New Releases – Paranormal UF and 2 Siren Erotic Romance

We all know I do love my paranormal, especially shifter and UF and there have been some good and blah releases lately, plus a couple of erotic romances.  Here we go.  First is a favorite series of mine, the Elemental Assassin.

• Title: Venom
  
• Author:  Jennifer Estep
• Type:  Paranormal Urban Fantasy
• Genre:  #3 of the Gin Blanco Elemental Assassin series; murder and mayhem as Gin finds her youngest sister
• Sub-genre:  Former assassin goes after the elemental who murdered her family
• My Grade: B- (3.8*)
  
• Rating:  PG-13
• Length and price:  Full novel about 90,000+ words for $7.99
• Where Available:  book available at any book store
• FTC Disclosure:  purchased book from online bookseller

New Concepts Publishing – 3 Books; Erotica – Shapeshifter to Futuristic

New Concepts Press has several very reliable authors in their stable, the two I read most are Madelaine Montague and Kaitlyn O’Connor and this lot was no different.  NCP does not release books on any particular schedule, so it’s not a site I check on any regular schedule.

So here we go, with the Good, the Bad, and the Really Icky.

• Title: Dragon’s Blood
  
• Author:  Madelaine Montague
• Type:  Paranormal erotic romance; ménage or polyandry
• Genre: Dragons living hidden among Native Americans
• Sub-genre:  FBI recruit finds herself pregnant and confused about a bear attack
• My Grade: C+  (3.4*)
  
• Rating:  NC-17 to X
• Length and price:  Full novel about 80,000 words ebook for $5.99
• Where Available:  book available at New Concepts Publishing book store online
• FTC Disclosure:  purchased book from publisher’s website

Short Reviews – 3 New Releases in Urban Fantasy and Erotic Paranormal

May and June are big release months for ‘beach reads’.  That includes lots of romance, mystery, urban fantasy and paranormals.  I read my way thru some good ones and a below average one from a writer I generally like a great deal.  I am often amazed and pleasantly surprised by some authors – good and bad:

• Title: Twice Bitten
  
• Author:  Chloe Neill
• Type:  Urban fantasy
• Genre: Werewolf and vampire in an uneasy alliance; Chicagoland Vampires Book 3
• Sub-genre:  Schemes and plots; should the world know about shifters?
• My Grade: B-  (3.9*)
• Rating:  PG-13
• Length and price:  Full length novel; about 90,000+ words for $15.00 list but discounts available ($I paid 8.85)
• Where Available:  book available at any book store
• FTC Disclosure:  purchased book from online bookstore

The Chicagoland Vampires is a bit of a guilty pleasure for me. It isn’t quite the type  story I like, but I was surprised to find that Chloe Neill is getting better with each installment.  Hardcore UF readers will justifiably complain this is UF light.  True, but I think UF light has broader appeal than the noir style stories while maintaining just enough of an edge keep from sliding into paranormal chick-lit.

Assorted Erotic Romance eBook Reviews

After a considerable drought, I bought a number of ebooks off the usual small publisher sites lately.  As always, the editing and proofing at New Concepts Publishing sucked.  And the prices at Siren are entering the silly zone.  What are publishers thinking?  I bought a couple of Siren books, but had they had just slightly more reasonable prices, I would have bought 3 more titles.

As usual with erotic romance, it was kind of a mixed bag when it comes to quality.  Mostly the reads were derivative, but one was original enough to be worth a serious mention.

• Title: Ranin Seven
  
• Author: Evanne Lorraine
• Type:  Paranormal futuristic romance
• Genre:  Shifter demons who need to mate; Woman warrior is unwitting pawn
• Sub-genre:  new series book 1
• My Grade: B- (3.7*)
  
• Rating:  X to XX
• Length and price: Novella – about 37,000 words;  ebook $3.50
• Where Available: Publisher’s website – New Concepts Publishing
• FTC Disclosure: Purchased ebook from publisher site

Recent Releases from Samhain – Short Reviews

Well, obviously, I’ve been buying a fair number of Samhain ebooks.  I just seem to find more to read there than I do from the other small press outlets.  One is from December, but the other two here were released in the last few weeks.  Two are full length novels, one short novella, but all were good in their own way.

