Novelspot

Long before I'd met my first in person, I considered authors to be my friends. They came over to my house, told me stories, took me away from this world and brought me to theirs. Why would anyone but a friend bother? Some friends you meet through others, some go looking for, and sometimes, you just run into someone by chance, who later becomes a friend. That's how I met Charlie Huston.

I was staring longingly at an ad for the Amazon Kindle ebook Reader, when I realized there was a computer program, a free one, that would allow me to read Kindle books. I downloaded it to play with, and then looked at a list of the best selling kindle ebooks. Some of them were free, including Already Dead: A Novel. Naturally, I downloaded it. You can never have too many friends.

Because I wasn't familiar with Mr. Huston (we're not on a first name basis yet), I entered Already Dead with no expectations. That's how I met Joe Pitt, the protagonist. Joe is a bit of everything. A detective, a problem solver, a strong arm...oh yeah and a vampire.

Vampyres, of course, start off as people, so it isn't surprising that they form organizations that resemble those we're all familiar with. Already Dead takes place on the streets of Manhattan, thought not quite the island I know and love. This Manhattan is infested with vampyres.

When you hear of an amnesia case, you wonder what kind of trauma that person suffered. What could be so bad as to wipe out all memory of your life, your loved ones, the very essence of what and who you are?

Amber knows that she can't run forever. She needs some place where she can hide out. Somewhere she can try to make sense of the chaos that her life has become. Hopefully this job as a nanny to a rancher’s daughter will be the answer to her prayers. She needs answers, answers to so many questions.

Luke Ryan is in need of answers himself and he is willing to do what he has to do to find those answers. He needs a break from both the ranch and his older brother Matt. He is going to go back on the rodeo circuit. But for him to do that he desperately needs a nanny for his three-year-old daughter because he isn’t leaving her behind and the circuit is no place for an unattended child.

Even though Amber seems to fit in right away, both Luke and Matt have reservations about her. There are too many unanswered questions about her.

Amber has her own questions like--who is the dead man that she wakes up next to, is she the one who killed him, and if so, why? But there is no way these questions are going to be answered until she regains her memory. And in the mean time she is falling deeper and deeper in love with both Luke and his daughter Alicia.

I love a good adaptation story - Shakespeare in modern times or the hero's journey in a galaxy far, far away, for example. When I saw the mystery-romance Drowning Rapunzel by Annette Gisby, I figured it was an interesting take on the story we all grew up hearing.

Beth Gregory takes a job as a live-in secretary for the artist Josh Warrington. She's hoping for a new start; she wants to forget her past. And for a while, this long-haired beauty does. However, a murder at Josh's estate outside of London, Holly Lodge, resurrects the paranormal powers Beth thought she'd been able to run away from.

The prologue creeped me out. It was exciting to open a book and get that spine tingling feeling right away. Ms. Gisby has a talent for writing creepy scenes and there weren't nearly enough of them for me.

Because this book is a mystery-romance, a romance is expected. Unfortunately, it felt as though there were two stories fighting throughout the piece: the romance and the mystery. One was constantly being truncated in favor of the other. Or I just felt that way because I was more engaged in the mystery and wanted to hurry to those scenes. The romance was predictable and felt forced. I didn't feel the spark or chemistry between the two lovers. It was like they fell in love because they had to in order to continue on with the story.

Admittedly, there is something about the proper doing wicked things that drew me to this story. With Behind the Red Door, the title alone brings about titillating fantasies. Brothels of the Regency era encourage ideas of marble columns, fine silks in vivid reds or deep purples, and beautiful men and women languidly placed about. The finery of the establishment often a contrast to the intimate acts that occur behind the closed doors seems to be temptation in itself. In Jackie Barbosa’s book, women venture to the high-end brothel, and though acceptable for men, it was unseemly for a female. Would you have had the courage to visit such an establishment?

Behind the Red Door is a collection of three novellas by Jackie Barbosa that all feature an exclusive London brothel named the Red Door. The characters from the stories intermingle with farther glimpses of each as the story progresses.

In Wickedly Ever After Nathaniel St. Clair, the sixth Marquess of Grenville, is well known for his shocking trysts and wicked ways throughout the town. However, little do they know he is the famous scholar Clarence Mathews, a pseudo he fabricated to pursue his love of translating Classical prose. Eleanor Palmer strides into his home one day to confront him regarding a letter penned by her ex-fiancé that implies Nathaniel and she should make a match. Eleanor happens to worship Clarence Mathews and when she finds his work there, she is under the impression Nathaniel is his friend which sets off the beginning of their powerful connection. As Nathaniel tries to lure her into his bed he makes some self-realizations along the way and in the end gets more than the one-night stand he bargained for.

I tend to speculate a lot about the nature of things and what it all means. I suppose that is what makes me an impoverished writer and artist instead of a computer analyst who earns money. So this story, The Basingstoke Chronicles a time traveling story, caught my eye fast.

