All Seeing Eye

All Seeing Eye 

by Rob Thurman is somewhat of a departure from her other two series but is linked by the presence of more of the deeply passionate characters that this talented author conveys in her enthralling tales.  I have already been a fan of the Leandros brothers (Cal and Niko) and greatly enjoyed the twists and turns in the books featuring the Korsak brothers and this story just adds to my admiration for Ms Thurman.  I don't usually like books that shift back and forth between present and past, particularly when there is such significant violence sprinkled throughout the stories but I find myself making an exception for these because I find the characters so fascinating.  A common theme throughout all this author's books is being forced to make the best of a horrible situation and making a decision that will result in the least amount of damage for the most important survivors.  Several of the characters in this particular novel face these agonizing decisions.

I am fascinated by the idea of psychometry which is the ability to touch an inanimate object and get a read on the persons who have touched it.  This is a talent that the central character possesses and forces him to go to some lengths to avoid making readings inadvertently.  He is a prickly guy who has been through horrific tragedy and has tried to withdraw into himself but somehow has been forced to accept the occasional being who finds a way to breach his self-defensive armor.   Ms Thurman sprinkles clues throughout the story and gradually unfolds more and more details in an entertaining tale that continually ratchets up the suspense. My Amazon review is at this link under ELF2060.  As usual, a 'yes, this was helpful' vote is always appreciated.



The Leandros brothers books:

My Night Owl review for Doubletake is at this link.  Unfortunately, I am not completely current on the series but definitely will catch up one of these days.

                





The Korsak brothers set:
My Goodreads review for Chimera is at this link.
My Night Owl review for Basilisk is at this link.
 



Happy reading!

Learning tools through the library

I am always amazed by what is available through my local county library.  I treasure libraries since they have provided me with many an hour of entertainment, especially as a child when I could not afford to purchase books.  They help me keep my current book budget down to a dull roar since I am fortunate to have two different library systems to draw from (and yes, both library cards get a workout).

I have mentioned before that there are several resources that I take advantage of through the internet and my county library card number, one of which is called Freegal which allows me to download three songs per week without any piracy concerns.  There is quite a wide range of things available, including a profanity laden but hilarious recording of Robin Williams discussing the planning that went into the formation of the human body called Intelligent Design as well as the ethereal songs recorded by young Jackie Evancho and several works by some of the smooth jazz artists that I like.  I am ashamed to admit that I haven't kept up with the foreign language lessons that I started through Mango but intend to get back to them one of these days and lately have discovered that there is another educational tool called 'Ed2go'.  I am intrigued because there are a breadth of classes that can be attended at one's convenience online and I was delighted to discover that some of them address writing and publishing so I am taking a beginning class in editing.  It's amazing what is out there for free and I urge those of you with local county libraries to look into what they can offer access to, it is pretty amazing.

And, what have I been reading from the library?
Lauren Dane's poignant tale Never Enough which gives Adrian Brown's love story, the entertaining anthology Hex Appeal which includes great stories by Jim Butcher, Rachel Caine, P.N. Elrod and husband and wife team Ilona Andrews , as well as the delightfully spicy Hot in Handcuffs which has tales by three of my favorite authors in their field, Shayla Black, Sylvia Day and Shiloh Walker!  Unfortunately, I have been so busy reading that I haven't written up the reviews so I will have to rectify that.  Support your local library (I tend to donate a lot of my review books to one of my local libraries but they also can use volunteers to help shelve or perform other tasks).  My sincere thanks to the dozens of authors at RWA who cheerfully donated books to help supplement the collection at the Wanda Kirk Library in Rosamond!
   

Never Seduce a Scot

Never Seduce a Scot  

by Maya Banks is an intriguing historical romance story that centers around two feuding clans, the Montgomerys and the Armstrongs, who have long been deathly enemies.  King Alexander II tires of having his two strongest allies killing off each other and decrees that there shall be a marriage between Graeme Montgomery and Eveline Armstrong. Of course, each side thinks that the other has gotten the better of the bargain, particularly when it comes out that there is something odd about Eveline and that the marriage may spell doom to the Montgomery succession.  Fortunately, the two primary participants learn to deal with each other and strive to make the enforced arrangement into a true alliance only to be threatened by an outside influence determined to destroy all that the king and the former deadly enemies are trying to build.  Graeme and Eveline will have to decide whether they can find enough common ground with each other to cement the bond between their respective clans with something other than bloodshed.


This was an intriguing tale that explores the vitriol that existed between various families and the lengths that were taken to either avoid or promote alliances.  The exploration of the implications of having a physical handicap and the difficulty attendant in being deaf or mute in a society where very few are literate add texture to a conventional tale.   The author demonstrates her usual exquisite ability to pen a sensual tale with interesting characters and situations.  I did feel that events didn’t quite proceed as they would have with respect to one of the final conflicts but that’s just my opinion.  Overall, this was a nicely romantic tale with a nice cast of characters whom I would enjoy reading more about.

Contests for Adult titles + free reads for Adults

Please visit these blogs only if you are an adult!

BlackRaven's Erotic Cafe is having a

Sweet, Sexy, Scorching Hot Blog Tour & Giveaway: Karen Erickson

 

and the Smutketeers are having a Friends Are The Best Revenge Weekend Contest at this link.

For those who haven't visited the Smutketeers recently, they have welcomed the delightful Robin L. Rotham to their ranks (she joins Eden Bradley/Eve Berlin, R.G. Alexander/Rachel Grace, and Crystal Jordan) so there are even more sizzling hijinks in store, I am sure!

