Retro-view: Wicked Deeds on a Winter’s Night

by Kresley Cole

Her breathless kiss haunts him. Bowen MacRieve of the Lykae clan was nearly destroyed when he lost the one woman meant for him. The ruthless warrior grew even colder, never taking another to his bed—until a smoldering encounter with his enemy, Mariketa the Awaited, reawakens his darkest desires. When sinister forces unite against her, the Highlander finds himself using all his strength and skill to keep her alive. His slow, hot touch is irresistible. Temporarily stripped of her powers, Mari is forced to take refuge with her sworn adversary. It’s rumored that no one can tempt Bowen’s hardened heart, but soon passion burns between them. Though a future together is impossible, she fears he has no intention of letting her go. No deed is too wicked for her seduction. If they defeat the evil that surrounds them, can Mari deny Bowen when he demands her body and soul—or will she risk everything for her fierce protector?

Well, MacRieve is coming out today so, here’s another retroview of the awesome Immortals After Dark Series. Wicked Deeds on a Winter’s Night is about the hero of MacRieve’s cousin Bowen. And Witches. And The Hie. It’s about a lot of things really.

Retro-view: No Rest For The Wicked

by Kresley Cole

A vampire soldier weary of life… Centuries ago, Sebastian Wroth was turned into a vampire—a nightmare in his mind—against his will. Burdened with hatred and alone for ages, he sees little reason to live. Until an exquisite, fey creature comes to kill him, inadvertently saving him instead. A Valkyrie assassin dispatched to destroy him… When Kaderin the Cold Hearted lost her two beloved sisters to a vampire attack long ago, a benevolent force deadened her sorrow—accidentally extinguishing all of her emotions. Yet whenever she encounters Sebastian, her feelings—particularly lust—emerge multiplied. For the first time, she’s unable to complete a kill. Become competitors in a legendary hunt… The prize of the month-long contest is powerful enough to change history, and Kaderin will do anything to win it for her sisters. Wanting only to win her, forever, Sebastian competes as well, taking every opportunity–as they travel to ancient tombs and through catacombs, seeking relics around the world–to use her new feelings to seduce her. But when forced to choose between the vampire she’s falling for and reuniting her family, how can Kaderin live without either?

Well, MacRieve is coming out Tuesday so, here’s another retroview of the awesome Immortals After Dark Series. No Rest For the Wicked is one of the IAD books that can polarise. Some people feel Kaderin was too cold for too long, others don’t like Sebastian. Presumably there are some people who don’t like the book at all. Me? I love it.

Retro-view: The Warlord Wants Forever

by Kresley Cole

The Warlord Nikolai Wroth, a ruthless vampire general, will stop at nothing to find his Bride, the one woman who can “blood” him, making his heart beat and filling him with strength. Coldly interested only in the power his Bride will bring, he can hardly believe when Myst the Coveted awakens him body—and soul. The Seductress Famed throughout the world as the most beautiful Valkyrie, Myst has devoted her life to protecting a magical jewel and to fighting the vampires. Wroth provides her with the perfect opportunity to torment her sworn enemy—for with his new heartbeat comes a consuming sexual desire that can only be slaked by her. Denying him, she flees, struggling to forget his searing, possessive kiss. The Hunt is on… She eludes him for five years, but he has finally chased her to ground and stolen her enchanted jewel, giving him absolute power over her. Now that she’s his for the taking, he intends to make her experience first-hand the agonizing, unending lust she subjected him to for half a decade. Yet when Nikolai realizes he wants far more than vengeance from Myst and frees her, will she come back to him?

Well, MacRieve is coming out Tuesday so, here’s another retroview from the Immortals After Dark Series. The Warlord Wants Forever is the first IAD “book”, originally published as a novella in the otherwise unremarkable (to me) anthology Playing Easy To Get, The Warlord Wants Forever was released on its own in 2011 just before the release of Lothaire.

Retro-view: Sea Swept

by Nora Roberts

A family conflict is set to make waves . . . After years of fast living and reckless excitement, Cameron Quinn is called home to help care for his adopted brother Seth, a troubled young boy not unlike Cameron once was. Dark, brooding and fiercely independent, Cameron's life changes overnight as he has to learn to live with his brothers again.Old rivalries and new resentments flare between the passionate Quinn boys as they try to set aside their differences. But when Seth's fate falls into the hands of Anna, a tough but beautiful social worker, the tide starts to turn. She alone has the power to bring the Quinns together - or tear them apart . . .

Well if you read my new year’s wrap up post then you’d know that I read my first Nora Robert book last year. This one was published in about 1998, so it definitely qualifies as a retro-view on release age. Anyway, Sea Swept is the first book in the Chesapeake Bay trilogy, later becoming the Chesapeake Bay Saga when we (and by we I mean the readers of the time and not me – I was 6) couldn’t resist the temptation for a grown up Seth to get his story.

Nora Roberts is the undisputed Queen of Romance. You might not particularly like her books but you have to admit 200 published books so far, is the kind of effort that deserves respect no matter the genre. So I picked out a book from my library thinking that it was only a couple of hours and it couldn’t suck that bad.

