Let’s start with a very ‘chick’ book that’s second in a series, then on to two Urban Fantasy series entries.
I’ve been hunting around looking for an interesting werewolf series that isn’t like every other series out there. I’d tried a couple of books from Cobblestone Press, one of the smaller ebook independent publishers out there, and found some that were decent derivatives, and then I saw Lycan Instinct, it showed that it was an EEPI Award nominee, so I figured I’d give it a try. This full length novel was quite unusual. No living in isolated places. No, overwhelming Alpha male dominance. The fact that Raphael Stone and his brothers Gabriel and Lucian are Lycans and all alphas actually has limited impact on their behavior. They are far more fully integrated into human society than usual and other pack members are conspicuous by their absence. Mostly they act like any other human brothers. This is less a werewolf story than it is a mainstream mystery novel with a little romance with a guy that happens to be a werewolf rather than a Spec Ops guy, the popular hero protagonist these days. (more…)
I finally decided to take a break from my attempts to get into Dead Silence by Randy Wayne White and went for something much lighter, a romantic mystery by Christie Craig – Weddings Can Be Murder. I haven’t read any of her work before, but this looked interesting so, what the heck. This is a Lovespell Contemporary Romance, but honestly, it really is a romantic mystery.
First of all, let me just say that despite some reviewer comments, Craig did not have the same feel as Evanovich. Yes, it has humor to it, but not the kind of ‘screwball’ edge that Evanovich always has, even early on in the Plum series. Plus, this isn’t part of series, but a standalone that seems to follow Craig’s formula of ‘innocent female bystander caught up in a crime’ and ‘hunky detective’. As formulas go, not new, but not bad and the success can be measured by how involved you get with the characters.
Someone is killing the clients of wedding planner Tabitha Jones. She contacts Carl Hades, ex-cop turned PI, for help when the police just blow off her reports of missing brides. Sunday afternoon finds him off to see Tabitha when he’d rather not. Katie Ray is an art gallery owner who is a client of Tabitha’s, not so much by choice, but because Tabitha is a good customer and a bad woman to cross. Unfortunately, Katie spent the morning throwing up and dealing with trying to convince herself and her best friend Leslie Grayson that she really did want to marry Joe Lyon. She wasn’t getting married so she wouldn’t feel so alone after the accident that took both parents and her brother Mike – Les’s fiancée. It wasn’t nerves causing the problem. Really! Right up to where she accidentally flushed her $8,000 diamond engagement ring. Les may have moved away after the accident, but she’s been best friends with Katie since they were kids and she’s convinced the marriage is a big mistake. Engagement rings don’t get ‘accidentally’ flushed. Meanwhile, Joe is getting fitted for his tux when he realizes he has doubts of his own. (more…)
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