Lover Mine is the 8th book in the Black Dagger Brotherhood Series by JR Ward.

Let's get this out of the way first, shall we. Read this book only if you have read the rest of the series. It could be read standalone, but a lot of the complicated relationships are clearer if you go in order. Series order and reviews can be found here and here. There will be BDB terminology in this review and minor spoilers wrt this book and previous books which will not be explicitly marked.

LM picks up 4 weeks after the events of Lover Avenged. Xhex, the half-sympath assassin, has been kidnapped by Lash, son of the Omega. The Brotherhood, Rehv, John Matthew, Blaylock and Qhuinn are doing their best to find any clues to her disappearance. Something about the manner in which she disappeared and the way that he treated her the last time they were together has caused John Matthew to bond with Xhex and his panic, grief and the need to avenge are unsurpassable.

Meanwhile Xhex is enduring physical and mental abuse at the hands of Lash, who initially saw her only as a hostage, but has since fallen in love with her himself. After 4 weeks of Lash's brutality Xhex has come to several revelations, that she is in love with John Matthew and she kept him at a distance because of the repercussions once JM found she was half-sympath. And that she has finally reached her breaking point, the only reason for her survival is to seek revenge against Lash.

Xhex manages to get herself out of Lash's clutches and re-unite with JM for some bitter-sweet moments together since both know that the time they have is short. Xhex is driven by one purpose, she MUST kill Lash herself and does not envision life after the event, while JM in order to retain any self-respect and self-worth MUST kill Lash himself.

JM has a long, sordid history with Lash and the years spent away from the vampire community where he was different, misunderstood and traumatised have left deep scars in his mental make up. To allow Lash to have abused the female he is bonded to is unthinkable. To allow anyone else, even Xhex, to kill Lash is even more unthinkable. As their personal vendetta against Lash leads to the inevitable showdown, JM and Xhex must examine their hearts to determine what is really important, the destruction of their souls or finding and keeping a soulmate.

I must come clean, I almost, almost didnt write this review because of how disappointing the book was. The only thing pushing me was my OC tendencies since I've reviewed every other book in the series on this blog. Cant break that trend now, can I?

A major part of my disappointment has to do with John Matthew. If you've read my reviews you know I dont care for him at all. But, in LA, I almost thought that I would be able to read his story. Almost. It had to do with this wonderful dynamic that JM and Xhex had going on - she the tough, hard-as-nails sympath assassin, while he was the much more emotionally available, tormented younger guy. I wanted to read that story. The kidnapping in the last book upset me because I had a premonition that everything I was interested in was going to be thrown. And I was right!

Basically this book is a rehash of Lover Awakened where Bella is kidnapped and Zsadist goes crazy trying to find her. Bella and Zsadist worked because their characters were defined to fit the roles they inhabited in their book. In LM Xhex the tough warrior woman is forced into Bella's role while whiny JM gets Zsadist - it really, really didnt work for me. I was excited when Xhex was introduced because there are so few strong women in this series, I hated that for her to get a HEA she had to be emotionally and physically broken down until she seemed a changed person. I'm not saying that any person can undergo what she goes through and still come out strong, her journey probably strikes the right chords for survivors. I think I'm upset that she had to go through an ordeal which required her to be weak and needy just so JM could play the alpha male.

A huge part of my problem with JM is how much telling, not showing, there is going on around him. The first scene in LM introduces him as follows

The one in the middle, however, was trouble. Slightly larger than his buddies, he had dark brown hair that was cut short and a classically handsome face-but his blue eyes were lifeless, with about as much reflection as old asphalt.
A dead man walking. With nothing to lose.

JM is always talked up as being a fierce and extremely dangerous fighter but he really does nothing. His internal monologues are whiny, self-centered & immature and it seemed to me like other people were always picking up after his messes. Even at the climax, after all the angst over how it had to be him taking Lash out all JM does is put himself, stupidly, in danger, so others can save Xhex and bail him out. And while I can see how it might look that he took the higher road, put his own needs aside to allow Xhex her vengeance all I saw was JM being his pathetic, ineffectual self. Right, I'm sure everyone understands exactly how much I liked him so we'll move along now.

As is the case with all the BDB books, the plotline above is only the primary romance. There's ample other action going on in this book. Lash and the Omega have a falling out and Lash soon learns what it means to be daddy's boy no longer. We have a flashback with the Brothers Darius and Tohrment investigating the disappearance of a member of the glymera. And we have a storyline with a paranormal investigations unit in South Carolina (? I dont remember and am too lazy to look it up). None of these worked for me, the lesser parts never do and the minute I started reading the latter storylines I knew exactly how they were going to be resolved so that took away some of the mystery factor for me.

Which brings me to the portions which did work. Namely the triangle between JM's friends Blaylock, Qhuinn and Qhuinn's cousin Saxton. Blay's been in love with Qhuinn forever while Qhuinn just wants to conform to the norm, get married to a woman of worth, after being an outcast all his life. He treats Blay horribly then gets cross-eyed with jealousy when Saxton finally asks Blay out. All the Qhuinn/Blay portions were fantastic, the scenes shifting between them wanting to hurt each other, to intense longing esspecially on Blay's part. All I wanted to do was read about them.

It's a pattern I've been noticing since LE, the secondary romances have all the sizzling romantic tension but when they move into their own story lose all their chemistry. I certainly felt the same way about JM and Xhex in the last book and couldnt wait to read their story. The caveat with Qhuinn and Blay's story is that I'd love to read them get their HEA but as a secondary romance in one of the future books. I'm sure I will not be able to handle another book filled primarily with the teenage angst and urban slang speak that this book had.

Lastly we also get a buildup to the next book which is Payne and Manny's story. Again, I loved Payne when she was introduced - a female Brother? Fantastic!! But LM ends with Payne breaking her spine and it looks like she's going to need intensive therapy/rehabilitation (which is probably where Manny steps in, Manny to those who dont remember was Jane's boss in LU) to get back on her feet. By now you know how I feel that Payne has to be weakened in her own story ... as if the psychological number her mother, the Scribe Virgin, has done on her isnt enough. Also, this will be another romance with a human/vampire love interest and I've yet to see one of those come to a satisfactory conclusion.

And finally, if you are still reading and want to know about the series arc ... what series arc? I felt the storyline was completely stagnant in LM, while simultaneously introducing more characters for potential stories. The problem is that I'm just not interested in these characters, I wanted to read about the Brotherhood and they're all storied out. How about Tohr's story, you say? In the BDB world the men are mated for life. Tohr had his mate in Wellsie who died, so if I read about an upcoming book with Tohr I will be intensely irritated. As it stands, I'm not sure if I'll pick up the next one in the series.

-----------------------------------------------------
Series Order

1. Dark Lover
2. Lover Eternal
3. Lover Awakened
4. Lover Revealed
5. Lover Unbound
6. Lover Enshrined
7. Lover Avenged
8. Lover Mine

If you havnt yet caught on to the trend in my reviews, I have been on a paranormal romance kick lately. The best part of the paranormal trend in my opinion is the tendency towards book series. And you all know how I feel about those!

A series that I have been enjoying recently is Meljean Brook's Guardian Series. I'm not reviewing them, just wanted to point out a few fun things for readers.

The mythology of this series as far as I can describe (because it is convoluted) is as follows. After Lucifer raised his rebel angels against Heaven, in punishment all the rebels were converted to demons and forced to inhabit Hell. The angels who were on the fence were not spared either, they were converted to nosferatu, blood-drinking monsters who had to shun daylight.

The angels who tried to protect humans against the demons and nosferatu, only ended up being worshipped because of their divinity. This aroused Lucifer's jealousy and he rose against the angels in another battle, in which a human helped to defeat Lucifer. After this battle, Guardians were formed, with powers to protect humans from demons and nosferatu, and since the Guardians were once human themselves, they were able to assimilate into human society much easier than the angels.

