Lord's Fall

Lord's Fall   

by Thea Harrison is a wonderful addition to a fantastic series.  I devour these titles whenever I find a new one, no matter what else is due on my plate, these books get moved up to the top of the TBR stack.  (and yes, I have several TBR stacks with various degrees of priority--those for Night Owl Reviews, those sent directly from publishers and authors, and those from the library)  Thea Harrison's books tend to bypass any others because I love the combination of romance and imagination in her tales.  I am an unashamed animal lover and her ability to transfer certain instinctual animal behavior into a human paradigm and tell a great story always entertains me.  Some of my favorite quotes have been from her books...including this one from Devil's Gate

  “I don’t want you to curb yourself, deny yourself, cover up your face or head or any part of your body.  I don’t want you to lose or gain weight, or watch what you say, or deny how you feel, or try to be anything but who you are, because who you are is the most beautiful person in the world to me’.

Thea Harrison, “Devil’s Gate” 2012

Sigh...who could resist a declaration like that?  And isn't that what we all want?  Someone who loves us just the way we are?

I love the characters in this story, they were introduced in Dragon Bound and I was so impressed by the way the author epitomized the stereotypical dragon (covetous, hoarding, arrogant, top of the food chain) in an alpha male that was swoon-worthy yet found a match for him who was deceptively mild, self-effacing and cunning.  It just tickled me that a single unassuming penny could be the cause of such upheaval and I enjoyed the repartee between the characters.  This book allowed us to see them a little further along in their relationship even as it shows many of the other factors in their respective lives.  My Amazon review for Lord's Fall is at this link.  All of the stories in the 'Elder Race' series have been extremely entertaining to me and it is my hope that there will be many more to delight this talented author's fans.  Ms Harrison deservedly won a RITA at the RWA in 2012 and I highly recommend both the novels and the interspersed novellas to paranormal fans who love romance and intrigue.  These books are ones for my keepers shelf, I only hope that the novellas will be released in a single volume one of these days since I am definitely an old-fashioned person who loves her books in print!

The novels:
     

The novellas:
     
I had the pleasure of reviewing many of these titles for Night Owl Reviews at this link and I was delighted to meet the awesomely talented author herself at RWA this past summer.

Devil's Gate

Devil’s Gate   

is the new novella by Thea Harrison which is set in her Elder World series.  I fell in love with the very first book of this series because I thought it was so appropriate that a covetous dragon should be obsessive about his hoard to the extent that he knew when a single penny had been removed.  I am in awe at this author’s ability to make mythological beings realistic and even more memorable yet retain that spark that makes them attractive as lovers and mates.  It is fascinating that she has shifted the view of a medusa from the horrific snake-haired villain to a female who became tipsy because her snake tresses were sneaking an alcoholic drink and she gives new meaning to the concept of having unmanageable ‘hair’.  The story itself was not as intense as some of the previous in the series but the descriptions are exquisite and I have a couple of new favorite quotes to add to my collection, one of which refers to the vampyre Duncan’s sense of control and the other that offers the perfect description of accepting someone for exactly who they are. (p 92  “I don’t want you to curb yourself, deny yourself, cover up your face or head or any part of your body.  I don’t want you to lose or gain weight, or watch what you say, or deny how you feel, or try to be anything but who you are, because who you are is the most beautiful person in the world to me’.)  and the other quote that also makes me sigh... (p. 31  “It said his exquisite gentleness was no accident.  It said he had to be intimately aware of the placement and position of her body to achieve such a delicate, butterfly touch.  It said he touched her because he wanted to touch her, and that he knew how to be gentle and tender, that he was confident and didn’t shy away from scrutiny, and that he could hold steady when he needed to.)  Yum...these are just a couple of examples of this author's beautiful imagery that permeate her wonderful stories!  (and thank you, Ms Harrison, for permission to post the quotes!)

 For best appreciation, one should start with the first book in the series, Dragon Bound or, if a short read is preferred, start with the first novella, True Colors and continue with my favorite in that mini-series Natural Evil (which I have re-read at least 5 times now!).  And yes, Mary, read them even though a couple of the covers are missing their faces--they are well worth the 'sacrifice', lol.

 My Amazon review is at this link (with the title 'Medusae with a Thea Harrison flair') under ELF2060.   I appreciate 'yes, this was helpful' votes if appropriate!

Elder Race Novellas:


    

Elder Race Novels:
     

Learning curves

If you have been reading my blog for any length of time, you will notice that the title is not just a figure of speech.  My life has revolved around books since my mom taught me how to read at the tender age of 4.  I was raised as an only child and found solace and companionship in books.  My birthday is in the spring so the wonderfully obtuse educational system did not allow me to enter kindergarten until I was 5 1/2 so by that time I shocked my teacher by already knowing how to read those silly baby books and they moved me up to the first grade in a matter of months.  Consequently, I have always been socially awkward and covered that by retreating into books.  It is safe to say that I have read thousands of books and it has sometimes been difficult to support my habit.  My friends got tired of giving me books as gifts because they felt that they didn't last long enough.  What they didn't understand was that a good book is the gift that keeps on giving since I will reread favorite titles endlessly.  That is the hardest thing about having gotten so heavily involved with reviewing...I generally don't have time to revisit my old friends in print.  If you ever look at my Goodreads shelf you may notice that I don't always get all of my Night Owl reviews onto that shelf but I am slowly improving.  I tend to put the library books that I am reading on that shelf and I try to be good about putting the books for the authors that I am on the 'street teams' for on there but somehow there never seem to be enough hours to get everything on all of the sites.  Which leads me to the subject of this post...

I have started branching out and am slowly picking up proofreading and/or copyediting jobs.  I have a few authors that I have had the honor of working with and am slowly obtaining prospects for several more.  Each of them has taught me more about the craft and I have been thrilled to be involved with the process of helping polish these works of art.  I have always had this anal retentive habit of picking out the typos and inconsistencies as I read and have scribbled notes to myself countless times.  The internet has made it easier to approach authors and ask whether they want errors brought to their attention and in this miraculous age of e-books, many authors do take the time to correct errors but of course nothing can be done about books that are already in print.  Unfortunately, some are offended by my overtures and others are apathetic.  It really ruins my enjoyment when there are a lot of errors and I tend to avoid that author's works in the future.  I have been honored to have met (virtually) and work with several authors who care about their presentation and hope to continue the trend.

I have recently started working with a smaller publisher and have had the opportunity to see manuscripts in a very raw state.  I have learned that my word processing program has more bells and whistles than I ever realized and I have also been reminded that I should be better about checking my own work more than once!  I am learning that there are many long hours which have to go into producing a quality piece of writing and also that I had better keep my odd sense of humor in check so that I don't inadvertently offend someone.  It's a great learning opportunity and I hope that it leads to even more contacts.

I am also taking a writing class taught by an author whom I greatly respect and once again am learning so much more about the hard work and thought that goes into producing a quality manuscript.  So much to learn and so many distractions!  All of this long-windedness is to explain that if my posts get a little sparse over the next few weeks, it is because I am learning to juggle my tasks a little better.  I am still committed to a plethora of reviews but there is necessarily a lag time between my submission and their posting on Night Owl so please be patient.  I did get a chance to read the latest Thea Harrison novella, Devil's Gate, and was enthralled with her imagery as usual and will post my review in a few days and I am in the middle of Michael J. Sullivan's Heir of Novron but the author threw a twist in that I REALLY don't like so I am going to take a break and 'cleanse my palate' with a couple of other titles before finishing while I grumble to myself.  Now I have to go do my homework (-: