Synopsis: The war between the wizards is raging on affecting the natural balance. Meanwhile the wizards and vampires slowly realize that the connection between the couples entails more than just giving and receiving blood and the vampires’ immunity to the sun. Some couples are completely happy with each other, while others are struggling. Still they have to make it work so that the alliance will remain intact. Marcel and Jean, the leaders of the two groups, are preparing to announce their alliance publicly, to even get more support in their fight against the dark wizards around Serrier.

Review: Again the story kept me reading all night. More details are coming out about the bond between wizards and vampires that make the stories about the various couples even more interesting. The "aveu de sang" (blood vow) between Alain and Orlando is still strong, but due to Orlando’s past and all his hang-ups the relationship between the two becomes more difficult. Alain would like more than Orlando is able to give. I can’t wait to learn more about how those great guys will overcome their problems.

All the characters, who were already quite distinct in the first part, are getting even more fleshed out in the second one. The relationship between Thierry and Sebastien is getting more room in this book, and I’m already looking forward to reading even more about them in the next one. The same goes for Jean and Raymond and some other couples.

If you like vampire stories with a great story arc that stretches over more than one book, great love scenes and lovable characters, this is the series for you. It certainly is the series for me.

Available at Dreamspinner Press

[rating:5]

Synopsis: For some time a conflict has been brewing in Paris. Dark wizards are trying to upset the natural order of things and take over. The milice wizards see a chance to gain a decisive advantage by persuading the vampires to join their forces.
In order to start negotiations Jean, the leader of the wizards sends his captain Alain to meet with an emissary of the vampires. As soon as Alain meets Orlando there is an instant attraction between the two.
It turns out that wizards and vampires can form a mutual bond that enables the vampires to face the sun, which makes them even more powerful allies than the wizards thought they would be. The bond depends on a certain chemistry, not every wizard is right for every vampire and vice versa. Thus there are some who struggle with their forced choice of partner, others are a perfect fit.
One of those latter couples are Alain and Orlando. They click from the first moment and decide to not only be partners in the alliance but much more than that.
Meanwhile the war with the dark wizards is raging on…

Review: Ariel Tachna says she has never read a vampire story in her life (haven’t I heard that before?), so I was expecting something  in the line of Twilight as far as the vampire culture was concerned. Was I wrong! She did a great job building a complex world with a lot of characters to keep track of. All the characters are fleshed out and have a distinct personality. Just the thought of all those wizards and vampires walking around in beautiful Paris is so exciting. From what I understand the whole story of the war was written as one book and then later divided into four parts. This first part has no conclusion and at the end I just couldn’t wait to get my hands on the second part.

The idea of wizards and vampires forming some blood bond is fascinating and really kept my interest up. Since Alain and Orlando are the first two to pair up (and not because they had to, but because they chose each other), this part mainly deals with them. However, a lot of  other characters are being introduced in a way that was neither forced nor seemed rushed in any way.

Now,  Alain and Orlando: wow, what a couple! I have hardly ever read a romance with such an (instant) attraction and such devotion to each other. From the word go they hit it off and don’t waste any time on beating around the bush. Some people might complain about this being totally unrealistic, and so on, but so what? Yeah, this might not reflect reality, but after reading this you wish it would. This is a true love story. The way Alain wants to help Orlando overcome his insecurities and the way they interact is just beautiful. Of course, there are a few love scenes, but this story also offers scenes in which the love and tenderness between Alain and Orlando shows without all the plain sex. I have read my share of vampire stories by now, but I have never read a scene describing a vampire bite as sensual and erotic as in this book. There are no idiotic misunderstandings, problems are being dealt with immediately. Those two guys are the epitome of a couple truly loving each other.

What a fantastic read! I’m now halfway into book two and know I’ll have to wait until May for the third part to be released. Bummer!

Available at Dreamspinner Press

[rating: 5]

Synopsis: Stuck in an uninteresting job and settled in a safe but vaguely unsatisfying relationship, the only bright spot in Esther’s life is her writing. She’s fascinated by colorful life of her ancestor Margaret Marsden, a nineteenth-century Gothic romance novelist. A woman who mysteriously disappeared without a trace.
A weekend away turns into a hunt for clues when Esther stumbles across Margaret’s lost novel, The Prince of Costanzo. Though desperate to read it, every time Esther opens the book, she falls asleep, and headlong into amazingly vivid dreams about Costanzo.
But in this dream world where war, magic and poisoning are commonplace, nothing is as it seems. Least of all the supposed villain of the novel, the enigmatic sorcerer Prince Drago. She finds herself kidnapped to his castle and subjected to a seductive interrogation that curls her toes. As their feelings for each other grow more powerful, she begins to wonder – is he the real villain, or a hero who only wants to save his kingdom? All she knows is that now that she’s had a taste of Costanzo – and Drago, her real life troubles seem insignificant.

Until they come crashing around her, threatening to cut her off from the man she loves. Forever.

Review: I like the idea of the reader to be sucked into a book. However, usually you’d expect her to experience the story described in that book. Here the story that Esther was transported into was quite different from the contents of the book. The explanation that was given as to why that was and how Esther could be drawn into the book in the first place was a bit far fetched and too complicated for my simple mind. But I’m a reader willing to overlook almost everything, from inconsistencies to illogical reasoning to incomprehensible explanations as to the why of the story, if only the story is good. And good it was.

