Love Romance Passion » Gothic http://www.loveromancepassion.com Because Books Don't Fall Asleep Afterwards! Fri, 10 Feb 2012 09:00:00 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Review: Red Velvet and Absinthe by Mitzi Szereto http://www.loveromancepassion.com/review-red-velvet-and-absinthe-by-mitzi-szereto/ http://www.loveromancepassion.com/review-red-velvet-and-absinthe-by-mitzi-szereto/#comments Mon, 05 Dec 2011 09:50:33 +0000 Sandra Scholes http://www.loveromancepassion.com/?p=13101

Reviewed by Sandra Scholes

There is nothing like 15 stories of paranormal erotic romance to thrill a reader into each of them, all are different, yet all will leave them with the distinct taste of absinthe on the tongue from the sheer pleasure they bring.

A Foreword and Introduction create enough of a background to the Gothic horror story to set the scene for the stories that the reader will immerse themselves in. Kelley Armstrong goes into all the elements that make up the Gothic story, the darkness, the innocent woman, mysterious man who is interested in her, and the haunting madness that is so often the bread and butter of this genre. They don’t always work out that way, though, there are the stories that bend the rules a little, some are different in they use gay or lesbian characters instead of the usual ones everyone knows about.

Well, everyone doesn't know about these stories - they vary from each one, and all have the distinct elements of the Gothic horror within them. They can surprise, shock, and amaze-all with the intensity of the Gothic drama and feel of the age. These stories bring out an atmosphere of intrigue, full of dark and twisted emotions we can all feel in the right light...in this case it is candle light that will inspire us.

Here are a few of the stories available and my reviews of them:

Snowlight, Moonlight by Rose De Fer

A woman on a journey is attacked and left for dead on a snowy path. The coachman did not survive and the coach itself would not be useable again. Lucky for her she has someone who can help her, a man who encounters her body one night and takes her all the way back to his mansion house. There she wakes up and wonders where she is. The kind gentleman tells her where he found her, yet she has no memory of it. Everything is a blur to her mind until he mentions one thing, the things that attacked her days ago. That is what startles her.

Of particular interest to the reader will be what the man has been studying for a while, and what she really is after the accident. It interested me when a perfect gentleman could be so out of character to tie the lady to his bed - but then again, the reader will find out why. I enjoyed the atmosphere this story conjured for me, and I found it the sort of story that I could read again and again.

Cover Him with Darkness by Janine Ashbless

A young girl remembers seeing a young man tied to a slab of limestone. She sees how handsome he is, and how strong he looks, yet also how vulnerable and unhappy he is too. As she is so young, she doesn't know what the man has done to make her father have him bound so cruelly, but he doesn't tell her anything - just decides to keep her in the dark as far as explanations go. She is persistent though, and soon she will discover who and what he is. When she is older, her father's dying words are that someone has to watch over the man as he had many years ago, and it sounds like she will have to do her duty to the family.

Strangely enough, the reader might not ever find out what he is, they will have to make their own mind up as to whether he is a titan or some kind of Prometheus as Janine makes him out to be. All the reader will know is that he is a muscular and handsome man who has been imprisoned for what seems like generations.

A Rose in the Willow Garden by Elizabeth Daniels

Bierce is wandering around for that special person, but he hasn't found her yet, and being a hunter of a man he does keep on trying until he gets to her, but it isn't easy when he is trawling the bars and inns along the town in search of her. He always finds loose women there who want him as he is a seductive devil, but one eludes him, and whoever she is he can't get her out of his mind.

Readers will soon find out that he is not the sort of man she should mess with even if she does think she loves him. She does have a boyfriend already which annoys him a great deal, but he understands that she will have lovers being a handsome woman. There are things she needs to know about his past and what he has done with other women before she takes the plunge and gets with him, but it's up to her. This is an unusual story with a nice ending.

The Blood Moon Kiss by Mitzi Szereto

The Blood Moon Kiss is a vampire soap opera directed by Mark Gaitzburger and the heroine is the beautiful Christine, while the anti hero is Talen played by Kyle. He is a method actor and everyone knows how good he is at playing his part to the fullest. Christine thinks there is something wrong with him, something the other actors have missed, but she also finds him intriguing to her in a way no other man would, and that, for her...could be dangerous.

Kyle's accent could give him away as she notices it is slightly European, and has a certain twang about it. He does get ill occasionally and tends to shut himself away from the sight of others, and it bothers her that he does this. The Blood Moon Kiss reminded me of Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula, a man who finds the love of his life in the future and can't be without her. This is the perfect Gothic romance story set in the present day in this volume.

