Bitten by Books

Monster Dionysus works for the Cryptobiological Containment & Rescue Services division of animal control so he’s the go-to guy if a Yeti shows up in the frozen food section of a local supermarket or an infestation of trolls terrorizes an apartment building. He’s a cynical, seen-it-all kind of guy who has a neurotic demon girlfriend, a sex-loving angel mistress, and a sidekick named Chester who is from another dimension and manifests in this one as a piece of paper. Read More »

Mary has lived her whole life in a village the Sisterhood tells her is the only civilized place left in the world. Surrounded by a forest filled with zombies the Sisterhood call the “Unconsecrated,” the village is both a haven and a prison for Mary, who dreams of oceans that may or may not exist. Read More »

Vampire Prince Lucien of the Black Fortress Dominion likes nothing more than being left alone with his books of magic, his bloodharem and his second-in-command, the amethyst-eyed half-demon Kinji. If his sire and grandsire had not been murdered by baneful magic, Lucien would have been left alone to pursue his pleasures in peace. But politics and practicalities intrude, and Lucien finds himself fighting for his very life with the help of an extremely unlikely ally: a golden-eyed lion shifter whose name means “Ancient Hero” in the Old Earth Persian language. Read More »

Charisma Snow is a siren, the great-granddaughter of Odysseus and Agalope, one of the original sirens of myth and legend. Charisma’s parents were killed in a car accident before she was fully trained in her powers and the young woman has been living on the street, trying to stay under the radar. Not only is she being hunted by sexual predator Hood—a vicious mobster who employs mermen as his enforcers—she’s also being sought by agents of ASP, the Agency for Supernatural Police, who want to talk to her about several strange murders they’re investigating. Fortunately, just as a team of werewolves, vampires and Atlantean warriors is about to capture her, Kadian James, rock star and were-dragon, hears her soul’s song and comes to her rescue. Read More »

Every one hundred years, the Master of the Elements demands a virgin sacrifice from the village he nurtures with his powers. Ever since she was a child, Elsbeth has felt that it is her destiny to go to the Master and suffer whatever fate befalls the girls who go there. And so, on the sixth day of the sixth month of the sixth year, on behalf of the common good, Elsbeth embarks on the journey of her own free will as her grief-stricken father dissolves into sobs.
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Cecily Mason is the youngest of four beautiful sisters, all of them powerful witches whose magic protects the city of Philadelphia from paranormal evil. Their mother, Brenda, is second-in-command of one of the city’s largest covens; their father is an “artificer,” a man who understands spells so thoroughly he can blend technology and magic. Read More »

Serena O’Toole is keeping a secret from her lover, Sheriff Jackson Hardy, in this lively sequel to The Werewolf Whisperer. Unbeknownst to Jackson and the other werewolves who inhabit the tiny town of Eclipse, California, Serena has been attempting to “train” them in their wolfen forms, just as she used to train dogs for her television show Woof. Serena isn’t the only one keeping secrets in Eclipse, though, and a raven-haired newcomer turns out to hold the answer to the question on everyone’s minds: why are some of the werewolves dying and why don’t they shift back into human forms after death? Read More »

Six hundred years ago, a woman mated to a gargoyle for many generations, rebelled against her husband and the ruling Council of Gargoyles and led others of her kind in a mass suicide to escape an edict they found unbearable. Without their mates—known as Fledglings—gargoyles cannot reproduce. Now their long-lived race is dying, their eventual fate—turning into stone—hastened.
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Serena Plim isn’t thinking clearly when she flees Canberra after a political scandal paints her as the “other woman” in Deputy Prime Minister Kelvin Waters’ life. The accusation was brought by Kelvin’s bitch of a wife, Priscilla, who has always been jealous of the intimate relationship between her husband and his gorgeous press secretary. The public is all too eager to believe the story even though Serena and Kelvin have never crossed the line between friends to lovers. Read More »

It’s almost Christmas, but that’s not why Angelina (Angel) Truheart has come to the elegant emporium known as “A Christmas Night.” Someone has kidnapped her beloved little sister, Abby, threatening to kill her if Angel, an accomplished thief, does not steal the formula for a very special Christmas tree ornament from the proprietor, Dante Von Wolfe.

