I have to apologize for life being so slack lately. Things are a little hectic in real life but please know that I am still working away on the various stories with the intention of updating as regularly as I possibly can. Plus that original series is still cooking, even though I am not getting the kind of writing time I would dearly like.
I don’t know why it took me so long to read Sherrilyn Kenyon but I am so glad I did. I love the magic, the history, the setting, the hot, hot hero. There were tears and laughter, tension (sexual and otherwise). There were mythological beings, other realms, classical literature and a large helping of kink. Julian of Macedon makes one hot love-slave and Dr Grace Alexander proves to be the only woman in centuries that could be a match for him or his curse. There are delightful side characters who I hope I will encounter again. What’s more, the writing is fabulous and the pace is perfect. I’m guessing she knows that but I just thought I should repeat it anyway.
V’s story was well….hot? Yeah! You expected that. Given V’s sexual proclivities you had to expect that he and Jane were gonna rock the sheets. Funny? …Hell, yeah! No one does pithy turn of phrase like JR Ward and V has the most righteously sarcastic and eat-shit-or-die phraseology of all the brothers. Gripping? …. absolutely! This is the dude with 300 years of off-the-scale fate and destiny crap that glows as bright as the megawatt voltage channeling through his cursed hand. Talk about shitty parenting – his life makes Z’s years as a sex slave look like a walk in the park. But if you are working your way through the brotherhood series and you get tempted to miss any, then don’t miss this one. This is the book of a thousand reveals and loose ends reconnected. There is so much going on in this one that my head is spinning enough that I think I might just be feeling what V has gone through for so long as the brother with all the visions.
Ward is amazing, off-the-charts incredible. There must be some scary shit going on in her brain, that is all I can say. I have a read a few of the reviews that didn’t like this book and I absolutely get where they are coming from. There are potential inconsistencies in the ‘world’ that Ward creates. The romantic connection isn’t quite as visceral as previous books which makes it odd given V’s relationship with sex. On the other hand, what does happen is the understanding that Jane and V connect on a cerebral level. All the way through Ward has told us how smart V is – he’s the intellectual and the technogeek of the group. Like Z, he also has lived this completely secret life in terms of his sexuality and perhaps more could have been made of the homoerotic connection that has been developing between V and Butch but the one thing that Jane gives him is a clinical and biological acceptance of what he has seen as his dirty little secret.
Phraseology Samples:
“V did his best to marshal some hi-how’re-ya onto his puss, in hopes of camoing the oh-fuck-me that was there.”
“Then I suggest you hold your breath. Won’t affect me in the slightest, but at least the suffocation will help pass the time for you.”
“Right now you’re throwing off an aura like your ass is plugged into the wall. So I strongly encourage you to drop the I-am-an-island bullshit and get your sorry excuse for a personality into Rhev’s office before we have a situation. Dig?”
“You didn’t ask questions of the Scribe Virgin. Not unless you wanted to add being used as floor wax to your resume.”
This story has all the right elements and is a great premise for a different, harder and more aggressive paranormal love story. There is great tension in what appears to be a very one sided adult relationship lived in the seedier side of New York night life. It is also something of a coming of age story for Aaron who finds himself in a bloodlust relationship with the enigmatic Michelle.
What doesn’t ring true for me is the development of their emotional bond. Not that the tension of being a bloodslave isn’t a great element to the story but the depth of the emotional transition that I wanted just didn’t come through for me. For significant sections of the book I felt nothing for Michelle as a heroine and yet she had a great backstory. Aaron grows as a complex hero throughout the story but the ease with which he engages other sexual encounters makes his claims to one eternal love for Michelle a little difficult to believe.
I am hoping that there is more to these two as the series progresses because they have great promise in what is really an engaging and well constructed narrative. However, if you like your paranormal romance with a little edge then this is a good example of how to do it. Definitely worth reading.
Synopsis:
Vampires, strippers, escorts, night clubs, gangs, pimps and corrupt cops, the Nightlife of New York is never boring.
Is she a beautiful blond guardian angel as he imagined, or something else entirely? When Michelle saves Aaron’s life she shares the benefits of her blood (after getting him shot accidentally). He awakes a changed man, living in a purgatory of eternal night, never to see the sunrise again.
Michelle drags Aaron through a hardcore learning curve of vampiric slavery. Forced to adapt to servitude, Aaron is subject to her authority of compulsion. She orders him around like a puppet on a string, a dog on a very short leash. First things first, he must learn to feed properly without creating bloodslaves (humans addicted to the powerful drug-like effect of their venomous bite).
And then she puts him to work-a male escort in the sex trade-same as Michelle. Aaron walks a tightrope of strictly controlled feeding regiments and intensely erotic sexual adventures while catering to the neurotic control-freak tendencies of his new master. It’s do or die, Michelle vows to eliminate him if he proves too difficult to control. The real kicker-amidst all these shocking and degrading adjustments, Aaron finds he’s falling in love.
Can he maintain and keep a sliver of his humanity intact? Innocence is a luxury few can afford in the decadent nightlife of New York. In a world where sex, blood, and power over women is so readily accessible, Aaron struggles against the predatory instincts deeply rooted in his new psyche. He must find his way quickly, practicing rigid self-control, or risk the consequences of Michelle’s wrath.
Do you ever go through your WordPress stats page and look at the search terms that people put in to find you? Of course you do. I do. This question came up recently as a search term for my blog and it got me thinking about the longing that might be behind the question.
