Morbid Romantic

Book Review & Personal Blog

50 Ways to Hex Your Lover by Linda Wisdom (Paperbackswap)
When she isn’t getting into trouble with her oddball companions—a vicious pair of bunny slippers and a frustrated ghost who haunts her sports car—hot-tempered witch Jazz Tremaine earns money lifting hexes and driving limos for Southern California’s All Creatures Limo Service. When the vampire cop she’s loved and hated for centuries, Nikolai Gregorivich, seeks her help in catching a serial vampire slayer, Jazz fends him off to focus on her own problems (the sleazeball limo service owner; a client who generates supernaturally disgusting odors). She can’t resist her sexy vamp lover for long, though, especially as clues in the killings point to an evil figure from her past. With clever writing, a high sensuality factor and an unfettered imagination, Wisdom makes a sparkling entry into lite urban paranormals.

Hadrian’s Wall by William Dietrich (Paperbackswap)
The limit of Roman imperial expansion in Britannia is marked by Hadrian’s Wall, a fortification constructed in the second century A.D. to keep the northern barbarians from invading Rome’s island province. Award-winning author Dietrich’s fourth novel is an epic historical drama of warfare, treachery and political intrigue centered on Rome’s most remote and desolate frontier outpost. In the fourth century A.D., the Celtic barbarians are restless, revolt is imminent and the hard-pressed Roman garrison on the frontier has a new cavalry commander. Brutally efficient veteran soldier Galba is replaced by scholarly aristocrat Marcus, whose appointment is the payoff of an arranged marriage to a senator’s daughter. When Marcus’s beautiful young wife, Valeria, arrives at the frontier, she becomes an unwitting pawn in the plots of Galba, Marcus and the Celtic chieftain, Arden Caratacus. Marcus seeks glory and a return to the comforts of Rome; Galba seeks power and revenge; and Caratacus seeks freedom from Roman oppression. All three men covet Valeria, but for very different reasons, eventually driving her to betray them all in a desperate effort to save them from war and disaster. Murder, betrayal, witchcraft and shifting loyalties add suspense and tension to this vivid tale. Dietrich’s descriptions of Roman-style battle are bloody and graphic, with legionnaires wielding shield and sword against naked barbarians shrieking and swinging battleaxes. Dietrich is in top form with this rousing tale.

The Dark Queen by Susan Carroll (Paperbackswap)
When a wounded captain of the Navarre army arrives on Faire Isle in 1572 and calls for an audience with Daughter of the Earth (aka healer, or witch) Ariane Cheney, he provokes the wrath of the eponymous queen of France, Catherine de Medici, in this readable historical romance by the author of The Bride Finder. The captain’s queen, Jeanne of Navarre, has second thoughts about marrying off her son to Catherine’s daughter (a union arranged to smooth troubled Catholic-Protestant relations); the next day, she’s dead. Ariane reluctantly agrees to help the captain prove that Catherine murdered Jeanne with a cursed pair of gloves, although the healer has plenty on her plate already, what with caring for her two younger sisters, the innocent Mirabelle and the conniving Gabrielle, and fending off the advances of her new neighbor, the lusty, muscular Comte de Renard. As Ariane investigates the magic gloves, the Dark Queen’s soldiers prowl the island, witch hunters seek their prey, Renard woos his reluctant would-be bride with the aid of an enchanted ring and the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre looms. Carroll breaks no new ground in this overlong tale, but readers in the mood for a marriage plot spiced with magic should find that this one does the trick.