The dreamlike, gothic atmosphere was quite compelling, you could picture Drago’s castle, the whole country Costanzo, its peasants, everything. It was like looking at one of those vivid paintings of some medieval scenery.
The fact that Drago, who was introduced as the super villain, turned out to be the hero was a nice touch here. He was as great a hero as you could wish for in a romance. Esther realistically didn’t fall for him the second she set eyes on him, but slowly came to care for him.
The real villains (there are some in either timeline) turned out to be quite villainous indeed and added the necessary suspense.

I’m a sucker for the "waited all my life for you" sort of story, so this was a really enjoyable read for me.

edit: There is a free short story available at The Samhellion called "Gothic Wolf", which is a sort of sequel to "Gothic Dragon", featuring Esther’s sister and Arturo.  Check it out!

Synopsis (from amazon): Lisa Singleton has an unusual roommate-a fifty-foot dragon named Caleb who has glittering scales and a bad attitude. Little does she know that Caleb is actually a powerful warrior sent to protect her from those out to steal her magic and destroy the world. Or that Caleb can take the human form of a sexy hunk. Now, if he doesn’t stop distracting her with those gorgeous bedroom eyes, they may not have time to stop their enemies before all of existence is wiped out. At least Lisa and Caleb will have savoured every last minute.

Review: I usually don’t like books which feature more than one couple, since I think this distracts me from the main story. In this book, however, the second blooming romance (if it can be called that, after all Saba was enthralled with the black dragon through magic) was a blessing. Malcolm was a much more interesting character than Caleb. Whereas Caleb seemed insipid and one-dimensional, Malcolm showed more facets of personality and was altogether intriguing. Even though he was the villain in the piece, I was inclined to root for him and the rest of the world be damned (literally).

The love scenes between Caleb and Lisa were particularly uninspired. First they were constantly interrupted…how often do you "need to talk first" or can a cell phone ring? How bothersome! Then when they finally got together somehow the scenes always felt to me like some kind of intermezzo that was squeezed into the story, because, after all, it is classified as a romance. They were strangely unconnected to the story. I also didn’t feel tension between the two protagonists, even though it was said to be there constantly.

The last third of the book turned out to be quite enjoyable. Finally Lisa and Caleb stop blundering into situations. Finally it is revealed what on earth is going on here and what Lisa’s legacy is.
Still the fact remains that there wasn’t any particular connection between the main couple. The scene that satisfied me most in that respect is one between Saba and Malcolm in which he explains to her why he doesn’t want an emotional connection with her, her reaction to this and in turn again his reaction to hers.

Why Lisa left for the past even though she knew Donna would be coming soon is another thing that bothered me. She shouldn’t have done that, leaving the others exposed and she knew that. But she "had" to go for some reason. Well, yeah, the reason is that had she not gone the whole revenge plan of Donna’s would have been non-existent. Still, it didn’t make sense that she left knowing the situation at the time.

Conclusion: I didn’t care too much for this couple, but I’m totally intrigued with Saba and Malcolm. That is the reason why "The Black Dragon" is already sitting on my shelf. So I suppose I have to give Allyson James some credit after all.

One more word about the book cover. Really, does anybody think those covers will encourage people to buy those books? Can it get any cheesier than that? I have no idea where they dig out those guys, but please, spare us in the future. The cover on "Dragon Heat" might reflect Caleb in certain ways (I won’t go into great details here), but the cover of "The Black Dragon" is an insult to Malcolm’s character. I don’t need a hunk on a cover (and I mean hunk in it’s broadest sense) in order to imagine a hunk, after all.

[rating:3]

Synopsis: "Lord of Danger" is the story of Alys and her sister Claire. Both are called to their half brother Richard the Fair’s castle where one of them is to be wedded to Richard’s advisor Simon de Navarre. Simon is feared by everybody. Due to his reputation of being a demon’s spawn and a Lord of the Dark Arts they call him "Grendel". When asked to choose between the two sisters he surprisingly chooses Alys, the somewhat drab but smart one, instead of Claire, the beauty. His plan to dispose of her in a convent as soon as she doesn’t suit his purpose any longer goes awry when he falls in love with her. And there is still Richard and his machinations to be considered…

Review: The books hasn’t been in my TBR pile for long, but I had been waiting to read it for a long while before I could finally get a copy. So my expectations were extremely high, additionally fuelled by the good reviews it got.

This was my second book by Anne Stuart and it will be my last. The book has a great story to tell and it was quite funny at times, but I just didn’t care for the way the story was executed.
I dislike books that deal with 2 romances in 1 and this is what Lord of Danger does. Claire’s love story takes up almost as much room as Alys’ and Simon’s – at least it felt like that for me.

Simon was a great hero, smart, strong, handsome and cunning and Alys a good heroine who doesn’t believe in Simon’s carefully crafted evil reputation. I liked that, but somehow the supposed tension between the two just didn’t show.
The scene on the parapet (two lovers meeting on the parapet in the midst of a thunder storm, you get it) that I had heard about beforehand was unexciting in spite of its potential and the ending, especially the last chapter, was rushed to the extreme. Simon’s "declaration of love", if you can even call it that, fit his character – I must give the author that – but was totally unsatisfying to a romance reader. For the real thing you had to revert to the secondary couple – not good!
Last, but not least, but this is a matter of preference, the love scenes were too tame for me. If the same story had been told by another writer, whose style is more to my taste, it would have been perfect, but as it is, it just wasn’t up my alley – at all.