The first book Demon Angel is about a Guardian Hugh Castleford and the demon Lilith. I intended this book to be a beach read on my vacation last year, boy how wrong I was. If you've tried reading on vacation you know that the book should be light-hearted, frothy, fluffy, something which you can put down at a moment's notice and pick up hours later without any problems - everything which this book is NOT.

I enjoyed the story immensely, but I felt I missed out so much due to being unable to give it my undivided attention that I did something I've never done before. As soon as I finished the last page, I started re-reading. And so many things I had missed earlier suddenly became clear(er). Demon Angel has an intricate mythology setup, interesting dialogue and a very intriguing heroine. Hugh and Lilith have a courtship spanning 500+ years and they make a great couple when they finally came together.

The second book in the series Demon Moon is about the vampire Colin Ames-Beaumont and techie geek Savitri Murray. Savitri has an Indian mother and an Irish (?I forget) father, has been brought up by her nani and is Hugh's adopted sister. First of all, I have to give a huge cheer for an ethnic character in a mainstream series. And, then I have to say how wonderfully Savi's character is written. With ethnic characters, it's all too easy to stick to stereotypes, Savi transcends all those to become her own person ... and she's fabulous.

And Ms. Brooks gets so many details right I loved reading this book - right from Savi's nani who keeps feeding everyone in times of stress, her nani's hangup that Savi is a college drop out and her insistence that she marry soon, some hilarious arranged marriage ads Savi peruses, Savi's date/ interview with a 'suitable' boy and so on. At a certain point, Colin even asks Savi, who is a Hindu, if she is still able to believe after being immersed in Christian mythology for so long. Just for the level of attention and detail, this book came out tops for me. However, you do have to concentrate. I found myself re-reading pages and paragraphs because I lost the thread so often.

And we come to the third book, Demon Night, which is the story of Guardian Ethan McCabe and Charlie Newcomb. When Ethan first comes onto the scene, the outfit he's wearing and his Wild West introduction had me flashing immediately to my favorite Browncoat, Mal Reynolds (if you havent seen Firefly, read about it here). A resemblance to Mal is enough to make me predisposed to like anybody. And then, he opened his mouth and all I heard was Sawyer. See, I've been on Lost Season 5 marathon in preparation for the last season premiering next week (yay!! hey, even the White House was not unaffected) and I love Sawyer's lazy drawl. Ethan's huge around 6'4" or so he often puts on big and slow facade to throw people off, which reminded me of Munnabhai. I am not a fan of Sanjay Dutt, but I cannot deny the charm.

Anyway, with such a potent combination, I was smitten, reader, Smitten!! And Demon Night, is the first book in this series which gave me what I enjoy so much in romance, the emotional connection and involvement in the characters and their stories. I loved Angel and liked Moon, but the 2 couples were far too intellectual. As far as I am concerned, Night has perfect pacing, wonderful story-telling (I never experienced the difficulty in comprehension as with the first two books) and a heart-warming romance. And if you thought it's all about the romance, the mythology makes leaps and bounds in this book too.

I think the other reason I enjoy the series so much is that the women are all so different. Lilith, probably the oldest woman on earth, is the quintessential action heroine, strong, smart, sexy, manipulative, able to do anything to protect the ones she loves. Savi is a geek, very smart with a quick sense of humor and an innate curiosity. While Charlie is more vulnerable, flawed and needy, but with a core strength that has contributed to her becoming a survivor. The men are no slouches either. And the story arc is extremely complex, I cant wait to find out what's next.

If you think you might like paranormals, check this series out. The series order is as below. I'm only reading the full length novels (in italics), I dont much like reading short stories.

# Hot Spell (Novella, Prequel)
# Demon Angel (Book 1)
# Wild Thing (Novella, Book 1.5)
# Demon Moon (Book 2)
# Demon Night (Book 3)
# First Blood (Book 3.5)
# Demon Bound (Book 4)
# Demon Forged (Book 5)
# Must Love Hellhounds (Book 5.5)
# Demon Blood (Book 6)

I must end with an observation that amuses (and irritates) me. It seems any paranormal romance series gets stuck with tacky covers for the first 2 books. Well, actually the only other series I noticed it on was Nalini Singh's Psy-Changeling Series (I will review this soon, I promise). But, it makes me wonder what the publishers are thinking? In fact, I'm tempted to classify Angel and Moon as fantasy, Night being the conventional romance out of the three I've read so far. But, for a reader like me, if I had not become interested by reviews or by the first book, these covers would have guaranteed that I never picked the books up. Do other readers feel differently?

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Read the reviews for the first 6 books in the series here. WARNING- this review is for people familiar with the BDB it contains a lot of Ward's terminology and might also contain spoilers wrt previous books.

Among the number of search terms associated with the Black Dagger Brotherhood that lead people to this site every week, the question 'What is a sympath?' inevitably makes an appearance. And I thought JR Ward's Lover Avenged, the 7th novel of the BDB series would answer just that.

The focus of this novel is on Rehvenge, half-sympath, leahdyre of the vampire glymera and a powerful drug lord and pimp in Caldwell, New York. Rehvenge's illegal activities serve to pay his blackmailer for keeping the sympath side of his identity a secret thereby protecting his mother, sister and half-sympath employee Xhex.

According to vampire law any sympaths have to be quarantined in a colony in the remote northern areas of the state. The sympath laws are even clearer, ALL half-breeds must die. To keep his sympath urges at bay Rehvenge relies heavily on drugs, which leave his body numb.

On his routine check ups at Havers' hospital he often comes in contact with nurse Ehlena. Ehlena is a fallen member of the glymera and is sole care-giver to her father who is schizophrenic which leaves her with almost no social life. Rehvenge is drawn to this loneliness of hers, a mirror of his own and the two start to build a tentative relationship together.

In the meanwhile, Wrath has been secretly fighting lessers in his free time, and it's not long before he is found out. This severely tries his relationship not only with Beth, who is sorely hurt by his deceit and lack of trust towards herself, Wrath also has his annoyed Brothers to deal with. In addition headaches which have persisted almost all his life become stronger and he loses what little vision he does have. Trapped in his blindness, not being able to fight, having to depend on other people just to get around and marital problems lead to Wrath being scared, not a good emotion for any Brother to wallow in.

But, things are going to get worse for Wrath. A member of the glymera approaches Rehvenge for assassinating the Blind King and a sympath, even a half-breed canNOT be trusted, can they? Read the book to see how Ward resolves the stories - can Wrath and Beth come to terms, will Rehvenge and Ehlena find true love, where the assassination plot leads and what exactly are Lash and the Lessening Society upto?

Wrt the sympath question posed before, I have to say I'm still clueless. All I gathered from this book was that sympaths fed off emotions preferably the sinful ones (and what? no idea), and they have a decided predilection for scorpions and spiders. But, let's just say for the purposes of this book that sympath = ehvil (heh) and leave it at that.

I really liked all the action in this book, first since it plays catch up with the old stories - Wrath and Beth for example. Wrath suddenly accepting his Kingship had always seemed too good to be true so I loved the continuation of his story arc here.

I liked the real-world conundrum the Lessening Society is facing, apparently being humongously evil AND a son of the Omega is not enough in the material world. Lash has to struggle to make money to supply his people with decent weapons, hideouts, bling and sexy cars. He hits upon the perfect solution, getting into the drug business, but that slowly infringes upon Rehvenge's territory and before he knows it the vampires have been clued to his return.

John Matthew, Blaylock and Qhuinn have minor roles but we do spend some time with John Matthew and his love for Xhex. I must say, I didnt like JM ever since he was introduced, first he was all angsty and whiny, though I was able to tolerate him in LE mainly because he seemed to have matured a bit. Well, here he slides down that slippery slope into tiresomeness, nohbuddy luuurves me. He does fit right into the Brotherhood (pre-marriage) though.

