First up, two books from new-to-me-author Cherrie Lynn:
Rock Me by Cherrie Lynn: This was a nice romance. Tattooed hunk Brian was a sexy beast (and his genital piercing sent me to wikipedia because dude, I had to look that shit up). His heroine, Candace, was young and a bit sheltered but I didn't think she was a weak character at all and she matured as the story progressed. I really liked this one, but I LOVED...
Leave Me Breathless by Cherrie Lynn: Holy Moses, was this book good. It was super steamy (hello, look at that cover) but it was also super sweet and super funny. I loved Macy and Seth and thoroughly enjoyed going along for the ride with them, crazy drama and all. Needless to say, I will be pouncing on Cherrie Lynn's next book whenever it happens to come out. (Amazon||Goodreads)
Angels' Blood [Guild Hunter #1] by Nalini Singh
Archangel's Kiss [Guild Hunter #2]by Nalini Singh
Archangel's Consort [Guild Hunter #3] by Nalini Singh
I'm a big Nalini Singh fan. I glommed the whole Psy/Changeling series last year. On the whole, though, I tend to like Singh's amazing world-building a bit better than the romance aspects of her writing. The Guild Hunter books are set in a world where mortal humans live alongside immortal angels and vampires. I enjoyed this series and will keep reading, but I definitely felt that the first book was much stronger than books 2 and 3.
Elena's a mortal hunter born with enhanced strength and the ability to track vampires like a bloodhound. Angel's Blood starts off with the superbly powerful Archangel Raphael commissioning her to hunt down a rogue immortal. Elena's way out of her league and knows it.
Elena and Raphael have a very Eve Dallas/Rourke vibe going on. They've both got horrific childhood traumas, Raphael is wealthy and powerful beyond reason (and has a butler! Hee!), Elena is focused and sharp... there are a number of similarities. And I just realized their names even start with the same letters. Geez. I didn't feel like they were too much like Eve and Rourke, but the similarities were definitely in my thoughts while reading.
Books 2 and 3 are transitional books for Elena and Raphael. The spend the majority of both books dealing with easing into their new relationship, engaging in lots of creatively acrobatic winged sexy times, managing the massive amount of fall-out from the first book, and combating deadly threats at every turn. Unfortunately, I thought they lacked a strong sense of purpose and things just seemed to amble along. Each book ends with a big confrontation but there's no buildup of conflict leading up to it so I kind of just felt they were biding time. I still enjoyed reading them, but I'm excited that the next couple of books in the series put Elena and Raphael on the backburner to focus on some of the other characters. (Amazon||Goodreads)
The Rest...
Suddenly You by Sarah Mayberry: This is a sweet romance between a struggling single mother and her ex's best friend. I really enjoyed it but thought that things wrapped up a little too easilly near the end. Also, I probably should have known better, but Harlequin's bizarrely old-fashioned cover made me think this romance would be a little tame in the sexy department and that was just not true at all.
(Amazon||Goodreads)
Rocky Mountain Angel [Six Pack Ranch #4] by Vivian Arend: This was another sweet romance. It's got a "fake engagement turned real love" plot that was pretty much done impeccably. Gabe and Allison were a great match for each other. (Amazon||Goodreads)
Untie My Heart by Judith Ivory: Hmm. I bought this ages ago because it's a historical romance with a con-artist heroine, and that sounded like lots of fun. I read about 75% before DNF'ing it when I put it down for a week or so and then realized I had absolutely no desire to pick it back up again. Also, there's a sex scene early in this book that really left me sour. The heroine is bound against her will and I thought the consent was murky at best. (Yes, I'm the same person who loved Prisoner of My Desire last week but that book wasn't afraid to call a spade a spade and I felt like this one was.) (Amazon||Goodreads)
Next Up: A Moira Rogers Southern Arcana binge. Sexy werewolves for everyone!
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