Carnal Desires Review

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(More customer reviews)Crystal Jordan has released three of her Wereplanet novellas in one book called Carnal Desires. Fans of her work will shout for joy!
"In Heat"
Recently returned from a trip, Varad Mohan walks into the ballroom of his palace and immediately smells his wife. She is in heat and Varad knows that once she sees him, nothing will do but for them to mate, no matter that their passion has seemed to have dimmed with the death of their child. Varad knows that his queen will never turn him down but getting her to admit that she loves him once more is another thing and Varad won't settle for less.
Mahlia sees her husband, King Varad across the crowded room. Her senses kick in and the only thing she knows to do is run. She runs because she can't stomach the thought of delivering another child with the possibility of losing it like she lost her infant son. Her plans go awry when Varad catches her and proceeds to show her how the king of all weretigers makes love to his mate.
"In Heat" was out of this world hot. I love the concept of mating heat and uncontrollable desire. Varad loves his queen but in his inability to deal directly with his child's death, he hurt her and while he realizes this almost too late, I thought him quite honorable to admit his feelings to her and show weakness when he was supposed to always be strong. Mahlia's character was a bit dearer to my heart because of her sadness and total devastation at the loss of her son. My heart ached for her.
"In Smoke"
Weredragon Lady Katryn has been living with weretigers on the planet of Vesperi for her entire life. Pretty much ignored by her ambassador father, she is now required to head back to Harena, the planet of her birth in order to mate with her own kind and become part of a harim. Totally ignorant in the ways of dragons, Katryn is not sure she will be happy living in a new place. The emissary sent by her affianced mate to transport her to the capital city, Tarkesh makes Katryn yearn for something she can't have: him.
Lord Tarkesh and Lord Nadir are a mated couple. Required by their matriarchal planet to mate with a female in order to breed, they know that their love for each other is strong. However, they want to cherish and love their female mate as well. Since Nadir is the more dominating of the two dragons, he sends Tarkesh to meet Katryn so that she won't be scared. Things backfire when Tarkesh and Katryn hit it off more than Tarkesh thinks they should and he feels like he has betrayed Nadir. Only time will tell once Tarkesh and Katryn arrive and go through with the bonding ceremony.
I love a good ménage story in which the characters are all bonded and in love with each other. "In Smoke" was that type of ménage. Tarkesh and Nadir were combustible enough as lovers without Katryn but add her into the equation and the entire trio was simply flammable.
"In Mist"
Sera Gibbons has spent the last five hundred years in a cryogenic freeze. As one of only two survivors of the spaceship she was traveling on, she survived the crash landing on the werebear world of Alysius. Her friend Jain chose to remain on the planet with her newly found mate and Sera chose to stay with Brettan, a merman ambassador. After nearly a year of being with him, Sera has fallen in love but she is no nearer to finding out his feelings for her than she was months ago. One minute Bretton is aloof and the next he is sensual. No matter how many times they come together in sexual ecstasy, Sera always feels as if Bretton only comes to her when he has no other choice. She is so very wrong.
Give me a merman right now! I want one and am willing to do what it takes. Bretton was drop dead gorgeous from the tip of his toes to his waist length black hair. His overt sexuality kept me and Sera well entertained. His emotions were hard to read; defense mechanisms he used very well. I think "In Mist" is my favorite of the three novellas in Carnal Desires for this reason alone.
Crystal Jordan entrances and intrigues with Carnal Desires, a series of three intertwined novellas about a sensuous world of shape shifters and the mates that love them. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the world that is the Wereplanets.

Talia
Reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed

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Sing About That Black Rose Review

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(More customer reviews)The characters in this book seem real, as if we all might have one or two of them in our lives! Jaize touches on real subjects; love, abuse, family issues, friendship, HIV..This book will take you through some emotions ranging from happy, sad, hopeful, anxious, mad, sexy, and romantic!
At times while reading the book, I felt like I was in Chicago for the summer!
I look forward to reading more from Jaize Brown's creative mind!