What I didnt care much for was the Rehvenge-Ehlena track. Rehv in all the previous books was a hard core character, seemingly conscienceless, filled with self-loathing for himself over the blackmailing bit contrasted with being extremely protective towards his family ... let's go for tormented, yup he's a tormented hero - my favorite kind.

With Ehlena he suddenly becomes a total mushy sap all I-love-yous and I-want-to-serve-yous and sentimental phone convos in a matter of minutes. Not that it wasn't sweet, but it took some time for me to reconcile the amethyst-eyed mohawked drug lord who kills people without compunction with the gooey pillow talk. And that Ehlena, that upright figure in the vampire community accepts him warts (hmm maybe I should be saying barb :) and all.

The h/h feeling they're not good enough for each other is my least favorite theme in romance, and Ehlena and Rehv go quite a few times around this particular bush. The other reason is I didnt care much for Ehlena, she felt like an amalgam of all the earlier heroines Beth, Mary except she can handle her way around a gun. Though I did like the way she dealt with her father's illness, at one point she walks him through a new house so that his fears of intruders are minimised once he sees security cameras around.

I think Ward should move out of finding women for her heroes from the social outcasts. Surely, there's scope for someone from the glymera to have an HEA too.

Phury still being Primale stumped me, in LE he refused the joy of being sole sperm donor to the Chosen. Why does he keep the title? Looks to me just like another way to keep poor Phury away from the house (heh, I like how ever since LE he's forever become poor Phury in my mind) ...

And even though I like Xhex's character (being the sole alpha female in the series) I didnt like the kidnap motif being used again. Additionally, is it just me, or does the war between the lessers and the vampires seems like it's on a never-ending track. Not much happens in this book, the vampires basically doing their own thing and Lash his own until they intersect at the climax and I'd like to see more concrete developments happening with this in the next few books.

And of course, new characters are introduced here and I have the sinking feeling that they might have their own books coming out soon.

Will I keep reading? You bet. I'm hooked onto this series and wasn't much bothered with only a sprinkling of romance because of all the other fun stuff. The thing that might prove a problem for me is the suspicion that there is no concrete story arc for the entire series.

I learnt some new slang though - fidiot (Ward's short form for effing idiot), now where shall I use it first? :D

-------------------
Series Order

1. Dark Lover
2. Lover Eternal
3. Lover Awakened
4. Lover Revealed
5. Lover Unbound
6. Lover Enshrined
7. Lover Avenged
8. Lover Mine - to be released 2010

As the majority of people landing on this site land on one of my series reviews, I thought I'd rehash a post from That Other Site with a list of Book Series Recommendations. I'm going to post per genre and of course I'm starting with romance :)

There are many reasons why I love a good book series- sinking into the familiarity of a well-known world, being able to follow the stories of all the characters I've become attached to and the freedom a series allows authors to completely develop their characters after establishing their world in the first couple of books. With any series, I get very anal about reading them in perfect order but of course many dont require it. I will list those which absolutely require reading in order.

The list below are in descending order of my favorites. The pictures are for the first book of every series. And lastly if you have any other reccos please do mention them! I'm always on the lookout for my next read.

The Black Dagger Brotherhood Series - JR Ward
Probably the newest addition to my list, but when I tell you that 90% of page hits per day are for my review on this series you can see how popular it is. Currently, a 7 book series, the genre is paranormal romance. In Caldwell, New York, there is an elite group of vampires called the Black Dagger Brotherhood, devoted to protecting their race from evil undead vampire slayers the lessers. Each book in the series follows the romances of one of the Brothers. My review linked above goes through the first 6 books in greater detail, but I have to add here about the addicting nature of these books. They're wonderful and that the series shot immediately to the top of my list should also tell you something. Read this in order folks!!

In Death Series - Nora Roberts writing as J.D. Robb
A futuristic romance thriller series we follow the relationship of Lieutenant Eve Dallas and her husband Roarke as a backdrop to Eve's investigations as a homicide detective in New York of the future. While this series has a mix of genres I like to classify it under romance because the characters and their relationships are center stage here with sci-fi and thriller lite elements. That being said Ms. Roberts does not shy away from any gory aspects so readers should be prepared. A very believable and fun future vision, Robert's strengths- very likeable secondary characters, punchy conversations and a dash of romance makes this a very fun read. Roberts is such a prolific writer, that the series reader can rest happy knowing that this is a series with a huge backlist to keep them occupied for months and with no end in sight in the near future. Reading in order is not strictly needed, but the characters relationships do develop over the course of the books and it's recommended.

Outlander Series - Diana Gabaldon
This is a time travel romance and contains the strongest start to a series in this list. Outlander follows time traveller Claire Randall, a nurse at the end of the second world war who is inadvertently hurtled back in time to the Scotland of the 17th century, mistaken for an English spy and meets the love of her life with Scotsman Jamie Fraser. Ms. Gabaldon's strengths are the amounts of historical research she includes in her novels and a shattering of some myths of romance writing. The series picks up the characters once they are well into their forties and Ms. Gabaldon manages to keep things extremely interesting between them. I love the first 2 books, the rest make for interesting reading. I dont think I have done justice to this series with this paltry description, so look out for reviews very soon :) Read in order.


Earth Children series - Jean M. Auel
A prehistoric romance series, the story follows Ayla a Cro-Magnon baby, who has been brought up by a clan of Neanderthals. Auel creates an amazingly rich and varied prehistoric world for her characters and I love the series for it's detail and freshness. The freshness is a little lost with the latter books but the first three are well worth the read. A detailed review can be found linked above. Again, one of those order bound series.


Looking at this list I just realized there's no representation of my favorite romance novel form - the historical romance! I think it's because it's very difficult to keep a series fresh in historicals. Certainly the ones I've read have run into one another after a few books. But, since I cannot NOT mention a few, I'm going to list a couple of reads.

The first is not a series but a list of connected books by the incomparable Georgette Heyer - The Black Moth, These Old Shades (story of Duke of Avon and Leonie), Devil's cub (Vidal, Avon's son and Mary's story) and An Infamous Army (with Vidal's granddaughter and a character from Regency Buck). The relation between The Black Moth and TOS is explained in my reviews linked above.

The second historical recco (I hope it develops into a series, even though there's only one book published so far) is for author Jennifer Haymore's debut A Hint of Wicked. Since it contained one of my favorite romance themes- the love triangle- I knew it would be an interesting read. What raised it above the ordinary for me was the amount of angst in the story and I loooove some good heart-wrenching Angst.

Sophie, the Duchess of Calton, has lost her childhood sweetheart Garrett at the Battle of Waterloo. After seven long years Garrett is declared dead and she marries Tristan, Garrett's cousin, best friend and heir. Sophie and Tristan get over their loss and start building a life together when all of a sudden Garrett returns and he wants everything back, starting with Sophie. But, Sophie is now at a loss since she loves both her husbands but in different ways entirely and cannot choose between them. I was a bit anxious towards the end, because the nature of a love triangle is that one person doesn't get a HEA and the author has created some lovely characters - I was rooting for all of them. But a short teaser for the next book that Ms. Haymore is writing, titled A Touch of Scandal, and set 4 months after the events of the last has me waiting with bated breath for it to be published.

So, that's all folks. The next installment will be for Fantasy with a couple of sci-fi reccos.

All Blair Mallory, survivor of multiple murder attempts, wants is to plan a perfect wedding with cop Wyatt Bloodsworth. Not a big, white wedding because she's already had that version, just a small one with friends and family on the perfect day and date, with the perfect dress, perfect shoes and the perfect cake. Wyatt, tired of her waffling, issues an ultimatum. Organize the wedding in a month or it's off to Vegas to get married. Which in Blair's world is just plain tacky. As she gets into high gear running around to get her shopping done, a near hit and run in a mall alongwith some good old-fashioned stalking cue Blair that she might conceivably have pissed someone else off and things are about to get ugly- dead ugly. And this time Wyatt's not buying it.