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The annual East Coast Paranormal Investigators Conference is being held in Boston this year, and the Rayne family is there in force. Matthew Rayne and his brothers Adam and Jason will be giving a tech conference at the event, and the whole family hopes to find a new psychic to replace pregnant family member Gina. The number one draft pick for Rayne’s Paranormal Investigations is Kim Vernon, but no one can ever get near her to discuss business without Kim’s bitchy business partner, Tonya, interfering.
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Someone has sent an incubus to torment virginal Meagan Addison. A researcher on the brink of a discovery that will change the world and save lives, she’s being brought to the edge of madness by the evil dream spirit’s nightly attentions that leave her bruised and battered. When Morpheus the Dream Master learns of the attacks, he turns to his cadre of Dream Warriors to protect her. Dream Warriors are not human and most cannot materialize in the physical realm, but that does not mean they cannot experience emotions or that they cannot fall in love.
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When Amy Kraus loses the baby she’s already named Edmund, she is devastated. When she learns soon after that she’ll never conceive another child, she’s inconsolable. As weeks pass, Amy’s grief deepens into a black melancholy. Always a thin woman, she shrivels to a skeleton. She withdraws into herself and begins attending Mass daily, praying to the Virgin for hours at a time.
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Rene Walker is a classical scholar who lends her expertise to movie productions so that she can finance trips and research projects in Egypt that she could otherwise not afford. When collector Michael Tajnoor loans his priceless collection of artifacts to Datura Studio as a publicity stunt to kickstart a nationwide tour of the objects, Rene just can’t resist using her keycard to sneak into a soundstage for a closer look. She’s particularly fascinated by the Altar of Anubis, a chunk of polished basalt that dominates a room full of golden statues and gilded goddesses. But she is not alone…

Murdered when she interrupts a robbery, Rene wakes up in the arms of Imeut, a handsome healer who is convinced she is his long-lost love, Reynar. Everything about Imeut is pleasing, from the scent of spices that clings to his skin to the timbre of his voice, but Rene cannot remember him or the life he insists they had to together. Nor does she remember Selesma, a vengeful beauty who has a grudge against Reynar that has been nursed for millennia. As Imeut passionately guides her through her reawakening, Rene glimpses the rewards of loving an immortal. (Let’s just say his ministrations give new meaning to the phrase “sexual healing.”)

Vremont’s 30-page story is packed with vivid imagery, sensual detail and inventive situations. Rene is an everywoman whose response to finding herself in an afterlife she has never even imagined is realistic and makes her sympathetic. And while Imeut is one hot hunk of immortal love, she’s wary about some of the customs of this new land where she finds herself. Imeut proves to be quite persuasive, however, and Rene finds herself welcomed home in a most unusual and gratifying way.

Readers who are dainty about four-letter words being used to describe body parts may bristle at the language, but Vremont’s instincts for what will arouse readers are spot on. The sexual magic she conjures is satisfying.

Book Stats:

• e-book, digital format
• Publisher: Changeling Press
  
• Book Length: Novella
  
• Language: English
• ISBN: 978-1-60521-104-6

To purchase an electronic copy of Altar of Anubis click here.

To visit the author’s blog go here.

Private investigator Rick Sage’s parents were murdered when he was a boy, so when his friend, the Governor of Baja Sur, asks him to look into a murder/kidnapping case, he doesn’t hesitate. When the murdered couple’s son Pedro turns up alive, Rick sees it as his mission to keep him that way, at least until he turns him over to his only living relative, a priest.

If only it were that simple.

What Rick doesn’t know is that sewn into Pedro’s shirt is a map that reveals the location of the legendary “Death Mask of the Jaguar,” an artifact so powerful that people will stop at nothing to possess it, even though it is protected by a magic spell.

Rick’s a rascal in custom-made bowling shirts—none bearing his real name—and size 12 motorcycle boots. He’s got some mileage on him and is old enough to appreciate the difference between a woman and a girl. He prefers the former and he likes his women smart. He’s a smart guy himself and complex, but he has a very straightforward view of the world. “Revenge and justice ride the same horse,” he says at one point, which makes his companion laugh and tease him for sounding like something out of an old western. We’re not surprised when a mystic he encounters informs him that he’s accompanied by a jaguar spirit.