Well I liked it. I was converted. I’ve read all my Nora books so far from my local libraries (it’s complicated) and when I first read Sea Swept it was in a two book omnibus with Rising Tides called the Quinn Brothers. As soon as I finished I started book two. This book and series more than any other of Robert’s work created a world that was immersive and realistic.

So lets look at the plot and characters. Cameron competes in boat races for money. He drops everything (including a woman) to race back to his injured father and is just on time. Despite his past, Cam is loyal to the bone, he never really considers any option but taking in Seth and looking after him. He literally threw a woman naked out of his hotel room (okay so that one’s also a chance for us to learn how attractive and good with the ladies he is) so he could go to his father. When push comes to shove he’s a good guy.

Anna Spinelli. I love this woman, she’s a social worker and she still cares. But more than that she was one of the best female characters I’d read until then (and still) that had a satisfying career and it was important it was still just a career. She didn’t define herself as career woman or nothing, she didn’t think having a relationship or potentially children would make her less. Anna knew just like I do that she’s awesome and she’s also a woman, and a social worker they are not why she’s awesome, they just make it better. Anna was also a troubled teen, she and her mother were raped, and then her mother died from injuries that happened, but after lashing out and ending up in juvie her caseworker helped to get her head on straight. Which inspired her career choice later on in life as she wanted to impact others the same way.

Something I greatly appreciated in reference to this is that Anna didn’t need Cam to “fix” her rape issues with his magic penis. And that was a breath of fresh air. Too often the reason the heroine has remained traumatised after something like that is that the men in her life weren’t trying hard enough, because the hero is gentle and then after sex she’s “fixed”. I hate that, because it says that a) if you were psychologically scarred by rape, then you’ve picked the wrong men in your life since or b) trauma can just go away. And to me the prevalence is why I call it the “magic penis” because it’s just not real. But Nora Robert is too cool for that.

Seth is a cutie. You can see the way that mistrusts those around him at first and opens up under the unique attention and brotherly bond that the Quinn Brothers give him. Really they were the best people for each other.

Ethan and Phillip. Such opposites in character despite such similar upbringings. I liked the little hints for Ethan’s book. I liked Phillip, despite that he’s is so alien in comparison to Cam and Ethan and their philosophies in life. I really loved the camaraderie between the brothers, it had a real sibling feel to it and it seemed to me like a realistic look at brothers and family.

So after all of that the plot is really very simple. Ray Quinn dies, leaving his adopted sons to look after his foster son/adoptive son. Cam meets Anna and love ensues.

So, complaints?

Actually yes. There is no epilogue and without it the resolution Cam and Anna’s lives is too little, I know there are some people who dislike epilogue’s because they feel unnecessary and in this case we do get most of that resolution in Rising Tides. However I’m retro-view Sea Swept not the whole Chesapeake Bay Saga, the ending is almost too quick for a HFN, let alone the kind of HEA I like.

And I’m a hypocrite as my other complaint is that the whole Chesapeake Bay Saga should have had more that four books!

Final Verdict: This book holds up against time and the extensive Nora Roberts catalog (at least what I’ve read) as a great read.

Currently Listening: Out of My Limit – 5 Seconds of Summer

Retro-view: A Hunger Like No Other

by Kresley Cole

A mythic warrior who'll stop at nothing to possess her… After enduring years of torture from the vampire Horde, Lachlain MacRieve, leader of the Lykae Clan, is enraged to find the predestined mate he's waited millennia for is a vampire. Or partly one. This Emmaline is a small, ethereal half Valkyrie/half vampire, who somehow begins to soothe the fury burning within him. A vampire captured by her wildest fantasy... Sheltered Emmaline Troy finally sets out to uncover the truth about her deceased parents--until a powerful Lykae claims her as his mate and forces her back to his ancestral Scottish castle. There, her fear of the Lykae--and their notorious dark desire--ebb as he begins a slow, wicked seduction to sate her own dark cravings. An all consuming desire... Yet when an ancient evil from her past resurfaces, will their desire deepen into a love that can bring a proud warrior to his knees and turn a gentle beauty into the fighter she was born to be...?

So, A Hunger Like No Other was my first ever romance. At sixteen I was on Rachel Caine’s website trying to decide if I’d like the Morganville Vampire series and I somehow found myself on Kresley Cole’s website looking at the summaries for her IAD books. It was late and very hot that night so I just gave up on it and forgot all about

And a year later I again go to Kresley Cole’s website through Rachel Caine’s, and this time I bought A Hunger Like No Other.

With the power of hind-sight and two solid years of reading mainly romance (I’d guess over a thousand books in the last two years) I can pretty safely say that A Hunger Like No Other is one of the best books I could have had as a transition.

Now I’ve always been a big paranormal fan and sadly my library was running out of fresh new paranormal books for young adults. So this was really right up my alley.

Retroview

I’m going to start doing what I’ve cleverly (okay so I can’t think of anything better) called a retroview. It’s basically a review of a book that I read a long time ago or one that I read relatively recently that was published a long time ago.

The idea is to highlight an older book. Since they are older books I’ll be doing a bit more context and more spoilery summaries. For the first review, tomorrow I’ll be doing A Hunger Like No Other. Merry Christmas everyone!

Currently Listening: Troublemaker – Olly Murs feat. Flo Rida