First things first, it took me all this time to get around to this book, because I knew it was written in first person and I'm not big on that whole POV. But, what can I say. Ms. Howard's (I should say Blair's) voice had me giggling within minutes of cracking the cover.

Blair is pretty high-maintenace, extremely manipulative and comes across as very shallow. But, she has a great relationship with friends and family and is smart as a businesswoman. And she does need to be a relatively strong personality to deal with Wyatt, an ex-pro-football-player- turned-cop who puts the alpha in alpha male. Her ongoing power struggle in her relationship with Wyatt had me in splits, both fight dirty and fight to win.

If you're lost with the alphaness, here's a scene. Blair is fighting with Wyatt to keep her last name. Obviously he's not backing down. But, a topic that would generally have me spitting mad is defused by Ms. Howard's fabulous brand of crazy; all I did was laugh and keep on laughing.

Not to be towered over, I got to my feet, too, scowling right back at him. Okay, so there's still the ten-inch difference in our heights, but I went on tiptoe and pushed my chin up so we were nose to nose. "Expecting me to change my name while you keep yours is archaic-"

His eyes were narrow, his jaw set, his lips a thin hard line that barely moved as he spit out words as if they were bullets. "In the animal kingdom, the male marks his territory by pissing on it. All I'm asking you to do is change your last name to mine. Take.Your.Pick."

The thing about Ms. Howard's romances are that I've yet to meet one of her cop heroes I didn't like, she writes them all as control freaks, extremely observant, slightly obnoxious, with oodles of sex appeal. Mould meet Wyatt. Cant say much about the good old brain cells though, since it should have been fairly obvious to the highly trained cop that Blair couldn't be lying. Ah well, who cares, I need my share of yumminess in my light reading and Wyatt hit all the required notes.

After the hit and run, the book goes through a slightly dull patch (a couple of pages) where we get to hear every single detail of Blair's day, I wouldnt have been surprised to see her pull out nail clippers at a certain point. But, once the stalker-type is completely established the action picks up pace and remains entertaining ... especially a scene with Blair, a patrol car, overbearing men and handful of notes.

So, finally, the perfect light read and all I can say is that when Ms. Howard is at the top of her game, she's great.

However, the biggest gripe I have is when publishers fail to advertise on their covers that the book is a sequel. I don't think I lost much but to an OC reader like myself, all my enjoyment for this book went out of the window because of the twitch I developed over reading Book 2 first. I overcame it (with difficulty) and do think it's a delightful book but if you are anything like me just get To Die For first.

Updated: Well, I read To Die For and it isnt as good as the sequel. I think Ms. Howard was able to more completely develop Blair's voice and character the second time around making for a funnier, better paced read. It might be a personal preferance too since I like reading about what happens to the characters after much more than I like reading about the courtship leading to the HEA. I'd give TDF 3 points, and I'm pretty sure if I had picked it up first I would never have read DDG.

In Jo Beverley's A Lady's Secret, Robin, the Earl of Huntersdown, is returning to England from Versailles when he comes across a swearing nun. Convinced that the beauty in nun costume is an adventuress, he offers to provide her an escort looking forward to some amusement over a long journey.

Petra D'Averio or Sister Immaculata, aforementioned nun, is at wits' end. Rejected by Milanese society since she is the bastard of an English lord, she has no friends to support her after her mother's death. She needs to find her father before her old lover Count Ludovico, can capture her. After meeting carefree and rakish Robin she's unsure if she's leaping from the frying pan into the fire. But, she accepts Robin's help and the rest is a sort of comedy of errors on the journey with villainous Italians, murderous peasants, a papillon dog and a hero and heroine whose secrets are revealed over the course of the journey.

The book was likable and entertaining enough that I didnt stop reading. It has some humorous moments, fun banter between the principals and a clever spin on an old nursery rhyme (Who Killed Cock Robin). But, I'm a bit tired of all the stereotypical contrivances of this genre. And I'm sick of rakes who spend the entire book lusting after the heroine or pages full of sexual innuendo only to suffer from instant regret once the deed is done.

The hero, Robin or Cock Robin is one of those beta heroes I think. Much like the crowing cock, he makes grand promises to the heroine to protect her and falls flat. Often. His only saving grace is he is charming. Petra is a good character, she's gutsy and well able to take care of herself. Since, Petra saves herself each time, it beats me why she is in love with Mr. Cocky. And then we have a married villain pursuing Petra across Italy, France and England only to make her his mistress. Illogical, much? Even Petra wonders why.

I've read Ms. Beverly's medieval romances before and they were good reads. If you want to start off with her, I'd say pick those up.

Rating: 3 / 5

Red Lily is the third part of the In the Garden trilogy. Read the reviews for the first and second parts.

It's almost 6 months after the events of Black Rose. Things have settled down enough at the In the Garden nursery for Roz and Mitch to get married too. Hayley Phillips, Roz's poor cousin, many times removed, is feeling irritable and anxious under the June Tennessee sun. And downright hot whenever she comes across Roz's son, Harper. After circling each other for 2 years, Hayley finally makes her move, to find that Harper has been interested all along.

And of course, as with the previous books, the elements of love and passion combine to bring out the ghost's insanity, this time centered on Hayley and Harper. But, the ghost has learned new tricks, she can now possess Hayley, and she soon finds that she likes inhabiting a body ... a lot!! Can the 6 friends work together fast enough, to find Amelia's grave and ensure she gets the burial she deserves, before she seriously injures Harper and Hayley. And, to do that they have to find out what exactly happened at Harper House, way back in 1892.

Meh. That's my feeling after reading this book. When a ghost is more interesting than the primary couple in the romance, that's what you can expect. Just ... meh.

I think my problem was that even after 2 books, Harper and Hayley just weren't all that interesting to me. Hayley is very young, a great character in the other books, energetic and fun, but here she quickly gets overly emotional. The type who if taken to a nice hotel, gabs about being Cinderella and how no one has ever done anything as nice for her before etc etc, entirely too talkative, even for a book. And who says woo-hoo and awesome a lot.

Harper, it's difficult to get a handle on him. He's a loner, preferring his garden to people, but then you have him involved with a steady stream of women and little bits of sophistication like him sipping wine (sexily) when on a date with Hayley thrown in and he seemed too much a mix of all other Roberts heroes - Roarke, Logan etc for me to understand him. Like any young couple, they spend the majority of the book having misunderstandings and fighting, and that part seemed real to me. The way they resolved the misunderstandings, hmmm not so much.

With the trilogies I read before, Roberts made sure to keep the most interesting couple last, I remember the tension between the vampire and the other-world Princess to be so great that I practically inhaled two books to get the third in the Circle trilogy. I understand why they were last here, after having a baby in the first book Hayley obviously needs time to be interested in a relationship. But, while they were good side characters, they don't work so well at center stage. Add in that the final scene with the ghost was pretty cliche, straight out of a lot of horror books/ movies and I was quite disappointed. I always expect more out of Nora.

But, if you take the overall story binding three books together, you realize what a master Roberts is with pacing. The ghost which seems benevolent in the first part, gets truly unhinged and malevolent in the next two and Roberts keeps feeding us information about her along with the main romances without missing a beat. And the thing that I love best about her books, the family aspect, towards the end you truly get how these people have all come together to be one big, extended family. Characters are so well-defined that scenes like Hayley talking about Harper to his mother, which would have seemed eeky, have exactly the right voice.

And you have to admire Roberts ability to tie together all the gardening analogies with the story and character arcs of women from different generations. And her knowledge on the subject, even if I got cross-eyed reading about all the fecund pistils and swollen stamens. Ok, I'll stop now.

So, overall as a trilogy, it's about average. Do yourself a favor and dont read the books back to back. Sometimes the sentence structure and language can seem very repetitive.

-----------------

Series Order
1. Blue Dahlia
2. Black Rose
3. Red Lily

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Black Rose is the second part of Nora Roberts' In the Garden trilogy.

