Individual story reviews, than a wrap-up!

"Whisper of Sin" by Nalini Singh (futuristic paranormal)
I haven't read Singh's 'Psy-Changeling' series before, so I was a little apprehensive and worried I would get lost. Not so! Singh gave me a good sense of the world, the politics and who's who without making it seem contrived for exposition. I loved Ria's family--the scene at dinner when certain revelations are brought forth by her popo (grandmother) Miaolong in regards to the 'Great Match' was priceless. The threat level for the story was kind of middling however, for once having such a big bad impressively male specimen as the 'hero' of the story worked against it. Emmett and his pack were just so effective--in both action and from the stories--a human gang like Vincent's didn't seem threatening. At all. More of a mild irritant.

"Blood and Roses" by Angela Knight (historical fantasy paranormal)
As far as I can tell this isn't tied with any of her other series, but having not read her longer works (just the occasional short story), I can't be certain. Medieval vampire romance with lizard barbarians, wizards and violence aplenty. I was intrigued by the notion of the 'Blood Roses', women who were genetically predisposed to being the perfect bed mates for the Vampire Knights, men genetically predisposed to being super-awesome fighters for the king. Both the leads--Amaris and Raniero--had deep trust issues, but sex cured them of that. Sort of. Desperation I think also helped; Amaris was desperate to save her sister and Raniero was just desperate to keep himself alive and save the world. Still, I'm intrigued by the Blood Roses and would love to see more about that.

"Shifting Sea" by Virginia Kantra (historical paranormal)
This is part of her Children of the Sea series, of which I read one book from (Sea Lord, Book 3) and was not suitably impressed with to read the others. The covers are gorgeous however. Morwenna was a child of the Sea, finfolk and Jack was a recently injured soldier taking over a holding with hostile villagers and a self-satisfied steward. As I said, the series doesn't quite catch me and while I enjoyed this story and was delighted by the outcome it didn't change my opinion. Also, some of the issues Morwenna brings up--especially in regards to her brother Morgan--aren't given enough explanation in the end. I did find her attempting to live like a human amusing--in that she was kind of like the Little Mermaid, intrigued by shoes, a dress, riding a horse.

"Here There By Monsters" by Meljean Brook (steampunk paranormal)
This is the beginning to Brook's up-coming Iron Seas steampunk romance series. Its about Mad Machen (Eben) and his inability to properly court engineering whiz Ivy. No really that's pretty much the whole set up, but you see Eben is a pirate (with a very very bad reputation, that may or may not be taken completely out of context at times) and Ivy is part mechanical (her arms at least, though we're never told why). Ivy is dead certain Eben means her harm, Eben is dead certain he wants Ivy in his life for keeps and Lady Corsair (a female airship pirate--er merchant) is dead certain the two will be the end of decent pirating. Its at time amusing to see Eben try to quell his rather violent nature to reassure Ivy, while Ivy doesn't question the fact he's taking one coin a night to avoid 'mauling' her. Lady Corsair who pops up infrequently and tends to disturb the peace, was fun and I hope we see more of her! This just made me want the new series now and I'm rather cross I have to wait until October to read about the Iron Duke himself.

I tried to include the sub-genre each story was part of as well, but they all shared 'paranormal' and with the exception of Singh's were all set in a historical like time period (Medieval, Regency, Victorian). I definitely liked Brook's story the best, but I can honestly say I didn't dislike any of these stories. Some worked less well for me (such as Kantra's) and some I would have liked way more expansion of the world on (Knight's) and then I'm likely to go and find me Singh's other Psy-Changling books now, but in all this entire collection was a solid romance anthology. ( )

3.5 Stars
2 of these books were really good. One was decent. One was awful. See below for my individual ratings and reviews of each.


[b:Whisper of Sin|18687643|Whisper of Sin (Psy-Changeling, #0.75)|Nalini Singh|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1389073827l/18687643._SY75_.jpg|26531071] [bc:Whisper of Sin|18687643|Whisper of Sin (Psy-Changeling, #0.75)|Nalini Singh|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1389073827l/18687643._SY75_.jpg|26531071]
4.5 Stars

This is my 2nd time reading this story and I loved it. The 1st time I read it I only liked it.
It's a short story about Ria and Emmet. How they met etc.
It's fast paced and flows smoothly.
Both mc's are sweet and lovable.
The steamy scene, when it comes, is hot and intimate and just full of love. You can really feel their connection to each other in that scene and throughout the story.