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Master of Fire (Berkley Sensation) Review

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(More customer reviews)This is kind of an aside from the rest of the Magevese series. It is about Logan (Author's son) and Giada. The characters are well drawn and even the spear carriers are interesting. The menace this time is from an unexpected source and is fairly interesting.
So why 3 stars (a bit better than average for the genre). Some inconsistencies; as I remember Logan is some kind of corporate raider type not a bomb disposal guy. A mortar is a gadget used to fire a round not the thing that explodes (see the [...] article). Then there's the place where its a rifle in one paragraph and a shotgun in the next. Not as many or as obtrusive as some other publishers and authors but still annoying. Then there's the main characters. How does a small county sheriff department afford a bomb disposal and forensic chemist. I live in a small county and the Sheriff's department uses volunteers from the local fire districts (the districts pay for the training and certification out of their budgets) as arson investigators and forensics guys and relies on the state for bomb disposal and chemist support.
While the erotic scenes are nicely done, they don't save a somewhat weak plot.
BTW while this can be read standalone at least some familiarity with the mageverse will help it make sense (particularly the stories about the wolves).

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A new Mageverse novel-from the New York Times bestselling author of Master of Dragons A beautiful, brilliant chemist, Giada Shepherd is an immortal witch charged with saving the life of Logan MacRoy, the mortal son of a vampire. Passionately attracted to Giada, Logan has no idea that sex would turn him into a vampire. And no, as a killer sets deadly traps for them, the truth must come out, as must a weapon they never counted on: love...

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Where There's Smoke (To Serve and Protect 3) Review

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(More customer reviews)This isn't a bad or terrible story; it just wasn't a good read for me personally. When I'd finished it, I felt as if I could have better spent my time reading something else.
There were a couple of things I did love about this book. It is an interracial romance, which I happen to love. The heroine Kate is white and the hero Toby is half black and half NA. And Toby is the other thing I loved about this book. Besides being a non-white hero, he is a hunky firefighter, and he is so caring and gentle with Kate. He really has the patience of a saint when dealing with her. And that brings me to what in the book I didn't like.
Spoilers--------------
Kate is trying to get over being raped three years ago. This is the main conflict between them throughout the book. I sympathized with her and her past, with her panic attacks and anxiety. I know that panic can take control, causing you to react instinctively, without even knowing what you are doing. What I didn't like was how this stretched on and on, seeming more like filler than actual story to me. I understand that she will have setbacks, given her abuse and rape, but the back and forth between doubt and trust, even after they had had sex, even after the exchange of I love you's? Kate says she loves Toby, that he is the most understanding and caring of men, and then she is overcome with enough doubt to even think that Toby would torch her pub?
I really don't get how Kate can have enough trust to accept Toby into her life, into her past, and into her bed, yet still consider he could do something so malicious and spiteful as destroying her place. Even knowing what Toby had almost done as a teenager doesn't justify her doubt in my opinion. This is the man who, after three years of fear, she let love her and touch her all over in the most intimate of ways; this suspicion and distrust of him just didn't make sense. While Kate's confusion and doubt are understandable in the beginning, it soon became tedious to me.
The other thing that bothered me was the baddie. I figured who it was and it still made no sense that this would be the person doing all this to Kate. I just didn't buy the reasoning behind it. That could have been done a lot better, or maybe it should have been another character doing it. I didn't buy the 'surprise' of who the bad guy was.
While I loved Toby, it's not enough to make me say I liked this story. To me, this is just an average or okay read, and this review is just my opinion. I can't say I hated it, but neither can I say I liked it.

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Kate Darby has suffered horrors worse than imaginable in the past. She's closed off her personal life to focus all her time and energy on the pub her father bequeathed to her. When her bar comes under attack by a vandal and sexy, sweet Toby Angel is there with unending emotional support, she can't turn him away.He gets under her skin and helps her heal. But when he's the one accused of damaging her pub, can she find it in herself to trust in him? She's always believed that where there's smoke...

