Memory is a world-class photographer with a reputation for making models’ careers. Unfortunately, that reputation has come at a personal cost, with male models now believing all they have to do is sleep with her to make their careers. During an argument with her ex-boyfriend she has enough and storms out.

All alone except for the friends she calls her sisters, Memory longs for someone to share her life with. Memory’s character gains some strength through the story but remains static for the majority of it. Marco has been hurt in love before and longs for that one person who will love him for what he is. He is very committed to the farm passed down from his father, and is looking for someone who will live with him on the farm.

I was disappointed with this book. The prologue seemed to promise so much, then the story jumped ahead from there and never returned. The characters started out well, but once they met became very stagnant as the erotic scenes took over the story. There are the bare bones of a very good story, but more thought should have been put into fleshing out the characters and story rather than concentrating on the erotic scenes — no matter how well-written they are.

Book Stats:

• e-book, digital format
• Publisher: Ellora’s Cave Publishing
  
• Book Length: Novella
  
• Language: English
• ISBN: 9781419924354

To purchase an eBook copy of Good With His Hands click here.

(No Ratings Yet)

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Vampiresa (Resa) Vânător is a Dhampir, part human part vampire, and an assassin for the Alliance, a group bent on destroying all vampirekind. Everything Resa knows to be true and just is questioned when she meets Pandora (yes, as in Pandora’s box), a woman claiming that Resa must protect Constantine, a powerful vampire who stirs desire in Resa like she’s never known. To protect a vampire would go against all of Resa’s training, pitting her against her brothers and sisters in the Alliance. But if she doesn’t, a war will begin, a war that will result in the death of much of humanity.

Resa is thrown into the politically world of the V’Kar, known as vampires to humans, when she allies with Constantine. The V’Kar is an alien species with special abilities, and Constantine is the prince of one of the tribes and an exile on earth. But he’s not alone. Also in exile are Leonidas and Octavian, heirs to two of the other V’Kar tribes. They battle for supremacy and search for the key to furthering the V’Kar race. The leader who finds the answer may gain the spoils. Lucky for Constantine, Resa just may have that answer.

In An Unwanted Hunger, Ciana Stone gives a new twist to the vampire legend. The use of historical figures as leaders gave the story an added sense of history and the devotion that Constantine and Resa showed each other was endearing.

There were a few aspects of the story, though, that made it difficult to follow. Constantine’s journal entries detracted from the plot rather than added to it, detailing information that could have better served in dialogue or personal interaction. The role of Pandora in the first part of the story threw off the rhythm, and the holes in her and Resa’s interactions made the scenes seem unnecessary. The names and terms the author created were extremely creative, if not overly so, drawing the reader’s attention more to the name than the actual character.

I give An Unwanted Hunger 2.5 tombstones for creativity and world building. The fate of the V’Kar intrigues me, and I’m curious to find out the fate of the race.

Book Stats:
e-book, digital format
Length: Short Novel
Publisher: Ellora’s Cave
ISBN: 9781419919268

To purchase an electronic copy of An Unwanted Hunger click here.

To visit the author’s website go here.

(3 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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Hussy up, y’all. Here’s another entry in the saga of the Order of the Hussies. I reviewed “A Taste Of Jazz” also by Stone. Got this one because I put my hand up and said I wanted it. I’m like that. Demanding cranky old Belle that I am.

This one is a long read. Could have been a bit tighter because there were some scenes that just didn’t move anything including me as a reader. Still, that’s the worst thing I can say about this book. Overall this is a stellar read and I highly recommend you read it if you like your romance with just a hint of paranormal and a huge heapin’ helpin’ of action.

This one is not nearly as Saturday morning movie as Stone’s “A Taste Of Jazz“. The book opens with Nikki at the end of her financial rope. While trying to decide if she should take it, that Hussy Goddess Herself (that’s Danu, y’all) hauls Nikki into an audience and pretty much informs her how it’s going to be. Nikki takes her up on the assignment.

She is supposed to protect this evil “I’ve got more money than God and the morals of a tomcat” security mogul. Nikki is stunned to find the boy is a very good looking man named Maxwell. Max, as he prefers to be called, has an anger management problem. Ok, so he come completely unhinged at times and has to be drugged into a stupor. Only no one knows why this handsome ex-Ranger is like this. And he can’t tell them. See, Max can’t talk.

This story is complicated and you have to keep track of a whole hella lot of names. I’m not so fond of that. At one point I had to page back to figure out which person was which. Stone weaves a mesmerizing tale. I opened this file up when I first got it just to make sure it would open. 2 hours later I realized I was half way through the darn story. It’s that good.

There is hot sex in this book and a lot of that comes in the way of dreams in the first part of the book. Believe you me, Stone knows how to deliver steamy, lava-temp goodness for sure, y’all. I’d read anything else she wrote.

So pick this one up if you think you can handle a savvy, spunky as all get-out heroine matched up with a seriously sexy determined hero who have to figure out how to communicate without words. Four and a half tombstones from the cranky Southern Belle and a demand for more Hussies immediately.

Here’s a little snippet for y’all: “Nikki felt a powerful jolt when she turned and saw the man leaning against the doorframe. In the space of a heartbeat she was completely oblivious to everything else around her. Every sense tuned completely on him. Here was the face of her dreams.

Their eyes met and something she could not identify, something that affected every nerve ending in her body, took hold of her. It was as if for a moment the laws of the universe were suddenly in flux and she along with them.

Tearing her eyes from his, she was able to stop the flood of sensation. Alarm bells rang in her mind but she ignored them. Never before had she experienced such a reaction. It was like she had fallen into her fantasy. But things like that didn’t happen in real life. Did they?