[b:Blood and Roses|11160685|Blood and Roses|Angela Knight|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1303251901l/11160685._SX50_.jpg|16084630] [bc:Blood and Roses|11160685|Blood and Roses|Angela Knight|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1303251901l/11160685._SX50_.jpg|16084630]
2 Stars

I had so many problems with this story I just don't know where to begin. I am leaving my notes at the bottom of my review to help shed some light on the situation.
My first problem is it feels like it started Mid-Story. So I felt like I had missed a lot right from the start.
The flow and pace is off. And these two statements are made on virtually every page;
"Vampires could not be trusted."
"Roses could not be trusted."
For a short story, it is HIGHLY repetitive.
The world and character build is virtually Nil. So caring for the characters and what is happening is also virtually Nil.
OH, and lets add that the FMC, The Blood Rose, rapes the MMC, The Vampire.

I found myself just wanting to get through it. Get done with this story. The only reason I didn't dnf it is because it's in an anthology that I read once before and I really wanted to be able to write a review for the entire thing.

It's amazing how LONG a short story can feel when it sucks. I was happy to get to the end.


'Shifting Sea' by [a:Virginia Kantra|11858|Virginia Kantra|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1562706470p2/11858.jpg] a tale in her Children of the Sea series. No book can be found for this. Apparently it only appears in this anthology.
3 Stars

I liked it well enough. It was a little slow paced for me. Wasn't crazy about the flow nor the mc's. I also wish there was an actual book on GR for this short novella. But there isn't. The only place you can find this story is here in the Burning Up anthology.

[b:Here There Be Monsters|13107963|Here There Be Monsters (Iron Seas, #0.5)|Meljean Brook|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1322241651l/13107963._SX50_.jpg|18281170] [bc:Here There Be Monsters|13107963|Here There Be Monsters (Iron Seas, #0.5)|Meljean Brook|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1322241651l/13107963._SX50_.jpg|18281170]
4.25 Stars

Other than this and one other in this series, I've never read Steampunk that I can remember. I've looked into it before but nearly everything I found had no adult intimate scenes. This is completely different and one of the reasons I decided to try it. The other reason I tried this is due to her series she wrote as [a:Milla Vane|8125324|Milla Vane|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1417210842p2/8125324.jpg]. The 'A Gathering of Dragons Series' which starts with [b:The Beast of Blackmoor|53208292|The Beast of Blackmoor (A Gathering of Dragons, #0.5)|Milla Vane|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1596051803l/53208292._SY75_.jpg|80465486]. I loved her writing of that series so much that I started searching for other books of hers and ran into this.

The flow and pace was Very Good. The intimate scenes were great. There is only a couple that go 'All The Way' and are fiery hot, but the build up to those were steamy and truly intimate.
The mc's, Ivy the blacksmith & the pirate captain Mad Machen were awesome. I loved them both.

There is a couple of typos in the story, but they didn't hinder my enjoyment at all.
The hardest part for me was/is understanding some of the 'Steampunk Lingo'. As I read, those things became more clear. I'm sure as I continue the series I will run into this situation as this 'Subgenre' is so new to me. But the way that this author writes, you easily understand this lingo better as you read.

I'm very much looking forward to my New Adventure into this world.
So far, it's been fun. ( )

Meljean Brook - Here There Be Monsters ( )

I only read Nalini Singh's story. It was a cute, fast read.

ETA: I read Brook's story and I liked it. I think I liked it slightly better than Singh's story. The characters had depth making it easy for me to care about them. The world was interesting and different, though I wished it was explained in a little more detail. I'm looking forward to reading Iron Duke now. ( )

Definitely reading it for Nalini's story. It's a Changeling story. The rest I most likely will pass on since they are most likely set in their series. Yup, just read Nalini's story of Emmet and Ria. Very nice story and a nice addition to the storyline. ( )