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Where There's Smoke Review

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(More customer reviews)The Stokes and Escamilla families have always been close. Their kids have grown up together and the males of the household are all members of the same firehouse. But is there more history here than the kids know? And what will happen when thing finally blow up?
Lauren Stokes and Seth Escamilla have been close friends for years. They tell each other about their loves and their lives. But one thing that Seth has never figured out is that Lauren has been in love with him for years. But, what will happen when during a fateful family get- together, Seth accidentally injures Lauren? Especially when he takes her home to care for her, and sees her in a bit of a different light. Now he is confused by his emotions. But just as Lauren and Seth start to explore their feelings, things with their parents go "super nova" and nothing will ever be the same. Will their new and old relationships be the fallout of their parent's deeds?
Wow pull up the tissues for this one. I made the mistake of reading Where there's Smoke on my e-reader while at work and then I had to explain why I was crying. I don't recommend this awkwardness to anyone, so make sure you are reading it at home. I loved how the main characters both were forced to "grow up" during this story. I was encouraged that the author didn't take the short route and gloss over the hurt that these characters felt. I also hope there will be more stories about the hot Firefighters in Seth's house. I found Where there's Smoke was a very well written story with not only hot love scenes but also hot emotions. That is what compelled me to make Where there's Smoke a Joyfully Reviewed title for April.
Tanya
reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed

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Is there such a thing as being too close, knowing each other too well? Lauren Stokes put a lid on her attraction toward her best friend Seth Escamilla years ago. She'd never be his type of woman, so why torture herself? When sexual awareness strikes during a friendly football game, she's stunned. He's guilty for injuring her and looks after her, but Lauren resorts to wisecracking to distance herself from him.Seth's confused by the new emotions swamping him. This is Lauren, his best friend, someone he has fun with, not someone he has fun with! He doesn't plan to settle down, and he won't risk their friendship when they have no future.They resist the new attraction, and the efforts of their families to push them together. When a wedding loosens their inhibitions, keeping the new aspect of their relationship a secret is harder than they would have thought.

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Blood, Smoke and Mirrors Review

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(More customer reviews)Catherine Baker was harshly sentenced by the witch's council after defending herself from a vicious attack by turning the attacker's evil back on him. It broke his mind. Her actions offended the witch's "An harm it none" creed. She was ostracized from the witches, cast out, and she's still bitter about it. The fact that her boyfriend at the time, the Guardian Lex, was the one that turned her in after she'd confided in him in confidence not only put the kibosh on their relationship, but it shattered all of Cat's dreams of a future with love and family. Needless to say, when Lex shows up years later at the coffee shop where she works, telling her she's going to have to try to become the new Titania (sort of the arcane's answer to a one-witch united nations for the Midwestern US region), Cat quite succinctly tells Lex exactly where to stick his suggestion. Various powers and magical races have a vested interest, however, and soon it becomes clear that refusal is not an option. Especially when Cat finds out that her murderous father Dorian is the only other potential candidate, for the male title of Oberon, left alive and as he's the necromancer responsible for her mother's brutal slaying, Cat's motivations become very pointed.
With a smattering of vampire politics and witchcraft, faerie fashion makeovers, and a life-or-death battle or ten, Robyn Bachar's book, Blood, Smoke and Mirrors is a fun, easy read with a heroine in Cat Baker (true name Morrow, but it's rude to mention that in mixed company) that has enough wit and self deprecating charm to provide some solid tongue-in-cheek humor. Not to mention she slings insults even better than she wields sun spells. For me, Cat was the highlight of the book. There were a few other characters that I enjoyed, Cat's faerie cousins Portia and Tybalt and the very powerful and obscenely rich vampire Zachary Harrison. I can't say, though, that I was overly fond of Lex, who seemed very two dimensional and lacked a lot in charm.
The "romance" between him and Cat never worked for me because I just flat out didn't like him, and there were scenes and issues all the way through to the last page of the book that made me wonder how successful a romance those two characters could really have, despite them being "soul-mates." Cat hasn't ever, and still doesn't feel comfortable in his HOME, for goodness sake...and she's going to live there? That's not usually a good indicator of snugglebunny love, and I found it so odd (especially considering where that information is given in the book storyline) that I had to reread that passage to make sure I'd read it right.
And actually, that point segues right into those caveats I mentioned. For all that I enjoyed the characters (most of them) and thought Bachar's narrative was smooth and enjoyable, I had some major issues with the actual story part of the...well...story. I thought the world building was very thin and sketchy and the mythos and explanation of different races bare boned to the extreme. I'm still not sure what the difference is between a necromancer and a vampire in Bachar's world, as everyone seemed to differentiate the two but Harrison indicated that vampires find that term offensive and prefer to be called master necromancers. I thought there were several odd transitions in the book, and the first half, centered around Cat's trials for the Titania position was almost a different story altogether from the later half, where she's being coerced into staying with Harrison, and those two parts seemed so disparate that the overall arc of the book didn't totally gel for me.
There were also a few too-quick resolutions and several cases where character action and/or reaction didn't seem organic to the situation, or were too quickly glossed over, and in those cases there was a serious lack of emotional impact. Some of those scenes could've yielded the author a significant payoff in reader emotional response and the opportunity was passed by more than once. I thought the "trial" was surprisingly lacking in challenge and substance considering the position the trial was for, and I have no clearer an grasp on what Harrison's motivations were for doing what he did to and with Cat beyond those he stated, but even that he seemed willing, at one point, to negotiate.
Above and beyond all that, however, the paramount issue is that the idea of Cat as Titania bugs the hell out of me. I have a serious peeve with stories that offer up the least learned, least powerful, least able to defend him/herself person for a sacred position of ultimate value and power. I've read it before in other books, an it annoys me every time, because not only does it call that person's abilities into question, it makes everyone around the poor shlub seem ridiculous, ineffectual, and stupid to want that person in power to begin with, and from a reader's perspective it does a serious number on my ability to suspend disbelief.
Despite all that, though, I do still like Cat and think her story is far from over. At least, I hope it's far from over, because there were sure a lot of unanswered questions and unresolved issues in Cat's life by the end. I'd read a sequel if there's one published, though it'll be the characters more than the plot that draws me back if there's another. I would like to caution potential readers on one thing: this book has been tagged as a paranormal romance, but while there is a romance involved in the story, it's by no means a central part, and I'd place the genre far closer to urban fantasy. Hardcore paranormal romance fans may be disappointed.
Originally reviewed for One Good Book Deserves Another.

