Tuesday, July 2, 2019

#BookReview – “Evernight” by Kristen Callihan


Blurb

Once the night comes . . .

Will Thorne is living a nightmare, his sanity slowly being drained away by a force he can't control. His talents have made him the perfect assassin for hire. But as he loses his grip on reality, there is no calming him—until he finds his next target: the mysterious Holly Evernight.

Love must cast aside the shadows . . .

Holly cannot fathom who would put a contract on her life, yet the moment she touches Will, the connection between them is elemental, undeniable—and she's the only one who can tame his bouts of madness. But other assassins are coming for Holly. Will must transform from killer to protector and find the man who wants Holly dead . . . or his only chance for redemption will be lost.
 


Review


In book five in the Darkest London series, Holly Evernight is too afraid to leave the safety of her London home, Evernight House, and passes the time by creating technical wonders. A year earlier, a cruel fallen angel had kidnapped her and forced her to build a mechanical clockwork heart, which he then brutally installed in an unwilling demon. Even though she’s human, she’s descended from the Fae and can control all types of metal. Her life is now in danger again, and the only man to help her is the one she’s been struggling to forget.
Sanguis demon William Thorne has lived in terrible pain for a year. His platinum clockwork heart keeps him alive, but the metal has taken over his body, turning him into a mindless fiend. He wants nothing more than to kill the woman responsible for building the heart, but when he finds her, he realizes she’s his only hope for a cure. With one touch, Holly draws the pain away and controls the metal. In exchange for her help, he promises to find the assassins out to kill her.
Holly was very cold, logical, and closed-off to her emotions while Will embraced his emotions and always sought out joy and amusement. Even though they initially disliked and mistrusted one another, they quickly found common ground through sexual attraction and a mutual need to belong to someone. They were complete opposites, but fit perfectly together. He loosened her up, and she gave him order.
Though I liked Will and Holly a lot (they’re one of my favorite couples in the series), I don’t understand why neither of them showed remorse for the people they had killed. (Holly killed a female demon in self-defense, and Will killed a human blood donor while in a mindless rage.) Their lack of emotion in those two instances didn’t seem right.
Holly’s cousin, Sin Evernight, has been talked about for a few books now, and I’m so happy he’s finally been introduced on page!
I loved all the scenes with Adam and Eliza May, but I didn’t like him very much.
It was great to see Mary and Jack again, but I wish the questions I had from their book would’ve been answered in this one.
It’s always interesting to see Poppy Lane, the heroine from book three, in her role as Mother, the leader of the SOS, the society that protects the secret of the existence of supernatural creatures. As Mother, she’s cold and a little cruel, but that’s just a front for the kind woman beneath the surface.
As with the previous book, there are some unanswered questions. Will Holly lose her prestigious job with SOS, as Poppy threatened, since she’s refusing to give up Will? The secret group of assassins, the Amulet, was very interesting, but how did Will join up with them? After Will and Holly tricked Mab, will life go back to normal for Will’s human family?
I like Ms. Callihan’s writing style, despite the occasional use of passive voice. It’s flowery and flows well with unique descriptions, metaphors, and adjectives. Behind Winterblaze, this is my favorite book in the series.
4.5 Stars

Monday, July 1, 2019

#NewRelease - "Refuge" by Lisabet Sarai


Contemporary multicultural erotic romance 
6,800 words
Smashwords and Amazon KDP 
ISBN: 9780463786239 (Smashwords)
ASIN: B07TDYD7DB
HEA

-- Love erases borders.

Blurb

I never wanted to be a soldier, especially a guard at the remote, dusty Mae La refugee camp, a thousand kilometers from my home. But these days there were no jobs in our village. My mother depended on the money I sent her each month. Still, she cried whenever I phoned her.

Until I met the lovely hill tribe girl Preean, thoughuntil she asked for help I knew I shouldn’t give herI never really understood what I was doing to my fellow human beings. How could she go on, one day after another in that desolate place, without any hope for change? Mae La was limbo—once you arrived here you were stuck. There was nowhere else you could go.

