexibility could be a problem, but Duncan proves to have many more layers than meets the eye.

Duncan is the pit bull of his family, intense, detail-oriented, reliable, logical and unromantic. It is his cool logic and practicality that gets him into hot water with the idealistic and sensitive Nell again and again. But when The Fiend and Co. resurface and attempt to abduct Nell, Duncan’s intensity and detail-orientated nature prove life-savers for Nell and exactly what she needs.

Finally, there’s youngest sister Vivi. In “Ready or Not” Vivi is a tough, tattooed and pierced artist who likes keeping people off-balance and guessing. When she agrees to go to Oregon to stay in the empty apartment of one of Duncan’s combat buddies for safety’s sake and until The Fiend can be caught, it is her very untraditional appearance and attitude that throws Jack Kendrick for a loop and sets him on edge.

Vivi is not what Jack expected at all. From Duncan’s vague description of the situation, he had not expected the “teenager, neo-hippie sexpot” that he rescues when Vivi’s camper-van home gets stuck in the mud on his land during a rain storm. He did not expect to be so totally attracted to someone so inappropriate and obviously flighty and likely to leave him at a moment’s notice should he be stupid enough to let his heart get involved either. But there’s no accounting for tastes…or his suddenly energized, rampant libido.

This collection of stories proved an entertaining and exciting ride, each story and h/h growing on the reader like a comfortable, well-loved sweater as the book moved along. Engaging characterizations, sizzling h/h chemistry, snappy dialogue, humor and the usual chills, thrills, spine-tingling suspense and psychotic, beyond-evil villains readers have come to expect in a Shannon McKenna romance abound. Oh, and let’s not forget lots of hot, erotic sex between intense, protective alpha males with serious abandonment and daddy issues and vulnerable but independent, spirited career women who just need a little love, tenderness and reassurances that there's more to life than the perfect job.

I highly recommend this for McKenna fans or just fans of the erotic romance suspense genre.”

Gracie wrote this review Thursday, October 1 2009. ( reply | permalink )

1 of 1 members found this review helpful.

• Rated 4 stars

“Gracie C. McKeever (c) August 2009

Maddy is a rich socialite who also happens to be a dediced workaholic who, because of the many failed relationships of her sister and father, does not believe in love, but especially happily ever afters. When she is tapped to bid on a bachelor gigolo at a charity event to keep her stepmother from doing so and straying on Maddy's father, Maddy soon finds out that there is hope for her despite her jaded view.

Jake Wallace is a dedicted and sensitive EMS paramedic who by a twist of Fate and having his arm twisted finds himself on the bidding block, ogled by the fashionable and rich elite at a charity event. When he spots Maddy before coming up on stage he manifests his destiny praying that it will be she, the warm and real woman to bid on and win him rather than the other thin, cool ice princesses at the event. When he gets his wish, however, he finds out that he is up against some stiff competition in order to win Maddy's heart, that being her jaded view on love and a series of miscommunications that have Maddy believing Jake is a gigolo who sleeps with women for money.

Rather than reveal the truth too soon and clear things up, Jake goes along with Maddy's idea to be with her exclusively for 30 days, believing that by the end of this time he will get her to see him for who and what he really is and trust him, if not outright fall in love with him. But Jake soon learns that things don't always work out the way he plans.

Sweet and passionate romance with an engaging and energetic h/h at the center of a humorous and entertaining story. I enjoyed this one. ”

Gracie wrote this review 13 days ago. ( reply | permalink )

1 of 1 members found this review helpful.

• Rated 3 stars

“Gracie C. McKeever (c) August 2009

Average romance. Nothing special about the hero and heroine despite their "larger than life, perfect" lives, but more importantly there was no real heat between them. Enjoyable read, but nothing special. ”

Gracie wrote this review Thursday, October 1 2009. ( reply | permalink )

1 of 1 members found this review helpful.

• Rated 3 stars

“Gracie C. McKeever (c) September 2009

Nikolaus Drake has survived a murder attempt by a witch and is the rarest of vampire's now--a powerful phoenix. After months of healing and rehabilitation, his one mission in life is to get revenge on the witch who tried to kill him--Ravin Crosse. Nikolaus' biggest mistake, however, is busting in on Ravin in the midst of her completing the preparation of a love potion for Himself. Ravin is drenched with the concoction when Nickolaus breaks in . When he bites her and takes in a healthy dose of her tainted blood, the affect is instantaneous and comically tragic; Nickolaus falls in love with his mortal enemy.

Ravin Crosse is on a mission of her own, that to kill vampires wherever she can find them, destroying the beings responsible for destroying her family and her life. She's been holding her grudge against the vampires for centures and it takes her new besotted lover Nikolaus to show her how useless and draining the proposition of hatred and revenge is.

Good solid conflict, nice, heated love scenes, engaging h/h with tangible chemistry. I enjoyed this paranormal romance and recommend it for fans of the genre. ”

Gracie wrote this review 13 days ago. ( reply | permalink )

• Rated 4 stars

“In this sequel to Soul Bonds, Mitchell’s best friend Brian, a private detective, meets his match in sexy cowboy Rush. Unfortunately, Rush has some issues to deal with the least of which is the memory of his homophobic and intolerant father that keeps Rush from being himself. Brian is patient, but refuses to go back in the closet and won’t accept Rush until he can come out and live his life and love Brian openly.

Appearances by Mitchell and Sammi from Soul Bonds complete this erotic and sensitive romance and the climactic love scene is both explosively imaginative and inspired. Both books are well - worth the read for any M/M erotic paranormal romance fan.”

Gracie wrote this review Saturday, September 19 2009. ( reply | permalink )