Pedro is a tough and resourceful kid, but the writer seems to have equipped him with skills that match the story’s needs a little too easily. (At a pivotal moment, for instance, it turns out that Pedro knows how to drive.) There’s also a fair amount of contrived plotting that allows Rick to run into people (like sexy nun Sister Denise) who can fill him in on the legend behind the artifact everyone’s looking for or otherwise offer assistance.

On the other hand, the book is rich with details that bring the story to life. The writer has clearly done his homework in the realm of Mayan lore, and the information about the tomb of the Jaguar King and the jade death mask rings true.

There are times when the match-up of Rick and Pedro will remind readers of the bond between Indiana Jones and “Short Round” in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and that is probably no accident. It takes Rick awhile to figure out that what he’s been missing is a little man in his life, but it’s clear to the reader that Pedro and Rick are going to be together for more than the duration of this adventure as soon as they hook up.

This novel was written before the current explosion of violence in the border cities, but even so, Hughes gives readers a taste of the kind of mayhem that’s possible in the shadowy corners of the no-man’s land between Mexico and California. Pedro’s parents seem irredeemably stupid and naïve for setting up the meet with their killers, but they pay for their mistakes with their lives, so it’s hard to be angry with them. We are angry with them for putting their son in danger, but having the newly orphaned boy trotting around in Rick’s wake makes things interesting for both the investigator and the reader.

There’s a lot to like here—ancient treasures, dire curses, spirit animals and a whole lot of action-laced adventure featuring plot twists and last-minute revelations. The identity of the mastermind behind the murderous plot to claim the mask will come as a surprise, and paves the way for a very satisfying ending for Rick and Pedro. The plotting is a little coincidental and the sex—while hot—is even more unlikely, but overall this novel is a lot of fun; a beach book out of season.

Book Stats:

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Hard Shell Word Factory (December 31, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0759947384
• ISBN-13: 978-0759947382

To purchase a print copy of Death Mask of the Jaguar click here.
To purchase a Kindle copy of Death Mask of the Jaguar click here.

To visit the author’s website go here.
To visit the author’s blog go here.

In Beyond Love, Sandra Rarey’s heroine Elizabeth is in love with the ghost who haunts her home, an old Victorian house standing on a cliff that overlooks a perpetually storm-tossed sea. Angus Aberdeen has been with her since the day she moved in three years ago and their relationship couldn’t be more perfect. Except of course, that he’s been dead for more than 100 years.

Except for the dead part, Angus is the ideal man. He may not be Mr. Right, but for Elizabeth, he’s Mr. Right Now. She looks forward to coming home to a house scented with apples and cinnamon and radiant with the glow of candles he’s lighted for her. He knows what she likes because he can read her mind, and he seems devoted to keeping her happy. Best of all, Angus is a safe man. That’s important to Elizabeth, whose last lover was abusive, leaving her with a deep fear and suspicion of men. She feels safe with Angus and has even spent lonely nights imagining what it would feel like to have his arms around her. So when Duncan Munroe comes knocking on her door in a raging snowstorm, claiming to be looking for his wife’s murderer, she’s more than a little unnerved.

She is also quite dismayed to learn that he believes Angus Aberdeen is responsible for the murder, which only happened four years ago. Duncan’s story is strange and stranger still is the knowledge that although they’ve never met, he seems to know an awful lot about her. Elizabeth doesn’t want to hear what he has to say about her beloved ghost, but Duncan is … persuasive. But so is Angus, who finally materializes physically to plead his version of the story and to prove to Elizabeth that he can be the perfect lover she’s been dreaming about.

Rarey does a fine job of keeping her reader guessing what Elizabeth’s choice will be as Duncan and Angus contend for her soul. This is a smart variation on the classic “Gothic” tale, and the author is pitch perfect in her telling of it. 3 Tombstones.

Becka by Kathleen Brandt, has the feeling of a dark folk ballad, one of those songs of doomed women and desperate measures. Becka Day is a maid of constant sorrow whose life is a mess and whose man is a violent, shiftless leech who spends all the money she makes working down at the carwash as a receptionist. She’s scared of Ray and the look he gets in his flat, yellow eyes, and we know she has a good reason for that.

Becka talks “country,” and it tells us a lot about who she is and how she got herself into such a fix. It’s hard to write a character like that and not tip over into caricature, but Brandt does a good job keeping the balance. She also does a good job of putting us inside Becka’s skin—so deep that when Becka tells us that Ray needs five beers before he can say, “I love you,” we feel the hurt in our own stomachs.