 

Both have great prizes (although sadly, as usual, I am locked out of some of the entries since I don't Facebook or use Twitter but those of you who do can get extra entries). 

 

Also, here is a link to a site that promotes free or low cost erotic reads.  Make sure that you check the price BEFORE downloading to make sure that the title is still available for the expected price.  Link.

Lisa Renee Jones titles and a contest...updates 8/26/12

This is one busy lady!

If I Were You has just released.  There are several wonderful contests to celebrate the release of this intriguing title, please see this link.  There are several special entries available if you are purchasing the title so make sure you visit Lisa's site.  My Amazon review is at this link under ELF2060.  I always appreciate 'yes, this was helpful' votes.
 


This is accompanying the releases of several of her other works on Kindle:
Wicked Werewolf Passion
Tall, Dark, and Deadly boxed set
The Vampire Wardens and Werewolf Society 5 story boxed set
Cinderella Chronicles bonus box set
Beast of Fire

       



Coming soon are her Harlequin Blaze titles including Watch Me, Follow My Lead and Winning Moves which will start releasing in September and continue once a month thereafter.  My Night Owl review for Watch Me is at this link.


   






Did I not say she was a busy lady?  And she has a very sweet personality as well and welcomes contact from her fans!  Visit her newly redesigned website at this link and there will be great opportunities to chat with her on August 26 and August 27 at Writerspace chats at 6:00 PST each day at this link.  The chats usually run about an hour and they can get pretty wacky, make sure you pay attention to whether protocol is being used.  If it is, please type a question mark (?) and wait to be called before asking a question.  You can type comments in at will but I warn you that when a lot of people begin typing at once, things fly by pretty quickly.

Lovely surprises

I don't mind eating fruit...but I like it to be sweet!  Pineapple is my favorite fruit (yes, I turned my tongue numb when my mom took me to the Dole plant on our first trip to Hawaii...but part of that was from the long pineapple spears that they served back then on the airplane trip over) but I actually like grapes and pears and mandarin oranges as well and I will tolerate most others as long as they are sweet.  My problem is that I don't know how to pick sweet fruit, and I have failed miserably at keeping it around and trying to let it ripen enough to sweeten BEFORE it rots.  I have some idiosyncrasy wherein I start choking if I bite into an apple that still has its skin (so, I had a brief moment of panic when a friend asked me to pick up a bag of apples since I don't know what to look for to choose sweet ones) and we actually never eat the apples that grow on the tree in our backyard (bugs eat them first) whereas the resident squirrel is very efficient at picking our apricots, extracting the pits and throwing the fruit onto the ground.  Yes, I have been tempted to find a lethal solution for the canny mammal but instead elected to wait until he died of old age (and I am still waiting!).  Anyway...we received the most excellent surprise today from friends...an Edible Arrangement©.  Now, if you have never seen one of those, it is an arrangement of fruit that is shaped into flowers.  If I ever figure out how to shrink my camera pictures, I will post one but until then, picture pineapple cut into a flower shape (and dipped in chocolate on one side, mmm-mmm) with a cantaloupe ball as the center, chocolate dipped strawberries, orange sections dipped in chocolate and regular strawberries and grapes...wow!  Beautiful, tasty and good for you, what more can you ask?  And yes, the chocolate takes care of the sweetness (and my friend reminds me that there are lots of lovely antioxidants in it).  Diet?  What diet?

Another lovely surprise is Lori Foster's upcoming Run the Risk.  Wow!  Great addition to her pantheon of lovely romantic suspense books.  I am REALLY behind at writing reviews and had no business stopping to read this one but it grabbed my attention and I wasn't able to put it down until I finished (well, I fell asleep but I finished it this morning, lol).  Great story, hopefully I will get the review up in a few days, but if you like romantic suspense, put this on your must buy list!



Ok...off to eat more fruit (0:

Adult titles

Please only continue reading if you are an adult reader.


I had the great good fortune to win Cowboy Bad Boys
by Randi Alexander when she was a guest poster on Delilah Devlin's blog.  I tend to dislike anthologies (and novellas) because they just don't last long enough for me...it seems that I am just getting into the story when all of a sudden....it ends!  I was really impressed by this collection (and no, I don't usually give out 5 star reviews and for some reason I read two within weeks of each other that were both anthologies and that I gave 5 stars to!  Hmm...maybe I have been in three digit temperatures for too long?)
Just kidding.  Be forewarned, this is a collection of very spicy tales but I really liked that there was a variety to the stories and even though some of these folks tend to move a bit quickly, I was really entertained by them.  My Amazon review is at this link.

I also had the opportunity to read Ms Devlin's very spicy Fournicopia   for the Seductive Musings blog.
My Amazon review is at this link. I am a bit bemused by menages to start with since it always boggles my mind to think of trying to juggle two males in one's bed...let alone more, especially given the compromise any relationship requires.  So, although I was quite entertained by the read...I considered it to be a pretty fantastical story. 

Oh, and what was the other erotica book that I considered to be a 5 star read?  Subspace
which is an anthology that includes very hot stories by Sierra Cartwright, Desiree Holt, Jan Irving, Justine Elyot, Elizabeth Coldwell, and Mina Dorian.  I still haven't read Fifty Shades of Gray but I can't help thinking that these are far superior tales of the BDSM life than that well-publicized trilogy.  My Amazon review is at this link under ELF2060.  As usual, a 'yes, this was helpful' vote is always appreciated and the various authors also appreciate 'like' votes as well.