On the same day – as fate often allows – a good facebook/fanfic friend posted this link.
8. Have a normal face Staring at his lover in chapter 20, Christian Grey’s “eyes blaze with anger, need and pure unadulterated lust”.
Stand in front of a mirror. Have a go at that combination. Now, never make that face again. You look constipated.
After I had fallen about laughing at all the truisms that Victoria Coren brings up I wondered about the women out there who are looking for a real life Mr Grey and all the men who are now getting mixed messages about what is appropriate behavior when encountering the Grey-sessed.
Later that same day someone posted this story on facebook.
When I was 16, I hoped that one day I would have a boyfriend.
When I was 18, I got a boyfriend, but there was no passion. So I decided I needed a passionate guy with a zest for life.
In college I dated a passionate guy, but he was too emotional. Everything was an emergency, he was a drama queen, cried all the time and threatened suicide. So I decided I needed a guy with stability.
When I was 25, I found a very stable guy but he was boring. He was totally predictable and never got excited about anything. Life became so dull that I decided I needed a guy with some excitement.
When I was 28, I found an exciting guy, but I couldn’t keep up with him. He rushed from one thing to another, never settling on anything. He did mad, impetuous things and flirted with everyone he met. He made me miserable as often as happy. He was great fun initially and very energetic, but directionless. So I decided to find
a guy with some ambition.
When I turned 31, I found a smart ambitious guy with his feet planted firmly on the ground and married him. He was so ambitious that he divorced me, took everything I owned, and ran off with my best friend.
I am now 47 and am looking for a guy with a big dick.
The message board ran hot for a while with shared sentiments. This type of moral tale needs to come with a warning – there are a lot of photoshopped dicks out there!!
I was lucky to find my life partner in my 20s. I feel for others who found, then lost; or are still looking. I have a couple of friends who even in their forties are serial monogamists, still looking for Mr Right and settling for Mr Right Now. A lot of discussion surrounded the training of a young man to meet a woman’s needs. My response was to post this sage advice. Helen Humes recorded this originally in 1927 and it still stands up.
I found it reassuring to read The College Crush. Jen explains that the obsession with CG is ok, even understandable. Fictional heroes are good for the soul but in the search for our own real life partner, we need to have a firm grip on reality.
1. Knight in Shining Armor
Described as a man who gallantly comes to the aid of a woman in a time of need. Sure, there are guys out there that will drop everything to change your flat tire or kill the spider taunting you on the wall, but really it’s old misogynist ideal that has become romanticized. We are more than capable to grab that shoe, kill the spider, then freak out about how gross that was without a man being present.
2. You complete me.
I know I cried when a teary eyed Jerry Maguire entered into a room full of angry women ranting about how the men in their lives ruined them and declared to his wife that “she completes him”. But you don’t want to aspire to complete someone, you want to aspire to be the person that best complements them. If there are holes in people’s lives they need to fill those on their own, not with you.
3. Love at first sight.
Infatuation, lust, wonder, awe, and curiosity – all things that can happen at first sight- love not so much. Love is too profound and truly beautiful to happen so immediately.
4. Can’t imagine my life without you.
When a relationship comes to an end it always seems this way. It must be the end of the world because how could you possibly go on breathing without this person, but then one day it just happens you wake up and the relationship is no longer the crux of your being, but a memory fond, or not, that is now in the past.
Once you leave college and are out in the “real world” you quickly realize that your happiness relies solely on your shoulders. It is now on you to find a job, new friends and new hobbies that will make you the happiest you. Yes, being in a relationship is fun and exciting but the only way relationships can truly grow and survive is if you make yourself happy first. So, stop falling for these false ideals and find a guy who complements the best parts of you.
Remind yourselves, Christian Grey, even as a fictional boyfriend, is deeply flawed and not always in a rational and sexy way. More importantly he does NOT exist and if he did, apparently he would look like a serial killer.
Identikit rendering of the real Christian Grey. Creepy stalker doesn’t begin to describe him.
This is one of those books that draws you into the character relationship and makes you fall in love. Travis Maddox is hot even if he has his flaws. Abby is smart and full of hidden talents. The premise of a friendship that grows into something more is a tried and true one but this has a nice spin showing the heartache that can ensue when it all goes wrong. There are some moments that make you want to take one or other of the characters outside and slap some sense into them which makes it a great story. The side characters are also a highlight and it is easy to see this as a movie. My only criticism is that with all that they go through, when they finally sort everything out I was still waiting for the axe to fall. Once a disaster always a disaster I guess.
The relationship development between Logan and Sam is a highlight in this book. They might be having hot sex from time to time but there is an honest pace to the way they make any sort of commitment to each other. There is a forbidden element to the relationship too, that is not all about the sex. The foreshadowing of the second book is great (I read them out of order) and as a first foray into reading m/m sex scenes I found this a tasteful take on an otherwise aggressive alpha side relationship. Regardless of the combinations in the sexual relationship, Sam and Logan’s romance stays at the centre. Nice to have such a strong and successful business woman stay strong despite her personal vulnerabilities.
A research home for Historical Fiction Writers of the Antebellum Period, by A.M. Cal, author of the historical novel "Eighth Wonder" The Thomas Bethune Story. You know of Mozart and of course Bach and Beethoven. But do you know Thomas?
Fantasy Lover by Sherrilyn Kenyon
Sasha Cameron - Writer 