Morbid Romantic

Book Review & Personal Blog

It has been a few weeks since my last in the ‘In the Mail’ post, which means the books have been piling up. I am going to try like heck to remember where I got each of these books since in some cases it has been a while. There are going to be a lot, so I am likely going to break it up and post them over the next few days. I do not want to skip this in my regular blog posting because I want to give thanks to the people who have sent me books to read and review.

No Mad by Sam Moffie (From author)
Racing home to share news of a long awaited book deal, Aaron Abrams unexpectedly finds his wife and beloved brother TOGETHER. Tossing a few mentionables into the car, along with his golden retriever, Churchill, his now only trustworthy lifelong companion, Aaron embarks on an odyssey like no other. With his own music as a backdrop, while guzzling his favorite Newman’s Own Virgin Lemonade, Aaron begins in Youngstown, Ohio, travels interstate 80 in Pennslyvania, and continues into Gettysburg, Pa., Boston Ma., Roswell, NM., to name a few, ultimately ending his road trip in scenic Niagara Falls. Along the way, he continues to embrace each moment, every situation, all relationships and brief encounters. Never losing his zest for life, Aaron stays positive, upbeat and open for adventures, not letting his ex-wife-to-be interfere with his new found freedom, while at the same time rediscovering and recreating bonds that will never be broken. The game of Jinx has never gotten so much attention; what that means the reader is soon to discover.

Primitive by Mark Nykanen (From publisher)
Environmental extremists want to use her, corporations want her dead, the government wants her gone, and her daughter just wants to save her life. A “neo-primitive” cult with a doomsday secret kidnaps a fashion model and holds her hostage, forcing her to act as their spokesperson. As time runs out and the world watches, her adult, estranged daughter allies with the activist underground in a desperate attempt to rescue her, while battling dark agendas from the government and energy corporations.

A Separate Country by Robert Hicks (Won in a contest)
After one-legged Confederate Gen. John Bell Hood led his men to crushing defeat in the bloody Franklin-Nashville campaign of 1864, soldiers sang — to the tune of “The Yellow Rose of Texas” — a ditty about how “the gallant Hood of Texas / He played hell in Tennessee.” Robert Hicks’s riveting new novel takes up Hood’s life after the war. In New Orleans, he married Anna Marie Hennen, a Creole society girl, fathered 11 children and ultimately failed in business. Like the Hood of history, the Hood of this novel is engaged in writing a self-serving memoir designed to redeem his tarnished military reputation. Hicks’s Hood, however, also has a second, secret memoir: Though filled with chilling adventure, it is really about the more important campaign for personal redemption. Dying of yellow fever, Hood summons a friend named Eli Griffin, whose history has intertwined tragically with his own. He wants Griffin to publish his secret memoir, but only if his former comrade, now working as a hit man, approves of the project. The action unfolds through Hood’s diary, letters from Anna Marie to their oldest daughter, and Griffin’s account of his adventures while fulfilling the general’s strange, last commission. Hood made reckless decisions that cost thousands of lives during the Civil War, but Hicks depicts a scene before secession when, as a young officer in Texas, Hood orders his troops to commit an atrocity against the Comanche at the aptly named Devil’s River. This horrific, well-written episode introduces Hood’s diabolical protege, Sebastien Lemerle, another New Orleans Creole who plays a major role in the novel. Anyone who has ever lived in New Orleans must be prepared to be made homesick, and the bizarre cast of characters, including a dwarf, a burly priest and a boy of mixed and mysterious parentage, wouldn’t seem right in any city but this one.

Bound to Shadows by Keri Arthur (From publisher)
Part vampire, part werewolf, Riley Jenson knows what can happen when vamps don’t play well with others. But she’s never seen anything like this: a series of brutal murders surrounding the latest hot spot for vampire-human hookups—and the victims aren’t just killed, they’re beheaded. Now Riley is launching into action, toying with a seductive—and highly suspicious—club owner, and finding herself in the middle of another mystery: women being killed one by one, without a trace of violence. For Riley, solving multiple cases—in a world going mad with human and vampire passions—would have been tough enough. Instead she has two jealous lovers on her hands: Kye Murphy, the amber-eyed werewolf who makes Riley’s wolf blood howl—and Quinn, the cool, elegant vamp who has over a thousand years’ experience at fulfilling women’s desires. While she’s busy juggling these two sexy beasts, Riley’s detective work takes a stunningly violent turn. Finding a murderer is now a matter of life and death. Especially since the killer has long since found her . . .

Nice Girls Don’t Have Fangs by Molly Harper (Paperbackswap)
Hysterical laughs are the hallmark of this enchanting paranormal debut. Unceremoniously fired from her job as Half Moon Hollow’s children’s librarian, Jane Jameson drowns her sorrows with a handsome stranger, vampire Gabriel Nightengale. When Jane is accidentally shot, Gabriel saves her life by turning her undead. As Jane starts to get used to chatting with her dead aunt, finding creative ways to dodge her mother’s nosy questions and enjoying the chemistry with Gabriel, she’s brought up short by being named a suspect in a recent vampire murder. Jane’s snarky first-person narrative is as charming as it is hilarious, retaining enough humanity to connect instantly with readers. Harper keeps the quips coming without overdoing the sarcasm, and her take on vampire lore will intrigue and entertain even the most jaded paranormal fan.

Bite edited by Laurel K. Hamilton (Paperbackswap)
Those looking to take a brief taster’s tour through five sexually charged paranormal worlds may enjoy the stories and novellas served up in this anthology, but readers with an appetite for something a little more meaty likely won’t be sated. Although Hamilton’s name dominates the cover, her contribution is a meager 30 pages, which amounts to little more than a teaser for her next Anita Blake novel. Harris’s offering is similarly slim and static, though it shows off the cleverness of Sookie Stackhouse, the psychic heroine of her Southern Vampire series (Dead to the World, etc.). By far, the collection’s best offerings are Knight’s “Galahad” and Taylor’s “Blood Lust.” In the former, a fledgling Majae (i.e., witch) teams up with the famed knight Sir Galahad, who’s really a benevolent vampire, to destroy a nest of deadly cultist vampires. And in the latter, Taylor imagines a much more traditional world, wherein vampires can’t touch anything sacrosanct and are organized hierarchically, a system the protagonists, a junior vampiress and a microbiologist-turned-vampire, are about to dismantle. The action moves swiftly in both stories, as does the romance, but like the other entries in this anthology, they lack depth and development. Nevertheless, this is a suitable introduction to the various worlds these authors have popularized.

The Vampire Diaries- The Awakening, The Struggle by L.J. Smith (Paperbackswap)
The most haunting love triangle of all. Two vampire brothers, one good and one evil, are in love with the same beautiful girl. Stefan meets Elena, and falls for her instantly. But he swears never to approach her because of his dark secret. On the other hand, Elena has sworn to make Stefan hers or die. Then, in book 2, Damon is haunting Elena’s footsteps; coaxing and coercing her by turns. Stefan desperately tries to protect her from his brother. And Elena is having her blood drawn by two separate vampires. Meanwhile Caroline plots to expose Elena in front of the entire town. Can things get worse? They do, when Elena drives too fast over an unsafe bridge and drowns.

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