It dawned on her that the man hadn’t spoken or moved. Maybe he didn’t know she was there about the interview. All at once she felt uncomfortable, not just because she felt the need to explain her presence but because of her reaction to him. She told herself to stop looking at him and then immediately ignored her own directives. “

Book Stats:
e-book, digital format
Publisher: Ellora’s Cave
ISBN: 9781419917059

To purchase an electronic copy of Maxwell’s Silver Hammer click here.

To visit the author’s website go here.

(5 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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Chance Davenport has managed to avoid her stepmother’s annual birthday ball for three years. An abdication having a bit to do with her stepmother’s gaudy ways and mostly to do with the woman Wyatt had brought to the last ball she had attended. She had come to terms with the fact that the boy who had grown up alongside her and she had given her virginity to would never care for her the way she did him, but all it takes is one phone call to bring it rushing back and come hell or high water she will find out where Wyatt is and help him. Whether he actually wants her help or not is not a priority, merely an obstacle.

Haunted by his past, Wyatt Nashoba a.k.a. Magnet, has returned to his North Carolina home to recuperate and sincerely regrets calling Chance the night he had been beyond drunk. Looking for peace he finds none as the rich white country club grown Greg Holling and his little gang harass the local Cherokees, Wyatt included, and seem determined to put a stop to the plans for a casino to be built on the reservation. Wyatt, Navy SEAL, is trying his best not to become involved and to not let the harassment get to him, but will he be able to stand strong and let the law handle it?

As a producer for CNN, Chance calls in all her favors to find out where Wyatt is and after hearing some talk about the plight of the local Cherokees, she is sure she has a major story on her hands. As past hurt brews like fire between the two, Wyatt discovers he and Chance are missing crucial memories of not only past events, but particularly several violent murders that Wyatt is afraid he unknowingly committed. Both will have to follow the advise of Tsa’li, a local medicine man, to recover the events that have been stricken from their minds and find the truth behind the tremendous pain.

Meanwhile, Cherokees are being hunted and murdered, their establishments and reservation devastated, and a reckoning is coming. The question on everyone’s mind, however, is will it be at the hands of Wyatt, who seems to be being possessed by a spirit with darker instincts and might be Champion of the People, or will the fiends with a personal grudge against his family come out the victor in this fight? Will Wyatt and Chance ever have their chance to make things work?

The sheer emotional trauma that Wyatt and Chance have experienced and will experience is tremendous and anyone who has a hard time reading about rape, attempted rape, and just plain evilness committed by humans, please don’t read this book. It is an ever evolving piece of fiction with many dark twists and a lot of truth about the current state of affairs revolving around the Nations and, while not my favorite type of reading material, it was utterly engaging.

I found it intriguing how knowledgeable Chance is about folklore as well as the fact she is so much more ready to accept the possibility of Wyatt sharing a body with another spirit, while Wyatt is very disbelieving. I’m also glad the ending wasn’t as clichéd as it could have been, Ciana Stone had me thinking for a bit that this story would go down several well beaten paths, but she managed to pull off this story with unique twists and turns that have an intensity that will keep you reading till the very last page.

Book Stats:
E-book, digital format
Publisher: Ellora’s Cave
ISBN: 1-4199-0699-2

To purchase an electronic copy of Wyatt’s Chance click here.

To visit the author’s website go here.

(No Ratings Yet)

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“Myth, magic or legend? There have been Hussies since before time was measured in days and minutes. Women who fought bravely alongside their mates with sword and axe, warriors whose courage changed the world around them. Led by the first Hussy, Danu, these fragile fighters discovered their inner strengths, summoned reserves they didn’t know they possessed and passed into the fabric of legend with their daring
exploits.”

If you can let your mind open up to the possibilities that the craft of paranormal writing offer, then you can definitely find a place for Ciana Stone’s incredibly fun ride called “A Taste For Jazz.”

Jazz Boudreaux goes from your not-so-common bounty hunter to goddess-enlisted warrior within the first few pages. She wraps her mind around being called up by Danu more easily than I did. Still Stone’s taut writing and attention to detail knocked me out of my reality-based world, dumping me into one of the funnest books I’ve read in a while. I liked Jazz. I liked her a lot. She fulfilled my action heroine lust.

And her match is met in Rock. In my mind he is a cross between Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson. Brawn with brains, Rock is the quintessential hero. He starts his part of the book out by wondering if he will ever meet a woman who is his match intellectually and physically.

Cue Jazz. She’s got to find a brainy dweeb of a rocket scientist to protect him from dire bad things that could doom the world to extinction. Well, ok. There’s a plot point from Saturday morning serial movies. But you know what? It works. It works very well because Stone doesn’t shy away from the idea that this story is based on a far-fetched theme. She relentlessly drags the reader down the path of the action heroine who uses her brains and her guns to save the day and her man. Luckily Rock is not the shy retiring type and is busily trying to save himself.

This book is stand-alone good but when you throw in the sex – well, hand this Belle a cold glass of sweet tea because it just got hot hot hot in here. There is one main sex scene where Jazz has to give in to Rock on many levels. Stone doesn’t neglect her heroine’s hesitancy which is just what I’d expect from a woman like Jazz.

I have to give this book four and a half tombstones. I reserve a half tombstone because there were a few scenes that dipped to heavily into the Saturday morning movie camp bucket for my tastes. Still, I can tell you that I will be backing up and buying more of Ciana Stone’s books. And, the good news is that this is part of a series. Ciana Stone and her fellow Hussies have really locked on to something here. This is definitely one I’d read again—and not just for the sex.

Book Stats:

e-book, digital format

Publisher: Ellora’s Cave

ISBN: 9781419915925

To purchase an electronic copy of A Taste for Jazz click here.

To visit the author’s website go here.

(4 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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