• Title: Happy Snak
  
• Author: Nicole Kimberling
• Type:  Futuristic
• Genre: Alien Romance
• Sub-genre:  Unique
• My Grade: B- (3.8*)
  
• Rating: PG-13
• Length and price: Full Novel – about 90,000 words;  ebook $5.50
• Where Available: Publisher’s website
• FTC Disclosure: Purchased ebook from publisher site

This was a unique read and, given the publisher, utterly unexpected.  While it is, technically, a romance, it is even more really good science fiction.  The downside is, the appeal of this story is likely limited given the readers attracted to Samhain.

Gaia Jones is an ordinary divorced, blue collar, entrepreneur.  She came to the A-Ki space station orbiting Mars to open her very own snack bar, Happy Snak.  Her dreams are modest and center on creating her very own little business where people can happily enjoy “happy” food.  It’s only a small place and she lives in a tiny room behind the snack bar on a lower level of the station where the blue collar workers go.  She has no grand ambitions – but even her modest dreams are disrupted one night an awful smell in the food

Short Reviews: Erotic Romance Novellas

I could be wrong, but I seems to me that the vast majority of erotic romances these days are novellas – often sold as short novels.  A few of these ‘novellas’ have been outrageously priced – like Tymber Dalton’s Steam which sells for $4.50 for just under 29,000 words for an ebook.   Sometimes I have to wonder what possess publishers.  It is stopping me from buying, I’ll tell you that.  Had Ms Dalton’s latest release been correctly priced, I would have bought it happily.  As it stands, not a chance.  I seem to be saying that more and more often.  Ah well, here are some that I did buy!

• Title: Ringo’s Ride
  
• Author: Regina Carlysle
• Type:  Erotic paranormal romance
• Genre:  Angsty werewolf mating; the ‘princess’ and the dark and dangerous cowboy battle rogue werewolves
• Sub-genre:  I am unworthy of a mate, even though we both have only one chance
• My Grade: C+ (3.2*)
• Rating: x
• Length and price: Novella – sold as a short novel, about 32,000 words for $5.20 as an ebook
• Where Available: ebook available from Ellora’s Cave
• FTC Disclosure: Purchased from publisher’s website

Ringo’s Ride, the third installment of Regina Carlysle’s werewolf series picks up where Lone Star Lycan left off.  As Joe McKinnon and his mate Quinn celebrated their Consummation Ceremony, rogue weres, lead by attacked and made off with unmated females for their pack.  They were led by Ramona, Joe’s former lover and wannabe mate to the pack Alpha.  She ran after her unsuccessful attempts on Quinn’s life, but returned with the rogues to steal the unmated females.  One of those females was Rayne Poteet, the only daughter of well to do pack members.  As Ringo walked into the party, he and Rayne formed the psychic bond that only happens between mates.  In wolf form, he goes after her captors while Joe handles the rogue Alpha.

Three Erotic Romance Short Reviews Including A New Release

OK, let’s continue with the erotic romance short reviews.  Honestly, The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown couldn’t get more boring and tedious if it tried, so I have to read it in small sections to prevent a narcoleptic attack.   I’ve been using my windfall of erotic romance and a HUGE stack of new paranormal releases as a distraction.  Hallowed Circle by Linda Robertson,author of Vicious Circle, is calling me.  Loudly!  But first, some more erotic romance – some Si-fi, some shifter, some suspense and well, you get the picture.

• Title: Planet Mail
• Author: Kate Pearce
• Type:  Si-fi erotic romance
• Genre: Alternate world; crash landing in a king’s bed
• Sub-genre: Ordinary woman save an entire planet and finds true love
• My Grade: C (3.0*)
• Rating: xxx
• Length and price: Short novel for $10.99, but available for less as ebook, used, an on sale
• Where Available: Mostly at Ellora’s Cave and occasionally from book stores and used book sites
• FTC Disclosure: Purchased from publisher

Douglass Fraser is the future of UPS, she flies a delivery ship for United Planetary Parcel Services (UPPS – though occasionally they spell the acronym wrong in the book – one of those eye-rolling moments of bad proofreading).  Something happens to her ship and she ends up crash landing on a planet well off the usual interplanetary shipping routes.  Her rescuer is Marcus Blood Axe, the ‘King’, who had enjoyed some intimate time with a woman in a village the night before.  He’s still feeling the affects of his evening – which he can’t really recall.    Douglass is taken away and three gorgeous men are now there to pleasure her – but no sex.  Only the King can do that.  Still, if you have to be stranded and left waiting for rescue, a male harem isn’t a bad thing.  The men are to keep her ready and aroused for the king.  (Why is that seen as exciting?  It’s damn uncomfortable and it also causes all manner of health issues.)