At 45, Rosalind Harper, or Roz, the difficult and hard-headed owner of Harper House has come a long way. As a young widow, she raised 3 sons alone, suffered a traumatic second marriage and successfully started the In the Garden nursery which established her as a serious businesswoman in western Tennessee.

Black Rose starts about half a year after the events of Blue Dahlia. Stella and Logan are gearing up to get married and the summer and fall season have seen the ladies busy and with no time to think about the Harper Bride. Anyway, after the last confrontation where the Bride tells them her name is Amelia she seems to have settled down.

Enter Dr. Mitchell Carnegie who has finally wrapped up all his other work and starts to work full time on the Bride mystery. Mitch starts looking through the considerable history of the Harper family, but that doesnt rock the boat as much as his growing fascination with Roz the gardener, Roz the southern belle, Roz the businesswoman, Roz the maternal caregiver ..... Her family's attempts to pair her up with Mitch, who in Hayley's words is "Hello!! Hot!" doesn't pose much of a hardship for Roz either. And Amelia, of course, knows it. Roz and Mitch feel the brunt of Amelia's rage, now tinged with madness, since Amelia knows that they are trying to solve the mystery just that the answers don't seem to be coming fast enough.

After being so overly enthusiastic about Blue Dahlia, I was quite disappointed to find Black Rose to be a much tamer read. There's entirely too much gardening, and I have to admit I skimmed. But there were a couple of things I liked. First, I haven't read many romances with an older couple and this plot element was handled quite well here. Secondly, Mitch is a great character, very believable, flawed but smart and likable. Also, Roberts trademark, the H/H's interactions with their respective children were fun to read about.

My thoughts, it was a decent story, not great and lacking the romance aspect slightly. And some of the dialogue got a bit heavy handed and repetitive.

But, Amelia the ghost has started to anticipate some sort of closure for herself. Now, let's hope Book 3 delivers ....

-----------------

Series Order
1. Blue Dahlia
2. Black Rose
3. Red Lily

If there's a word that gives me the heebie-jeebies it's 'gardening'. So, it's not that much of a surprise, knowing Ms. Roberts' penchant for research and delving into her subject matter that I stayed well away from her In the Garden trilogy. This weekend a whole lotta I-have-nothing-to-read saw me putting my hands on Book 1 in the trilogy, Blue Dahlia, and all I can think of right now is being at the library the first thing tomorrow so I can grab the next two books in the series.

Tragedy strikes Stella Rothchild when her husband's plane crashes leaving her a young widow with two little boys and depriving her of her best friend and ally. Wanting to get over the past and move closer to her father, she decides to move back to western Tennessee, to a new job as manager of the In the Garden nursery. Roz Harper, the demanding owner, loves her on the spot and has only one requirement - that Stella and her two kids move into her ancestral home, Harper House, so that Stella can be constantly available to deal with the day-to-day problems of the nursery.

Roz's open-hearted kindness towards Stella and her sons paves the way for the start of a promising friendship between the three women who live at Harper House, Stella, Roz and Roz's young relative, Hayley who is soon expecting a new baby. Stella loves being close to her family and soon her efficiency, planning and organisational skills start showing results in the nursery's day-to-day revenue. The only fly in the ointment is Logan Kittridge, Roz's brilliant and expensive landscape designer. And her sons' friendly acceptance of a golden-haired, sad-eyed woman who comes into their bedroom and sings lullabies to them as they sleep. Apparently, Harper House's resident ghost, the Harper Bride has decided to make friends with the boys too.

After Logan and Stella get their initial differences out of the way, realise they are intensely attracted to each other and start to think about actually having a relationship together, they seem to antagonise the ghost. Once friendly, they are now treated to blasts of her disapproval and when Logan almost gets knocked head-over-heels over a balustrade the friends decide that they have to find out who the Bride is and what makes her tick. And perform an exorcism of sorts. With Roz's son Harper helping, they rope in genealogist Dr. Mitchell Carnegie when it appears the Bride will do anything to keep Stella and Logan apart, to the extent of keeping her away from her kids, raising the hackles on Stella's maternal instincts .....

I cant get over how amazing this book is. A perfectly easy read, the relationships are what makes it click. Everyone here works and sounds exactly right. From Stella's father and step mother, to the 6 and 8 year old boys, to the live-in housekeeper, to the primary protagonists.

When Stella is first introduced, the author has her putting a plastic protector over the pages of her recipe book. As my own poor, splattered, recipe books will bear witness, I was thinking that Stella had to be this amazingly organised, super efficient, perfectly planned, crazy (in my book) woman. But, Roberts develops her character without making her irritating to the reader.

Stella has had a very stable, loving relationship with her first marriage. It takes her a couple of years to find her feet and I can imagine that she deals with having two absolutely mischievous little boys and holding a job by being as regimented as possible. Having a ditz for her mother is what probably gave her the start though. Stella's planned efficiency suffers a serious roadblock when she encounters chaotic, messy Logan and the sparks fly when they come together. I loved that Stella's first marriage was a very happy one and she was the one hesitant into going forward, of course she has to put the boys first, while Logan is sure of what he wants immediately. Such a pleasant divergence from my current reading list.

And, the men are all delicious as always. I have a crush on the name Logan (yes people do!) after Hugh Jackman made it his own, and what can I say, Roberts references it. With 2 little boys can comic books be far behind and once again I found myself marveling over Roberts' innate instinct for what works in her books.

For those still on the fence, yes, there's enough growing and planting and mulching to make this Papaya turn yellow, but the detail never takes away from the story and the story is where the heart is. Go read it. Right now.

-----------------

Series Order
1. Blue Dahlia
2. Black Rose
3. Red Lily

So much for the anti-vampire rant. After the last post I had vampires on the brain, was browsing for something new to read, laid my hand on Lover Revealed, a novel in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series by author J.R. Ward and proved myself a liar.

I consider the BDB to be a guilty pleasure. I cannot tell you how many times I groaned at the stuff coming out of the character's mouths (You feel me, my brother?) or how I laughed myself silly at the characters' names when they were introduced (Wrath, Tohrment, Rhage, Vishous) ... you see the cringe-factor here??

But, I still kept reading, because the vampires were intriguing, the romance was hot and Ward's fictional world in Caldwell, NY entirely too much fun!! After LR, I immediately got the first book in the series and I havnt stopped yet. Apparently the initial idea was to have a 10 book series, book 7 will release in 2009, however the genre of the novels have changed. Book 7 has been acknowledged by the author to be urban fantasy (??) rather than paranormal romance. Here's the synopsis:

In Caldwell, NY, vampires exist along with humans who are unaware of their existence. Vampires are a species created by their goddess the Scribe Virgin (oy this obsession with virgins as deities), they are born and cannot be made from humans. The Scribe Virgin's opposite is the Omega, created to bring a balance to the world and he leads vampire slayers called the lessers, human undead who have given up their souls devoted to killing the vampires.

For survival, the vampires started selectively breeding until a sub-species of the strongest vampires was formed, called the Black Dagger Brotherhood, who have the responsibility of protecting the civilian vampires from the Lessening Society. The vampires and lessers have only one point they agree upon, their existence MUST be kept a secret from the humans around them.

Vampires cannot survive on human blood which is too weak, they need the blood of another vampire to sustain them. Here's where it gets murky for me, apparently the blood has to be from a member of the opposite sex? Something like that. The vampires, civilian or brother, in the pretrans state (until the age of 25) are lesser bait - short, scrawny, weak, asexual. When the transition hits them their bones break at the joints and elongate, they become huge, muscled, self-healing monsters capable of annihilating lesser butt. This is for the males, I have no idea with the female transitions.

The BDB currently contains 6 brothers, all of them leather wearing, substance-abusing, gangster talking, rap-listening, tattoed and scarred - emotionally and physically, highly trained, fast healing killing machines. I know, I know, but stick with me here, I promise you'll have fun. The first 6 books are their stories.