Painted by Anna Meadows

You would never think a painting could cause jealousy, but in one woman's wife, it does. She hates the very sight of it, but the husband likes it a great deal, and after winning it in a bet, he finds her dislike of the woman annoying for him. She mentions that the woman looks like a tart, hoping he will remove it some day. The woman in the painting has a certain something that Benjamin likes, and it entices him to keep looking at it even though it sends goose bumps on his skin.

Benjamin feels as though no one is taking his feelings into account about the painting, as he sees the woman in it as almost alive. He is the only one who has a connection with her, and one night when he is alone, he notices that the woman is gone. The rest of his family think Ben should get married, but he isn't interested in anyone other than the woman in the painting and he wonders who she really is. I enjoyed the setting of this story, and the presence it evoked for me.

La Belle Mort by Zander Vyne

Elizabeth Morton is due to be executed, and she is with child too. She has been tried for a crime she did not commit, she did not steal a diamond necklace from the estate where she lived, and worked but she knows who has. This is a journey back in time again to when a woman could be tricked into anything, and the gentleman would get away with it. Taken to prison before this can happen, she is made open to a life of nothingness, and doesn't expect the sorrow and pain life in jail can cause. She does have a visitor though, and he could be the answer to her dreams. When another man arrives she listens to what he has to say, mentioning that if she tells them where she has hid the necklace, they will pardon her. Unfortunately, she hasn't stolen it, and doesn't know where it is.

Elizabeth is the sort of woman from period dramas who was used in those days by rich lords who had affairs with nursemaids and servants when the wife was otherwise indisposed. Tales are numerous about what happens when these women are pregnant and can only do one thing - leave where they are or risk being kicked out anyway. In those days, servants were used and cast out, and this story tells the reality of what happened.

These are only a few of the stories in this book, and I picked my favourites out, but there will be the readers own favourites too and not all of the characters are so obviously monsters either – this is much more than a compilation of the unusual and the monstrous…it is deliciously Gothic.

Rating: ★★★★½

Buy: Red Velvet and Absinthe: Paranormal Erotic Romance

Online Stores ]]> http://www.loveromancepassion.com/review-red-velvet-and-absinthe-by-mitzi-szereto/feed/ 2 Defining the Genre: Gothic Romance http://www.loveromancepassion.com/defining-the-genre-evolution-gothic-romance/ http://www.loveromancepassion.com/defining-the-genre-evolution-gothic-romance/#comments Mon, 26 Sep 2011 14:03:51 +0000 Keira http://www.loveromancepassion.com/?p=109

genre

Gothic romance is a genre you can't find all too easily today. It was a popular genre a few decades ago and lovers of this romance sub-genre will have to troll secondhand bookstores to find titles. Classics of this genre are novels such as Wuthering Heights and Scarlet Letter. Well known authors of Gothic romance/horror include Ann Radcliffe of the past and Stephen King of the present.

A typical Gothic romance revolved around conflict and mysteries. It made the heroine choose between two male characters for love. One is bright, sunny, cheerful and charming. The other was dark, mysterious, secretive, and brooding. Plotlines of cursed leads and daring adventures took place on wind-swept moors, and places that were haunted. The heroine would embark on a thrilling journey to discover if her hero was worthy of love. Her task usually boiled down to find out if the hero really murdered his first wife, brother, mother, insert other relation.

It is interesting to note that Radcliffe introduced this brooding male as the Gothic villain, which developed into the Byronic hero. She is considered a pioneer of the genre. The movie Becoming Jane shows a meeting between Radcliffe and Jane Austen but there's not basis for this meeting. However it does provide an interesting backdrop on the dual rise of the two types of popular novels.

As Gothic or dark romanticism developed it became more distinctly separated. The first direction of Gothic novels glorifies gore. The second took on the key aspects of modern romance. This new evolution made the focus on the romance instead of the mystery. These are the romances that disappeared after the eighties.

So what is a Byronic hero?

Trivia: The name of this hero comes from the English poet Lord Bryon.

The hero himself is highly intelligent, urbane, sophisticated and introspective. In other words he's arrogant, mysterious, seductive, and moody (see bipolar). We see male figures like this all over, you could make the argument that Mr. Darcy is a Byronic hero on top of being a Regency hero, as Byronic heroes dislike social formalities and functions. Of course Mr. Darcy doesn't have a troubled past or flippant air towards the wealthy and privileged, as he is one of that set. While Mr. Darcy was disliked he was not a complete social outcast and exiled from polite company. All these things are attributed to the Byronic hero.