Book Reviews: Three Short Paranormal/Futuristic Erotic Romance Reviews

After a bit of a drought for me on the new book offerings at various erotic romance publisher sites, I did find three that looked interesting enough to give a whirl.  First let me say that the price of these three novellas is way too high for what you get.  This is not a new complaint of mine, but the escalating cost of ebooks, especially novellas, is getting out of hand.  Proportionally speaking, short stories and novellas are way overpriced and getting worse. It’s also one of the main reasons I’m buying fewer erotic romance ebooks.  Too many disappointments with expensive, poorly developed and executed novellas.  Is it any wonder that there’s a market for used print books?  The swapping of erotic romances is often the only economically viable solution.  So erotic romance publishers – WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE.  You’re pricing yourselves out of the market.

• Title: Unleashed Temptation
• Author: Savannah Stuart
• Type: Paranormal/Urban Fantasy erotic romance
• Genre: werewolf meets mate
• Sub-genre: over-sexed werewolf lover and nutso immortal
• My Grade: C- (2.7*)
• Rating: NC-17
• Length: 39,000 words for $4.42 (sale price, will be $5.20)
• Where Available: as an ebook at Ellora’s Cave (discounted at this time; link for convenience only)
• FTC Disclosure: ebook purchased on the publishers website

OK, I admit it.  I’m a sucker for shape-shifter stories.  Big cats, dragons, wolves – I like the idea of blending certain animal traits with human ones.  It just appeals to me.  The world building often sucks.  The world building here was slim, but given the length of the story, it was about all you could expect.

Book Review: Dark Abyss by Kaitlyn O’Connor

Kaitlyn O’Connor is one of my favorite furturistic erotic romance writers.  Her Cyborg Nation series is funny and brings up a lot of interesting philosophical points and men just dying for sex.  For Dark Abyss, she freely borrows many of the elements in her cyborg series and blends them with catastrophic climate changes on Earth to create the near future world in which Dark Abyss is set.

• Title: Dark Abyss
• Author: Kaitlyn O’Connor
• Type: Futuristic erotic romance
• Genre: Near future after cataclysmic climate change
• Sub-genre: Genetically altered humans
• My Grade: C+ to B- (3.5*)
• Rating: NC-17 to X
• Length: about 78,000 words – full novel
• Where Available: ebook only at this time from New Concepts (link for convenience only)
• FTC Disclosure: This ebook was purchased on the publisher’s website

Dark Abyss opens with an act of sabotage against the underwater territory of New Atlantis, the primary supplier of food, water, and power to now devastated US that lost much of its arable land to the rising seas when the polar ice caps melted.  The men who agreed to start the underwater cities were genetically altered so they could live and breath underwater, even though the cities are domed and filled with air so the machinery can function for things like the desalinization plant, and plants can grow in the greenhouses.  These genetically altered people are called ‘mutants’ by those who live on the surface.  They in turn call the surface dwellers ‘air breathers’.

On Vacation – Ultra Short Reviews

Everyone gets some time off, even me.  I’ll be gone till next week, but I promise to read a bunch of stuff I bought off the Samhain site.  I already knocked off one and hopefully a second today, so next week I’ll have the reviews up.  In the meantime, here are some books I’ve read and haven’t reviewed and just a line or two on each.

Shoots to Thrill by Nina Bruhns

Romantic suspense with a preposterous premise of a ‘dedicated’ nurse who insists on going on a spec ops mission because her patient needs her and, well, she’s just so damn dedicated.  I’m mean really, can you believe that?  The underlying mystery of who the traitor is was decent, but not enough to redeem the silly story. C- (2.6*)