The Bad: Ward is heavily obsessed with namedropping (Grey Goose, McD's, BMWs), designer wear (Hermes, Gucci) and every single character spouts slang. I have to say the slang irritates me (shitkickers, thank fuck????) as does the author's pretension that adding an 'h' in italics creates a completely different language (sehclusion, cohntest). Ms. Ward, I love your books, I really do but the verbal distractions are killing me!!

The lessers as the source of conflict are dull dull dull. I dont think there's a way to make clumsy undead who smell of baby powder interesting and Ward doesn't try since she gives us an interchangeable cast of lessers over the course of the first 5 books. Additionally, Ward's complex characterisations end with the brothers, most of her heroines are ill-developed and unidimensional. Including the Scribe Virgin who has to be the most inconsistent, demanding, anti-feministic, unlikeable deity ever! And the world building isnt consistent, plot holes abound. I realise that the number of factors I have against these books are huge, but I AM addicted. Now that that's off my chest, let's just move on, shall we ....

Dark Lover Rating: 5 / 5
Wrath, the last of the purebred vampires, vampire king and hater of humans is approached by one of his Brothers, Darius to help his half-breed daughter Beth Randall make her transition. Darius dies soon after making the request, and Wrath after initially refusing, is forced into making contact. Beth a journalist, is good friends with most of Caldwell's PD esp. homicide detective Butch O'Neal.

When the cops start to investigate the bomb that killed her father they eye with suspicion the overloaded-with-weapons-gangster-type hanging around Beth and the plethora of murders which seem to follow him around. With the cops looking for him, a new fore-lesser recouping his forces to go on another offensive against the Brotherhood, his jilted ex-wife Marissa's brother Havers who is determined to avenge his sister and the Scribe Virgin who wishes Wrath to assume the role of the King, Wrath must find a way to protect Beth, help her be born again as a vampire, acknowledge the intense attraction that lies between them and wrap his mind around the ascension to the throne and possibly a new Queen.

Until I tried to condense the story, I didnt realise how many plot elements there actually are here. It's also the main reasons why I like these books, because Ward develops all her characters so well, the plot is involving and there's so many POVs. We're never stuck with just the romance bit of the story, which moves at a fast pace btw.

Wrath has an adequate amount of trauma for being a centuries old vampire, he has problems with trust and emotional attachment which he has to work around to finally acknowledge his love for Beth while Beth has her own dealing to do with the sudden appearance of a father she never knew existed, the knowledge that she is half vampire and the fact that she could die with her transition. The rest of the brothers, Marissa and Butch are also given some time here as setups for the rest of the books. All in all, a fast-paced enjoyable read.

Lover Eternal Rating: 3.5 / 5
Rhage, the strongest and most dangerous of all the warriors, is drop dead gorgeous but underneath the superficiality which attracts scores of women to him and has made him vampire legend, lies a lonely man looking for love and bearing a burden only the rest of the Brothers know about. For Rhage is part man and part beast. Cursed by the Scribe Virgin he is doomed to turn into a monster whenever his emotions become unstable, a beast capable of harming both friend and foe.

Mary Luce is a survivor, she tended her mother through a debilitating illness, works with autistic children and has recently been informed that the cancer she spent battling has returned. Mary's work at a suicide prevention hotline brings her in contact with an angelic young man, John Matthew, a mute, traumatised orphan who seems too fragile to be alone in the world. John Matthew visits Mary at home where he is seen by her vampire neighbor Bella who immediately realises what the young man is. When Mary's services are needed as translator for John she finds herself in the BDB's mansion and suddenly being the target of attention of the most attractive man she has ever laid eyes on, for plain and outspoken Mary is the only one able to tame Rhage's monster.

DL I inhaled in one go, LE for me was a lukewarm book which moved along a tad sluggishly. Mary and Rhage didnt feel like fully developed individuals, both being defined by their respective curses. Rhage was sweet in the beginning, roaming around with a silly grin on his face just because Mary lets him in her house and their love story has a particular poignancy with Mary having a very limited time left to her. But, ultimately all the wallowing in self-pity from both parties lost any empathy I had developed. And I hate couples who cannot communicate.

But I wasnt bored and I wasnt indignant. Alongwith the main romance, the lessers ran around being ineptly murderous and the John Matthew track was interesting, John gets adopted by the Brother Tohr and his wife Wellsie. And, the book had a fabulous buildup for the next one in the series with Bella and Zsadist - I'm SUCH a sucker for Beauty and the Beast stories.

Lover Awakened Rating 4 / 5
Zsadist, the most terrifying of the brothers has an awful reputation. He massacres lessers, kills humans for feeding and can only be with a woman if she is terrified of him. All his emotions and his feelings have been ripped out of him in the century he spent being a blood slave, from which he was ultimately rescued by his twin Phury. Phury, who lives only for Zsadist, had spent his entire life looking for his lost brother, took a vow of celibacy and shot his leg off for Z.

Bella encounters Zsadist in the Brotherhood's mansion and is instantly mesmerised. After she approaches him, Zsadist rejects her even extracting a promise that she wont approach him anymore. But, Bella is then captured by the lessers and Zsadist finds himself almost driven mad by the compulsion he has to find her and punish the lessers who dared lay their hands on her.

LA is a good story of Z's awakening to first trust then intimacy to the two people he loves but hasn't been able to express his love to - Phury and Bella. The lessers have a new strategy for finding out about the Brotherhood, they capture civilians and torture them for information. With the capture of Bella though, a lesser becomes obsessed with her and wants her for his wife. Once she is rescued the war takes a new turn as he tries every means possible to get her back.

So, LA was a great read since having the lesser with some solid motivation introduced a good source of conflict. Also, Phury, John Matthew, Rehvenge Bella's half-breed vampire and sympath brother now have their own stories building up here. While Z's story arc leading to intimacy was believable, I didnt feel the romance so much. Which is the reason for the missing point.

Lover Revealed Rating: 3 / 5
Butch O'Neal, homicide detective for Caldwell PD has been living an empty life until he hooks up with the Brotherhood. Estranged from family and friends, the hard-drinking and hard-living have taken a toll on him. As has the unrequited love he feels for a female vampire.

Marissa is everything he has ever dreamed of, she's vampire aristocracy, rich, beautiful and delicate, completely out of his league. When Butch while trying to rescue a civilian from the lessers is captured, tortured and left for dead, Marissa and his roomate Vishous are the only people who can save him. Marissa with her love and V who is the yin to his yang, the light to his dark.

I didnt enjoy LR as much as the other books, the sole problem being the lead pair. Butch is a stereotypical cop but that didnt bother me until he took up with Vanilla Marissa. Ever since her intro in Dark Lover and the whole virginal act she put up there she seemed one of the TSTL heroines. Plus, the pages with Butch and V fairly sizzle their chemistry is so hot, Marissa seems like an audience-appeasing third wheel here. Whine. But we get to know V better which ups the rating in my book.

Lover Unbound Rating: 2.5 / 5
Vishous, resident clairvoyant and computer genius, is having a meltdown after Butch hooks up with Marissa. Consumed by jealousy and abandonment and a nagging worry that his visions of the future have dried up V takes his aggressions out with a lot of hard sex and hard fighting. He gets shot and lands in Dr. Jane Whitcomb's operating theatre. V instantly feels a connection with Jane while she is fascinated by her new patient - with the 6-chambered heart, fanged mouth and healing powers beyond the ordinary.

But, V has to be able to lay his murky past with a violent, abusive father at rest as well as the demands of the Scribe Virgin that he be the Primale (wed ~40 of the SV's followers, or Chosen) before he and Jane have a shot at being together.

I have to say I didnt like this book. V was my favorite among the brothers (probably because I came in with LR) and I was so angry that he never got a chance at a HEA. He and Jane had a great story arc going, Jane is aggressive from being a trauma surgeon and capable of handling the intensity that is V and both prepared to deal with the fact that Jane would grow old and die and I thought it was realistic and very well portrayed.