What's a good modern Gothic romance?

Some titles of the modern Gothic romance include: Bells of Widow's Bay by Miriam Lynch, Castle Midnight by Evelyn McKenna, and Satan's Rock by Marilyn Ross.

Authors to look for include (past and present authors): Victoria Holt, Dorothy Daniels, Theresa Weir, Phyllis Whitney, Barbara Michaels, Allison Knight, Mary Stewart, Joanna Challis, and Megan McKinney, Kay Hooper, Eve Silver... to name a few.

Trivia: In the 1980s Harlequin had an all Gothic line of books. See here for Gothic titles. Harlequin Intrigue also contains several titles that could satisfy your craving.

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arcrev

Amanda Grange picks up where Pride and Prejudice ends. Jane and Elizabeth are getting ready for their double wedding, both eager and anxious about the life spreading out before them. On the way to the wedding, Elizabeth experiences a brief foreboding chill but shrugs it off as wedding nerves. The ceremony goes smoothly, Darcy’s vows stirring deep emotions in both.

It’s when they leave the reception that things start taking a turn for the worse. Through the reflection in the glass of their carriage Elizabeth spies a flash of torment crossing Darcy’s features, but a quick look at the real man shows smooth features. Elizabeth believes she has imagined it… unexpectedly he changes their wedding tour plans and routes them from the Lake District to a direct route to France over the channel.

Elizabeth is unconcerned about this change, but wholly concerned with Darcy. She can’t help but compare her expectations to the reality of her marriage to Darcy. He does not visit her bedchamber the first night or the next or the next. When they are together during the day Darcy is everything attentive, kind, and devoted, but at night he disappears.

As Elizabeth struggles to find reasons for this strange behavior, she meets a dizzying array of friends, family, and strangers over the continent. Some people and places inspire a great deal of trepidation in Elizabeth and she spills her worries to Jane in a series of letters.

It’s not until the last one hundred pages that things really begin to unravel and Darcy’s mysterious behavior is revealed. I was surprised by how flawless the transition was from Austen’s Regency romance to Grange’s Gothic flavored romance. Grange has a talent with words and uses this talent to create a believable paranormal filled with stunningly chilling atmosphere and mystery.

Rating: 3.5 Stars

Buy: Mr. Darcy, Vampyre

Online Stores ]]> http://www.loveromancepassion.com/review-mr-darcy-vampyre-by-amanda-grange/feed/ 4 Review: The Master of Seacliff by Max Pierce http://www.loveromancepassion.com/review-the-master-of-seacliff-by-max-pierce/ http://www.loveromancepassion.com/review-the-master-of-seacliff-by-max-pierce/#comments Thu, 25 Aug 2011 09:44:44 +0000 Sandra Scholes http://www.loveromancepassion.com/?p=8145

by Sandra Scholes, guest reviewer

Andrew Wyndham gets the offer of a lifetime to tutor an unruly child at a huge mansion where its master, Duncan Stewart starts out as an imposing and brooding man of means who shows Andrew what life at Seacliff is like.

Duncan slowly warms to Andrew, his new tutor who just happens to be a virgin, and gay, tries to hide his sexual leanings from the others even though he gets plenty of attention from Duncan, Leo and other men he meets both in and out of the mansion. Duncan is extremely possessive of his new employee, and becomes jealous of the attention Leo gives to Andrew but Andrew is resisting this thinking he might be the murderer of his father, Gordon as all the clues he finds in the house seem to lead to him.

Andrew does not want his thoughts of him being the killer to be true as he has formed a bond with Duncan even the likes of the amorous Leo can't break.

For the most part sex scenes do not feature in this novel; love-making is left for the end, is touching and guaranteed to leave the reader with a warm fuzzy feeling. There is plenty of seductive dialogue, clues as to the real murderer, and comic moment’s readers will enjoy.

The novel's author manages to capture the atmosphere of a turn of the century Gothic romance novel with its depths, its dark remote setting, and the brooding character of Duncan and the lovable Andrew.

Rating: 3.5 Stars

Buy: The Master of Seacliff

Online Stores ]]> http://www.loveromancepassion.com/review-the-master-of-seacliff-by-max-pierce/feed/ 0 Plain Fear: Forsaken by Leanna Ellis http://www.loveromancepassion.com/plain-fear-forsaken-by-leanna-ellis/ http://www.loveromancepassion.com/plain-fear-forsaken-by-leanna-ellis/#comments Fri, 19 Aug 2011 09:41:54 +0000 Sharon S. http://www.loveromancepassion.com/?p=11540

by Sharon S., guest reviewer

I really don’t know how to classify this book. I think it is YA, but I feel it leans more towards Adult.  I’ve seen it called Christian Literature, and it is heavy on the faith and beliefs of the Amish community, but it is more about love conquering the darkness, and it is a very dark tale. It is a paranormal romance because there are vampires and a sad love triangle.