Two to the Fifth by Piers Anthony (Paperbackswap)
The future of Xanth is in frightful peril. A powerful magical bird named Ragna Roc has embarked on a campaign to become absolute ruler of that mystical realm. Those who swear loyalty to him are spared. The rest have simply disappeared. So powerful are Ragna’s sorceries that even the Good Magician Humfrey dares not confront him directly. Instead he enlists Cyrus the Cyborg, a handsome half-human playwright with little knowledge of the world, in a stealthy subterfuge. Cyrus must assemble a troupe of traveling players to attract Ragna’s interest. And hidden in disguise among the bevy of beautiful young actresses are the young princesses, Melody, Harmony, and Rhythm, whose magics might just be a match for the evil bird. But Ragna has planted a spy in the midst of the troupe, one who knows their deepest secrets, including the true nature of Cyrus’s forbidden love for one of the young princesses. Only a mysterious child called Kadence, and a cryptic clue — “Two to the Fifth” — may give the companions the edge they need to defeat Ragna’s dictatorial dreams. Brimming with passion and merriment, drama and deception, Piers Anthony’s thirty-second Xanth fantasy is a pun-packed performance sure to provoke applause and ovations from the series’ myriad fans.

Rion by Susan Kearney (From publisher for review)
POWER IN THEIR PASSION… Marisa Rourke is a beautiful, fearless telepath who tames dragonshapers on Earth. Rion is a tall, dark, and sexy space explorer whose home planet is a galaxy away. The attraction between them is undeniable, but Rion is hiding a desperate secret that will change Marisa’s life forever. DANGER IN THEIR TOUCH… Marisa’s gift is the only way Rion can communicate with his people, enslaved by a powerful enemy. He knows that kidnapping her is wrong, but saving his planet is worth sparking the fiery clairvoyant’s fury. Yet hotter-and more explosive-is the psychic bond growing between Marisa and Rion. Could their passion be the key to freeing Rion’s people? Only if he and Marisa can discover how to channel their desire . . . before a vicious enemy destroys them all.

Ovid by David Wishart (Paperbackswap)
Nobleman by birth, loutish party boy by temperment, Marcus Corvinus is a citizen of ancient Rome, but he would be as much at home in a champagne-stained tux as he is in a toga. He’d like to shed that toga for the beautiful Lady Perilla, but in return for her favor she demands that Corvinus help retrieve her stepfather’s ashes for burial in Rome. The task proves more difficult than expected: Perilla’s stepfather was the famous poet Ovid, exiled years earlier and still loathsome to the Emperor Tiberius. But Corvinus’ arrogance – and letch for Perilla – keep him on course, even when the Emperor’s thugs try a little up-close-and-personal persuasion. Author David Wishart, a classical scholar, knows a great deal about both ancient Rome and gilded youth. You may not approve of Corvinus, but you’ll have a tough time resisting his charm.

The Peruke Maker: The Salem Witch Hunt Curse by Ruby Dominguez (Won)
The witch hunt hits feverish peak. Fear of the devil is as real as God. Witchcraft is a hideous crime a person could commit and is punishable by death at the Gallows Hill for the victims accused of sorcery. Driftingly, a red-stained full moon streaked with ominous dark haunting clouds is witness to the strange forewarn of the vicious lashing of wind and distraught flying bats, over dead bodies swinging precariously in the wind by the branches of the locust trees. River reflections of Bridget’s scantily clad youthful beauty with long, flowing, wild, red hair, is frozen in fear amidst the overture of the Banshee’s foreboding and bloodcurdling wails of imminent death, that of her own, The Peruke Maker’s vengeful curse hastens chase for the innocent and is carried off by a whirl of ill-omened wind that transgresses all natural laws of time and space, relentlessly in quest for the avenger of innocent blood. But love and forgiveness triumphs beyond the grave and a chance at love and life is bestowed upon the worthy, at the stroke of midnight of the Autumnal Equinox.

Knight of Pleasure by Margaret Mallory (From publisher for review)
THE GREATEST PASSION… Lady Isobel Hume is an expert swordswoman who knows how to choose her battles. When the king asks her to wed a French nobleman to form a political alliance, she agrees. But that’s before the devilishly charming Sir Stephen Carleton captures her heart-and tempts her to betray her betrothed, her king, and her country. IS WORTH THE GREATEST PERIL… Sir Stephen Carleton enjoys his many female admirers-until he dedicates himself to winning the lovely Isobel. So when a threat against the king leads Isobel into mortal danger, Stephen has a chance to prove that he is more than a knight of pleasure…and that love can conquer all.

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