Instead, as with all the other books with human love interests, Ward introduces a twist, which I hated .... I'm a traditional kind of gal, this is why I stick to the historicals!!!! I think I would have been much happier if V and Butch ended up together. Much. And I havnt even started on the doormats-as-Chosen track or the angsty, boring John Matthew and friends track.

Lover Enshrined Rating: 3 / 5
Phury who sacrificed himself in LU to become the Primale of the species has brought the Chosen Cormia over to the other side so he can get to know her better. But, with Phury's spiraling descent into addiction and the new turn that the war against the lessers takes with the birth of the vampire son of the Omega it looks as if there will never be a chance to be together. And there's also the problem of the 40 additional mates. With the Lessening Society engaging in an all-out offensive against the vampires and as widespread destruction and horror ensues, Phury comes to realise that it is only Cormia who can silence the demons in his head.

So, poor, noble Phury gets cheated out of a romance even worse than V but honestly both Phury and Cormia are so boring together and apart that I couldnt care. What did sustain my interest is all the other action that is here - Rehvenge is being blackmailed by a sympath Princess, the teenage vampires John Matthew, Blaylock and Quinn surprisingly become strong allies in the war, John Matthew and Xhex (another sympath) have an attraction going on, the Omega's son and a dreary little fore-lesser are running around mucking things up on a much larger scale than before, the Scribe Virgin and her daughter and her Chosen are more fully dealt with, Tohr comes back with a fallen angel ... Ward's paranormal world just gets more crowhded. Heh.

As a transition book from the romance to the UF realm this worked for me, though Ward has now created such a huge cast of characters it remains to be seen if she can do justice to all in the following books. I certainly missed all my old favorites Wrath, Beth, V etc in this one. And I did miss the romance a teeny, tiny bit...

So, while I didnt care for Phury's addiction theme (author's please note - A Drug Addict Does Not A Romance Hero Make), the further development of Ward's world is what made this a good read for me. I know I'll definitely read the next one in the series to see where the author is going to take this series.

Lover Avenged - Rehvenge's story - reviewed here.

Lover Mine - John Matthew and Xhex's story - reviewed here.

Drea Rousseau is a gangster's moll. She's lived for 2 years with Rafael Salinas, a drug smuggling crime-lord, convincing him of her stupidity and her absolute devotion to him, all the while ensuring that she puts by enough money for a secure future when she wont have her looks to trade on. She thinks she has Salinas where she wants him, until Salinas makes a little deal with an assassin he hires. As a reward for a job well done, he agrees to give Drea to him for a couple of hours. Drea, humiliated and in a furious rage swears to make Salinas pay and runs away. With 2 million dollars of his money. Salinas hires the same assassin to kill her, but as the hitman hunts her down neither he nor Drea have an inkling of how radically their lives are going to change.

It's pretty difficult reviewing this novel, without giving a lot of the story away. The rest of the book follows Drea's footsteps as she chases after the money with little side trips into Salinas, the assassin's, some FBI detectives' heads and all the dull details about banking and finance you never knew and could care less about. And a miracle in the middle of the novel which sets up both characters for their ultimate redemption.

I consider Linda Howard to be a hit-or-miss author, when she's good she's unputdownable, but unfortunately has a lot of turkeys too. Considering what it is about her novels I like, I think along with the decent writing and humor I like that she creates strong characters. In fact, one of her books Cover of the Night, has a thoroughly implausible storyline - a handful of goons besiege an entire American town - I still liked it immensely because I liked the lead pair and all the sundry characters of the town.

So, where this book fails is in the premise, creating believable characters whose moral rescue and redemption the reader understands, is involved in and is rooting for. And it's even more dissociative for the reader when the hero is nameless for almost a third of the story. Drea started off as a good character, pretending to be a blond bimbette but actually a shrewd, smart woman who looks out only for herself. But I found it hard to believe that such a street-smart character fell in love, with an assassin no less, over a few hours of sex. And the hero's motivations were even less apparent to this reader. To get the two together Howard employs a spiritual/ psychic plot device which brought the book to a grinding halt for me, and I could only skim thereafter.

I guess that's about all I can discuss without going into major spoilers. The rating is so low because Howard does have some truly good romances out there.

If you are a new reader some of her better titles are Dying to Please, Cover of the Night ... hmm, I'll add more when I think of them. Dont pick up Shades of Twilight, Open Season or this one :)

I dont like vampires much. The Bram Stoker and Stephen King vampires were downright scary, and while Anne Rice's wonderfully graphic and philosophical Vampire Chronicles were intriguing enough, it wasnt until Hollywood made Rice's vision *ing Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and Antonio Banderas, fanged, long-locked, in period costumes and frankly mouthwateringly gawh-gus that I began to rethink my aversion. I watched the movie with wide eyes, slack-jaws, flushed cheeks and maybe even the hint of drool pooling at the corners of my mouth. Cruise as the Vampire Lestat still retains a special place in my imagination.

But that was it wrt vamps until about a year and a half ago I started reading romance. And noticed a trend among the staid bookshelves of my library. Apparently, while I was in the mystery aisles, vampires had become pop culture phenomena, they were sexy and nobody was bothered by blood breath ala Count Dracula anymore. The paranormal romances outnumbered all the other romance genres being stocked and checked out, vampires had even invaded chick-lit, while the teen market was catered to by shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel.

I'm not that interested in vampire romance mainly because most of them follow the formula of centuries-old vamp meeting the love of his life in a modern woman. Most romance genres are unrealistic towards propagating the stereotype of true love and soulmates, but the immortal who mopes or broods around until said partner appears is difficult for me to stomach. And frankly it seems very lonely too. Not to mention all the sucking and slurping of blood (one wonders which STD class people missed). But I digress.

So, anyway, since it looked like the adults and teen markets were already cornered along came writer Stephanie Meyer who felt that the tweenie age group deserved some of the fun too and penned the Twilight saga, a series which has enjoyed success much like Rowlings' Potter series. Obviously, with all the hype I had to check it out and finally, a couple of weeks ago, I received my copy of Twilight...And was appalled. Meyer's writing is terrible, there is no character development, no dialogue, no action, no impetus to the story.

The story of Twilight is as follows: Bella Swan moves to Forks, Washington to live with her father and is attracted to Edward Cullen, who just happens to be a vampire. Bella and Edward take one look at each other and know they are meant to be together .. the forewer and ewer kinds. There's just the little problem of Edward wanting to kill Bella, more specifically drink her blood, each time he smells her.

Ms. Meyer reduces her characters to cardboard cutouts with animal instincts - Bella exuding the pheromones that attract the male, while Edward, much like a male peacock or more accurately a carnivorous flower has all the flamboyant physical attributes to make him a successful in attracting her. Intellectual stimulation doesnt play any part in this couple's courtship. So, Bella loves Edward for being beautiful, he sparkles, people (cho pwetty)!! While Edward loves Bella for smelling good. Also, Bella's character is awkward, whiny, selfish, and cannot lift a finger for herself. This is a character who has to have the seat-belt fastened for her and constantly be told when to eat and drink.

There's a lot written about how the books are anti-feminist, abusive and narrow minded with the values and examples she is setting with her characters' behavior and her writing. Parents value Meyer's writing because she apparently (like the Bush government's policies) preaches abstinence, but I don't like the way she endorses it, literally it's do AND die. Again lots of criticism can be found online so I wont go into that - let's just say I agree.

Anyway, I found that I kept reading it just because the story is likeable. The big disconnect for me came towards the end when Bella starts to nag Edward constantly to kill her so she can be with him forewer and .... right we've been here before. And I was shocked to find a character with no goals or aspirations other than suicide in a book purportedly for kids, whatever be the justification - the most popular one being it's mind candy, leave your brain behind. Either way, it's irresponsible.