I found the writing a little rough around the edges and it felt like there were two separate stories going on that didn’t mesh well until they came together at the end. There wasn’t much action and the story kind of plodded along. There are lots of Bible verses and poetry stances throughout that didn’t really add much to the story for me. BUT… I couldn’t stop reading it <G>.

The author brought the horror of vampires into the Amish community. These aren’t poor misunderstood vampires. They are predators and killers. The main character is Hannah, an 18 year old Amish girl, still holding onto the ideal image of her first love Jacob, who unexplainably died two years earlier after his Rumschpringe (running around years). Meanwhile Jacob’s brother, Levi (who I just loved) has been in love with Hannah for a long time and patiently waits for her to move on.

Jacob who is now called Akiva, comes back to claim Hannah and turn her. He has changed enough that she doesn’t realize who he is, and it is very eerie how he stalks her and tries to seduce her away from her faith and family. Hannah struggles with doubts about her faith and letting go of the past. Levi is everything she wants, but will she realize it too late?

There is a secondary story going on about a former New Orleans cop, Roc, whose wife was murdered in a brutal way. He reluctantly discovers vampires are real and that Akiva was responsible for his wife’s death. He ends up in the Amish town of Promise, PA looking for revenge, but ends up trying to protect the people and finding his calling to rid the world of vampires. The book ended with the possibility of a sequel and there was one big lose end that wasn’t addressed regarding Hannah’s sister.

This was a very interesting read. I had times when I didn’t like it, but I kept reading. I had to know what happened. Levi and Jacob (Akiva) are strong and intriguing characters, while Hannah and Roc didn’t impress me. I love stories that seem dark and hopeless, but love helps pull everyone through, and this book satisfied that.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Buy: Plain Fear: Forsaken, Plain Fear: Forsaken (UK)

Online Stores ]]> http://www.loveromancepassion.com/plain-fear-forsaken-by-leanna-ellis/feed/ 2 Duty and Desire by Pamela Aidan- Guest Review http://www.loveromancepassion.com/duty-and-desire-by-pamela-aidan-guest-review/ http://www.loveromancepassion.com/duty-and-desire-by-pamela-aidan-guest-review/#comments Thu, 11 Aug 2011 09:12:19 +0000 Sasha Muradali http://www.loveromancepassion.com/?p=3710

guestreview-2

By: Sasha Muradali, guest blogger

Duty & Desire is an interesting addition to the trilogy of Fitzwilliam Darcy: Gentleman by Pamela Aidan. This second installment takes readers through Mr. Darcy’s missing moments in Pride and Prejudice in between his departure for London after the Netherfield Ball and his reemergence at his aunt’s house, Rosings Park.

A decent novel, filled with twists and turns, it’s nothing too extraordinary or special in terms of the storyline.

It has two important qualities however: Mr. Darcy’s relationship with his sister Georgiana and a deeper look into his personality.

Readers familiar with Pride and Prejudice, will know the thoughts swirling around Lizzy Bennet’s head, but were left with presumptions and, often dream-filled landscapes, as to the inner mechanical mind of “the man himself.”

These two facets are the meat of the story. Through Aidan’s novel, readers are exposed to another side of Mr. Darcy they always knew existed, but were ever privy to reading about until the very end of Pride and Prejudice. Darcy’s relationship with Georgiana is beautiful.

To quote Elizabeth Bennet, he’s “an ideal older brother.” From his indulgences of her, patience, kindest endearments and openness, as a girl, you cannot help but love him more. Not only love him more, but have the urge to squeal “awwwwww.”

The best part? He falls asleep on her shoulder one night after he comes back from a horrid escapade with a “pack of vipers.” And yes, the vipers are people, not snakes. No, Pamela Aidan does not take Mr. Darcy into Indiana Jones land. Be not alarmed ladies.

The ability to view Darcy’s love for Georgiana, also enables the reader to delve deeper into, what Aidan interprets, as his inner thoughts. Conflicted and confused between decorum and feelings, duty and desire, this novel is one more way to hold on to the character we all know and love.

Not to mention, that it is, for lack of a better term, simply cute how he pines over Lizzy Bennet

It does fall short of An Assembly Such As This, by not by much.