We know that what goes on in Becka’s house can’t keep going on, and we know from the beginning how things must end. Or at least we think we do. The writing here is atmospheric and deceptively simple. We see everything from Becka’s point of view and she doesn’t miss much, though she is prone to denying the things she does not want to see.

This is a story that would comfortably fit into any mainstream anthology; a tale that compares favorably to any horror story out there, even without the stinger at the end. 4 Tombstones

Afraid of the Dark by Peggy Christie offers a cautionary tale that reminds us “just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you.” David Moore is an ordinary guy with an unusual phobia. Although he’s a grown man, he’s still afraid of the dark. He keeps lights burning throughout his house and shies away from dark corners because he can see things in the shadows that he really does not want to see. Rather than compromise his lifestyle or apologize for it, David lives a solitary life with Max, his beloved wolf-dog, his only constant companion.

David is a sympathetic guy, whose relationship to his younger sister Sarah and his nephew Kevin make him even more likable. (His other siblings, disapproving Matt and Rachel, are drawn in somewhat exaggerated strokes, but their attitude toward David is completely believable.)

The creepiness of the story sneaks up on us as Christie describes David’s routines and rituals for keeping the light shining on his life. When we’re plunged into the middle of his darkest dream, it’s a visceral shock because we are there in the bed with him, dreaming along—screaming along.

When David meets copper-haired, green-eyed Veronica at a backyard barbecue given by the “Light Bringers,” a support group for people who see dark things, his life seems to take a turn for the better. She’s not as completely persuasive a character as she should be—she’s a bit of a fantasy figure—but poor David needs someone to love and be loved by, so we’re willing to accept her as the designated love interest. Once we see that Veronica has Max’s seal of approval—and he’s not a dog who warms up to most people—we figure our hero is in good hands.

The story alternates between David and Veronica’s viewpoints and Christie gives us a he said/she said view of the terror that’s camping on David’s doorstep. We also find out that not everything fearsome comes from the spirit realm and the revelation of Betty’s true nature is a shocker. She frightens us more than the creatures that emerge from the shadows.

This is a story that could easily be expanded into a novel as David and Veronica lead members of the Light Bringers into battle against the forces of darkness. We find ourselves caught up in the battle and caring how about the stakes. The ending is truly scary, with its hint of more frightening things to come. Like David, you will want to read this with the lights on. 4 Tombstones

Book Stats:

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 233 KB
• Publisher: Lyrical Press, inc. (October 20, 2008)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English
• ASIN: B001L9J2IU

To purchase a Kindle copy of Tales From The Shadows click here.
To purchase an electronic copy of Tales From The Shadows click here.

Zenobia Van Zandt is a witch whose twin sister Allegra is a pagan priestess. Both women are beautiful, although Zen is fair and Allie is dramatically dark. (When a suitor remarks on Zen’s blondeness, she informs him that she is not a natural blonde, something he verifies for himself in very short order.) Zen has the gift of empathy and the ability to read others’ emotions, a gift that sometimes brings her sorrow and often brings her grief. She would give a lot, for instance, not to know that her new brother-in-law, Paul Phillip, does not want children although he has led Zen’s sister to believe otherwise. She also wishes that she didn’t know the reason behind Paul Phillip’s decision.

Zen’s got her own troubles of course, and they center on Orlando Parisi, who has just discovered that his wife Catherine has been cheating on him with his best friend Vlad. Orlando wanders into Zen’s shop, “Light and Shadows” in search of answers and much to his amazement, Zen knows all about the questions plaguing Orlando, especially his fear that he did not father the boy he calls his son. Orlando is a tortured man and his affair with Zen is filled with great angst and even more amazing sex.

Unfortunately, the heat between Orlando and Zen is not as steamy as it could be. There’s nothing subtle about the author’s description of Zen’s romps, which often seem more clinical than sensual, possibly because O’Riordan uses such frank language to create her word pictures of their passion. Moreover, Orlando feels a little bland in the face of Zen’s fierceness.

There are some great elements to the book, particularly the fresh Midwestern setting of Milwaukee. (Are other readers as sick as I am of books that take place in New York or Los Angeles or Chicago?) Zen and Allie live in a believably multi-cultural world, a place where a Japanese organic gardener could be their foster mother and Zen’s lover could be a first-generation American whose Slovenian mother is always available to babysit his son Armin. There are also neat little details, like the name of a particular kind of cherry brandy that Orlando drinks and which Zen quaffs in preparation for their liaison.