So, I didnt like Twilight. And I will not read the rest of the series. The IMDB pages for the movie has most fans saying that the book was a whole lot better than the movie, so off I went to Youtube. I didnt watch completely but what I noticed was that they kept the cheesy bits of the dialogue in, the acting was uniformally bad, the chemistry between the lead pair non-existent. And the story remained the same, dull and vapid. And the less said about the Goth lipstick for the 'pale' vamps the better. Despite my disapproval, the movie did very well worldwide, what were they thinking ??!!

It's written at the perfect time, culturally, when there is an unprecedented fascination with vampires, this might explain the number of adult women drawn to the story, even to Meyer's heavily neutered vampires. It deals with true love and forbidden love which are best-selling themes for romance and it might just be that no one has written a novel with these themes for teens before, but I might be mistaken in this bit.

And teenage girls seem to think that if Bella who is an apparently shy and awkward (the apparently is because this is the author's description, within moments of moving to Forks Bella actually has 5 boys hitting on her) teenager, can get the coolest, handomest, strongest boy in school then there's hope for them too. Couple that with the fact that a vampire is the quintessential bad boy and being helpless and rescued and reforming the male plays on female fantasies somewhere.

Also, Twilight looks pretty fat at 500 pages, but these pages are covered with large font writing and double-spaced paragraphs. Reading the simplistic language and completing such a huge number of pages does give the non-readers a sense of accomplishment and again this is something that can have contributed to the wide scale sales of the book.

In effect, Meyer's success is due to her making use of the opportunity presented to her, and having a decent story idea for fertile imaginations to run away with, it is in no way a tribute to her writing skills. If there are any male fans, it beats me why.

I was explaining to a friend why I didn't like Chetan Bhagat's writing and pat came the accusation 'Or you might just be jealous?' Sure, I'm jealous of Bhagat and Meyer and their franchises while being only admiring of Rowling's much, much, MUCH larger franchise, one which has popular as well as critical acclaim. You have to start small, I guess. So to clarify, the only thing in common between Meyer and Rowling's series is Robert Pattinson, who played Cedric Diggory in the Harry Potter movies and plays Edward Cullen in Twilight.

The Earth Children series by Jean M. Auel is historical fiction set in the period of the Great Ice Age around 35000 years ago. Originally intended to be a set of 6 books, then later expanded to include 7, the series was first published in 1980, enjoyed unprecedented success with the first novel and led to a dedicated fan following for Auel. So much so, that in the 1980's there were an unprecedented number of female babies named Ayla (Ey-LAH) in the US after Ms. Auels' protagonist.

As a writer Ms. Auel isnt remarkably innovative, where the writing gains momentum is in things that interest her - the botany, geography, arcaehology of the paleolithic period. As an amateur anthropologist, Ms. Auel takes liberties with her subject material, doing an incredible amount of research but advancing theories which are not 'established' in the literature.

So, Ms. Auel's world contains two species of humans - the Neanderthals and the Cro-Magnons referred throughout as the Clan (from the Clan of the Cave Bear) and the Others. In her fictional world, the Cro-magnons communicate with a fully fledged language, the Neanderthals, due to the physiogonomy of her jaws have a (as richly developed) sign language and guttural sounds. While the brains of the Others are more receptive to new ideas, the brains of the Clan depend on ancestral 'memories', locked in their brains over generations, only needing reminding to awaken a memory but not very capable of new learning.

The series is bound together by a Cro-Magnon character called Ayla. While making her character the original feminist, Auel tries too hard to gain reader sympathy, the tall, blonde, blue-eyed Ayla is reviled as ugly by the Clan, is discriminated against but has many progressive ideas and comes up with the theory of reproduction all by herself. Since Ayla can be a little trying to read about, over the series she evolves into Superwoman with her very own blonde, blue-eyed, a little-less-than-Superman-ish consort, it becomes obvious that character development isnt really Auel's forte. What is, is her ability to construct and describe for the readers paleolithic civilization, the culture, the dwellings, the flora and fauna, the weapon making techniques, hunting strategies, spiritual beliefs, all these and more are amply described over the course of the books. So, if you are looking for a series with incredible historical detail the first three are for you. Reading the rest should depend on how involved you get and how patient you are with all the pontification.

Auel tries to deal with a number of issues in her books, equality between the sexes, prejudice and discrimination, culture, religion, medical knowledge, alcoholism and drug use, superstition and sex. While some issues like the religion and medical knowledge are judiciously presented, her world view of some topics is through rosy-tinted feminist glasses. So, an incredible amount of writing is devoted to the sexual liberation of women and matriarchal societies, which while not necessarily a bad thing, deviates from the hunter-gatherer norm of the period. Auel's writing on sex is clinical at best, touch on a required number of points/positions and move on, but that doesnt stop her from adding it in spades to every book in the series. I just mention it so that those who are contemplating reading are forewarned!

A break-down of the books is as below:

Clan of the Cave Bear: Inarguably the best of the lot, the story starts with the Cro-Magnon baby Ayla, being adopted by the Clan after an earthquake kills all the members of her tribe. Describing Ayla's trying childhood, from her love for her adoptive parents - the medicine woman Iza and the spiritual leader or Mog-ur of the tribe, Creb - to her fighting the jealousy and hatred of a Clan member Broud, her education in medicine and her rebellion towards the restrictions imposed by the Clan members on themselves and the woman, this is a quick and very engaging read.

Valley of Horses: The end of book 1 sees Ayla banished from her tribe and looking for the Others. While she doesnt find them, she finds herself in a valley where she takes refuge against the coming winter and remains for 3 years. In her solitariness she tames a horse Whinney and a lion, Baby for company. A parallel storyline follows the Cro-Magnon men (tall, blonde, blue-eyed, of course) Jondalar and Thonolan of the Zelandoni as they leave their tribe for a sort of Europe tour, until they end up in Ayla's valley. Jondalar and Ayla fall in love at the end of this book.

The Mammoth Hunters: Ayla and Jondalar come across the Mamutoi or the Mammoth Hunters and decide to spend a winter with them. Here she finds the companionship she has longed for and even an admirer in the tall, dark, brown-eyed (about time, you say?) sculptor Ranec. Ayla's many talents, make her beloved among the Mamutoi and she is adopted by them into their tribe testing the strength of her love and attachment to Jondalar. At the end, Jondalar who is longing for his home sets out to return to the Zelandoni, taking Ayla with him.

Plains of Passage: This is where the reader's commitment to the series is tested. As pages after pages of descriptive writing on vegetation, topology or the mating habits of mammoths go by one can see that the story has taken a backseat to the research. Which isnt terribly interesting either. Ayla's and Jondalar's reverse European tour, sees them meeting many tribes, some welcoming and innovative, some dysfunctional, others distrustful, combating prejudice or ignorance along the way, always with Super-Ayla making new discoveries. Jondalar is even given one discovery to make all by himself but it's Ayla's show all the way .... The end of this book takes Ayla and Jondalar on a death-defying trek over a glacier and puts them within reach of the Zelandoni camp.

Shelters of Stone: Released in 2002, this book took 12 years to write and has a significant amount of Auel's research into the French region where the large Zelandoni tribe lives. Apparently, the length of time between books also altered Ms. Auel's memories of her plot. Much had been made in the previous books about how the Zelandoni would not accept Ayla, pejudiced since she was raised by the Clan, but that premise fizzles out here. Also, after the Clan and the Mamutoi where Auel established certain character types living in a tightly-knit community, she takes the easy way out and rehashes them all here, just on a larger scale. Jondalar and Ayla finally get married and have a baby Jonayla, thus following the established romance novel precepts and the rest of the book sees them making efforts to settle down domestically.

While the scope of the rest of the series remain unclear, I think Auel will set the stage for the extinction of the Clan, as much has been hinted at in a recurring thread through the series. With no new book in sight, it seems unlikely that Auel will be able to accomplish completing her story. While I'd recommend the first 3 (and the rating is based on these), my interest has been tapering off in intervening years, so I might just take the time to see where Ayla and Jondalar end up. Then again, I might not.