It is a sweet telling story about two bumbling adventure seekers who stumble upon a time machine. They find this machine after a body is found floating off the coast of Cuba. Basingstoke is a wealthy man, an archaeologist under-sea diver, along with his friend and diving partner Rodrigo Esteban Quintas. One is from frigid England, the other from humid Cuba. When they find that the body floating off Cuba has an outfit of strange design, woven with fibers that extinct nine thousand years ago, it is decided they must hire a boat and look for what could cause such a puzzle to float about the waters.

This leads them to find the time machine and after some intense discussion, it is decided the two of them would use the machine to travel. They come upon a island called Apterona and its people. The account covers their adventures in Apterona in the months that follow and a grand escape that is bound to happen in stories such as these.

I can't believe I'm about to write the following sentence. Stephen King's latest doorstop of a novel, Under The Dome, is ponderous, predictable and, worst of all, boring. And this is coming from one of the biggest Stephen King fans on the planet. Heck. I even read From a Buick 8 and liked it, but this latest forest killer is just plain awful.

Not only was this bad, but I think it's broken me of my automatic purchasing of Stephen King novels. I had no idea what Under The Dome was about. I just ordered it because I love his novels. When it arrived, I discovered its length and the fact that this was a book he'd tried to write many years before and I began to get a bad feeling about it.

Turns out, my bad feeling was fully justified. Let's start with the most noticeable thing; it's length. This puppy could have been put to bed at a third of the length if it weren't for the fact that Stephen King loves his characters. He stuffs the book full of them and lets us know the backstory of almost every single one of them. And, not only that, he also documents just about every second of every day that the New England town of Chester's Mill spends trapped under an unexplainable (to them, but not – unfortunately – to us), invisible and impenetrable dome.

Last year I had the pleasure of reading TJ Bennett's The Legacy, so when her new romance, The Promise, made its way to my bedside table I couldn't have been happier.

Set in Spain in the 16th century, we meet an unlikely character by the name of Gunter Behaim, a German soldier in the employ of Emperor Charles V. A man with secrets to keep, he finds himself under the spell of a close friend's fiance, Alonsa Garcia de Aranjuez.

With Martin near death, Gunter finds himself promising to take Martin's place as Alonsa's husband. Gunter had vowed to never love again after the loss of his first love, but Martin had sacrificed his life to save him so there was no way to refuse. It was a debt to be repaid.

It also secretly pleased Gunter to think of having his way with Alonsa. It'd been all he could do to keep his hands off of her out of respect for Martin. No woman had ever affected him the way she had and now he would be free to act on his desires. But could he risk his heart again?

Alonsa Garcia de Aranjuez learned as a young woman that love can be dangerous. Over the years she lost many men she loved to a curse set on her by her first love. Upon the death of Martin she vowed to never allow another man to love her. No more could die from this curse. She would live alone in a loveless life. She would join a convent to keep herself, and any men who might approach her, safe.

During the long, hazy afternoons of summer I often enjoy a lengthy historical romance to pass the time. I prefer ones with lots of detail about the time period and interesting characters. Barbara Kyle's The King’s Daughter showed up on my doorstep one steamy Saturday afternoon, and I spent an enjoyable Sunday reading it.

Poised on the edge of an English revolution, Isabel Thornleigh knows only that she is to be married in a few short weeks to her beloved, Martin. As Queen Mary awaits her Spanish prince, England divides along religious lines and talk of rebellion is everywhere.

Isabel and her fiance, Martin, are among those who feel the Queen is making a wrong move, and they both join the forces that are secretly plotting to bring down her monarchy and replace her on the throne with the Queen’s younger sister, Elizabeth.

Matters escalate far faster than anyone could have imagined and Isabel finds herself fighting for her life, and for that of her parents. Her mother, nearly killed by a gunshot, is on a boat to Antwerp and safety. Her father, taken to prison for killing his wife's assailant, must be released somehow and she is the only one who can help.

As if that is not enough, Isabel also promises to pass secret information from a French operative in London to the head of the revolt, Thomas Wyatt, who is building forces in the English countryside. How can she be in two places at once? Does she let her father pay or fail in her promise to the leader of the revolt? Somehow she must find a way to do both.

What happens when you try to do a good deed and it takes a decidedly wicked, erotically so, twist? Sounds intriguing? It is. Just ask God-fearing, Christian man, Andrew, whose life is changing when he answers a call for help. AP Miller’s novel, Good Boys Deserves Bad Girls is an erotic adventure featuring the mismatched paring of Andrew and Pathrusim.

Andrew is always ready to help anyone in need. Still, even he is surprised that the woman he rescues is one of the bad girls his pastor always warns against. Despite her scanty clothing and heavy makeup, she stills seems very attractive to Andrew, perhaps too attractive. All the same despite his thundering heart, which must be due to the scuffle he engaged in to protect the woman, he needed to escort the lady home.

Pathrusim knows a ripe one when she sees him, and Andrew is definitely that. The fact that the sweet boy rushed to her rescue is unusual considering he was one of them--those who want to put an end to her kind. Of course, he doesn't know her nature yet, but he will soon, very soon. She can hardly wait to reveal her true nature and release Andrew’s sensuality despite his desire to keep it tamped down and out of sight.