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Smoke and Mirrors Review

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(More customer reviews)Gabby and Alex were young sweet hearts Alex wanted to be a magician and Gabby wanted to be apart of his dream, but all that came to an end because of a secret Alex have been keeping. Forward to ten years Alex is back in Gabby's life and wants to show her how much he wants and needs her in his life. I like this read, basically this book is based on Alex rekindling what he had with Gabby from start to end it's a quick read. And the sex was pretty nice a.k.a love the limo action ;0). I must say though I understand were Alex is coming from doing what he did in the past but I don't know If I personally would have chose that path but then again for some people they need to be apart to grow and then appreciate each other later on.
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I always end my reviews by saying Everybody has a different opinion when writing a review if we all had the same reviews or opinions it would be boring. Reviews can sometimes down play a really good book or up play a really bad book its up to us to read the book and judge for ourselves and draw our own conclusion that's the best thing about a review its like a silent debate....


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Love is nothing but an illusion. Heiress Gabriella Winslow learned that lesson years ago when her magician boyfriend abandoned her, sick and alone, hundreds of miles from home. In the years that followed, she's tried to forget him and the erotic bondage games they used to play. But the life she's made for herself since then still leaves her restless and yearning for something more. Now a successful illusionist, Alexander Black has returned to settle an old score. And to seduce Gabriella. With a blindfold and handcuffs and blood red roses, he entices his former lover and magician's assistant back to his Las Vegas penthouse. Alex is an expert at smoke and mirrors. If all goes according to plan, she'll never even know she's his prisoner.

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Game of Smoke and Mirrors Review

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(More customer reviews)Great book. Held my attention from start to finish. If you like your romance novels filled with action, suspense and scorching love scences, then this is the book for you. Great job Wynter Daniels!
May I also suggest for you interested readers a great book in the same genre titled "Tie Me Down" by Tracy Wolff. Enjoy!

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When Jia Mason's estranged husband turns up missing from their Florida vacation home, Jia is the prime suspect in his murder. Afraid she's being railroaded by the police, she flees to New Hampshire in search of answers only to be arrested there.Zack Sizemore is tasked with extraditing the beautiful fugitive back to Florida until a blizzard strands them with nothing but their mutual attraction to keep them warm.When they stumble upon a deserted cabin, Jia sees her opportunity to charm Zack long enough for her to escape. What she doesn't count on is falling for the handsome lawman. Or the danger that awaits them in the remote cabin.

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