To love her was dangerous, a risk to my own life and freedom. But when she offered her body and her heart, how could I refuse?  

Buy Links

All proceeds from sales on Smashwords and Amazon will be donated to Amnesty International



Excerpt 


“Excuse me, do you have a pencil?” 

I jumped. I had been daydreaming about home, eating somtum and gai yang with Mum and my brother Daeng under the tamarind tree in the backyard. The light tap on my shoulder dragged me back to the smelly, dusty camp where I was supposed to be on guard.

“What?” 

“A pencil? Or a pen?” The young woman gestured back towards a knot of kids gathered in the shade of the water tower. She held up a sheet of corrugated cardboard scavenged from some trash heap. “I’m teaching them their alphabet. I’ve got this but nothing to write with.” 

She wore a faded teeshirt, baggy shorts and flip flops. Her hair hung down her back in a messy ponytail tied with an old shoelace. Still I could see that she was pretty, slightly built, with sharper features and paler skin then the girls back home. Her smile appeared genuine, though her eyes appraised me nervously. I guessed that it took some courage for her to approach me, a uniformed soldier with a loaded rifle—never mind that I was only a year or two older than she was, and wanting nothing more than to go back to my family in Yasathon.

I leaned my gun against my thigh. “I’ve got a pencil back at the barracks, but I can’t leave my post until my shift is over. Maybe you could postpone your lessons until after three? I’ll bring it to you then.”

Her face lit up. She grabbed and squeezed my hands. Hers were tiny, but strong. “Oh, thank you, sir! Thank you.” 

I blushed at her enthusiasm. “Never mind. Now you’d better go.” I’d noticed Sergeant Chokchai headed my way. He didn’t approve of what he called “fraternization” between us and the camp’s inhabitants.

“Everything secure, Private Nu?” He loomed over me. I swallowed hard. He came from Bangkok. He had made it clear in his view, I was just a stupid hick from the Northeast.

“Yes, sir. Everything is normal, sir.”

“What were you doing, talking to that filthy Burmese cunt?”

I winced at his foulness. “Nothing. She wanted to know the time, that’s all.”

“Why should she care? She’s not going anywhere!”  Chokchai gave a nasty chuckle “You should know better, though. Don’t talk to them. Don’t get involved in their affairs. Oh, they’ll act all polite and respectful, but they’re snakes. They’ll stab you as soon as your back’s turned. You remember what happened to Sakon, don’t you?”

“Yes, sir.” Sakon had been another sergeant. They had found him behind the mess hall with his throat slit. Everyone assumed that he was murdered by one of the refugees, even though he’d been a brutal man who had many enemies.

“Just remember, they’re animals. Ignorant, superstitious animals.” He looked over his shoulder in the direction that the girl had disappeared, shaking his head in obvious disgust, before returning his unwelcome attention to me.

About Lisabet

Lisabet Sarai has been addicted to words all her life. She began reading when she was four. She wrote her first story at five years old and her first poem at seven. Since then, she has written plays, tutorials, scholarly articles, marketing brochures, software specifications, self-help books, press releases, a five-hundred page dissertation, and lots of erotica and erotic romance – nearly one hundred titles, and counting, in nearly every sub-genre—paranormal, scifi, ménage, BDSM, GLBT, and more. Regardless of the genre, every one of her stories illustrates her motto: Imagination is the ultimate aphrodisiac.

You’ll find information and excerpts from all Lisabet’s books on her website (http://www.lisabetsarai.com/books.html), along with more than fifty free stories and lots more. At her blog Beyond Romance (http://lisabetsarai.blogspot.com), she shares her philosophy and her news and hosts lots of other great authors. She’s also on Goodreads and finally, on Twitter.  Sign up for her VIP email list here:  https://btn.ymlp.com/xgjjhmhugmgh