The characters, however, are not particularly riveting or original. Allie sports the “ink” we’re used to seeing on heroines of urban fantasy novels. It’s a great visual, but not enough to make us believe she’s an intelligent, edgy presence. Zen is one of those women beloved of a certain kind of romance novelist, who is so beautiful that she attracts every male that goes by her. (Shades of Bella in Twilight.) The sisters are surrounded by women who follow different paths, but who are all strong enough to wrestle with destiny and bend it to their own will.

Overall, the problems besieging the Van Zandt sisters feel somewhat manufactured and definitely of their own making. I have very little sympathy for Zen’s travails sleeping with a married man; and not much more empathy for her sister, who has committed to a man who does not share her goals. The big twist that affects both sisters is a welcome surprise, but also filled with contrivances to make it work. (And everybody is ever so civilized about how things shake out which is actually harder to the believe than the dollops of witchery and precognition are.) This is O’Riordan’s first novel and the first in what’s planned to be a series of 12, so it isn’t fair to judge her too harshly; but future stories in the Pagan Spirit series will need to be a lot more engaging.

Book Stats:

• e-book, digital format
• Publisher: Eternal Press
• Book Length: Novel
• Language: English
• ISBN: 978-1-897559-57-4

To purchase an electronic copy of Beltane click here.

To visit the author’s website go here.

Meagan Connors is afraid she’s losing her mind. Six months ago, she began having nightmares that seemed more like memories; dreams so ugly and frightening that they leave her exhausted in the morning instead of refreshed. She never remembers the dreams but they and the headaches that accompany them have driven her to seek psychiatric help.

Now, with the help of Dr. Donovan Grey, she hopes to put her life back together as she solves the puzzle that has brought her to the edge of insanity. But even as she moves toward understanding the meaning of these dream messages, her husband Paul’s behavior grows more and more frightening. With her emotional anchor wrenched away, Meagan finds herself drawn to her sympathetic and handsome psychiatrist—a relationship that breaks all the rules.

The romantic triangle’s three anchors are all flawed people. Even as we’re cheering for Meagan and Donovan’s relationship to work, we’re aware that he’s looking at the career possibilities of treating a patient who apparently has a verifiable past life. Even as we loathe what Paul has become, we are sorry for the little boy he once was.

Greske’s novel is adult fare—a dark, violent tale about damaged people whose minds have come unmoored from reality. Paul’s hallucinations are vivid, visceral and savage. An emotional monster in life, his mother becomes a literal monster in death. The horrific image of her sitting naked on a barstool with flaming eyeballs where her nipples should be is as unsettling to us as it is to the man whose soul she wrecked with her sexual and mental abuse.

He does an excellent job of making the incarnation leak real. And there’s also a neat plot twist that may take even careful readers by surprise, as well as an epilogue that brings everything full circle. This is a book that will play well across a wide demographic of readers. Fans of thrillers will find it just as satisfying as the romance crowd. The touch of horror just adds even more spice to the stew.

A subplot involving the town’s gossipy church ladies seems a bit over the top, but mostly the nasty and narrow-minded characters serve to make us care about the heroine, who is beset and beleaguered from all sides. When the town’s leading citizen predicts that no good will come of the marriage between Paul and Meagan, she is more perceptive than anyone could guess, but right for all the wrong reasons and we sympathize with Meagan completely and shed not a tear for the gossip when she gets her own taste of retribution.

The book is genuinely suspenseful, with a plot that leads inexorably to a moment of reckoning from beyond the grave. The characters behave like real people, even in the throes of passion, and they behave like intelligent people too. Some of these people are genuinely evil, and the writer makes them just as real as his protagonist. The blend of suspense and supernatural elements is seamless, and results in book that’s got a surprising amount of emotional nuance.

Book Stats:

• Paperback: 274 pages
• Publisher: whiskey creek press (2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1603133518
• ISBN-13: 978-1603133517

To purchase a print copy of Retribution click here.
To purchase a Kindle copy of Retribution click here.
To purchase an electronic copy of Retribution click here.

To visit the author’s website go here.