4 of 5 stars.

Read Keira's review of Duty and Desire.

Buy: Duty and Desire

Find and buy more Pamela Aidan novels.

Online Stores ]]> http://www.loveromancepassion.com/duty-and-desire-by-pamela-aidan-guest-review/feed/ 0 Review: A Cottage by the Sea by Ciji Ware http://www.loveromancepassion.com/review-a-cottage-by-the-sea-by-ciji-ware/ http://www.loveromancepassion.com/review-a-cottage-by-the-sea-by-ciji-ware/#comments Tue, 26 Jul 2011 09:04:19 +0000 Karin http://www.loveromancepassion.com/?p=7812

by Karin, guest reviewer from Savvy Thinker

A Cottage by the Sea by Ciji Ware is being reissued -- it is a good choice for reissue for those of us, like me, who never read it the first time -- with some

new material on brain function, chemistry, and recent findings in the scientific literature about the power of our minds to make us sick or well.

This book is an interesting mix of genres -- romance, romantic suspense, gothic romance, possible time travel, and possible past life experiences.  Hypnosis figures into it also.

Where past, present, and future collide...

Blythe Barton Stowe has fled to Cornwall to heal from a nasty, public divorce from her successful Hollywood husband.  He was unfaithful to her in the most egregious way, with her sister, who is now pregnant with the child her husband refused to conceive with her.  Blythe had been an important part of their successful movie team in her own right, but the way she was treated in the divorce proceedings did not grant her that.

The saving grace is that even her lawyer helps her stay far from the limelight -- which shows the kind of loyalty Blythe inspires.  Immediately this gave me insight into her character.

Cornwall is where her family line began, or so the story has been told her.  So it seems a natural place for her to go to heal her wounds.  She is understandably angry, hurt, and wanting a kind of revenge that she refuses to nurse.  The disloyalty of her sister and her then-husband, now -ex, is more than she can bear, made more so because of his immediate remarriage upon the divorce.  And you can imagine the field day the paparazzi are having at her expense.

Once she gets to the wild coastline in Cornwall, unusual things begin to happen.  She finds herself pulled back into the past on more than one occasion, when she touches the glass of a genealogy chart.  Some of the past life happenings (or life in the past) were scary to me, not knowing where they will lead.  It seems as though she is living out some kind of karmic present life, which is different from the past, but seems to stem from it.

Along the way, she falls in love with the owner of the estate she is living on (which also happens to be the family estate she comes from.)

A lot of information is given about brain function in situations of complex grieving, but it never crosses into didactism.  It just seems part of the story.  This is a feat in itself and shows what a good writer Ware is.

While several of the reviewers on the cover mention staying up all night to finish reading the book, I read it more slowly than some I read, in order to savor the story and its environs.  At the same time, this was because of the gothic nature of it.  I wasn't sure where it was going or if I'd like to know.  This also made it more difficult for me, because I wanted to know where it was going and I wanted to get there faster.

Generally I do not read historical romance (and the historical part was not particularly romantic, it was more tragic and involved a triangle of sorts or a quadrangle and this put it into the gothic category, with the steep clifts, etc.)  I was never quite sure if Blythe would decide to end it all, not necessarily because she was led that way, but because her leaping into the past was making her question her sanity, to a degree.  And it is interesting that one of the characters in the past does commit suicide and is not in his right mind when he does it.  And there is a suspected death/suicide which didn't in reality happen.

If you like an interesting story, with the need to suspend reality to a degree, and you like gothic romances, even a modern one, this book is for you. It was a very interesting read with well developed characters, including a child and another woman who desires to become the estate owner's wife.  There is also a nice settling of the differences with her ex-husband, made easier because she was now in love with another man.  It was definitely a good read, albeit sometimes difficult to read.  It is a thinking woman's romance, not escapism.  It deals with complex issues in an interesting way.

Have you read this one, either in its first printing or now in its second?

Rating: I give it 4 stars.

Buy: A Cottage by the Sea

Online Stores ]]> http://www.loveromancepassion.com/review-a-cottage-by-the-sea-by-ciji-ware/feed/ 0 Review: Love Bleeds (Only After Dark Series: Book 1) by Maggie James http://www.loveromancepassion.com/review-love-bleeds-only-after-dark-series-book-1-by-maggie-james/ http://www.loveromancepassion.com/review-love-bleeds-only-after-dark-series-book-1-by-maggie-james/#comments Fri, 08 Jul 2011 09:30:47 +0000 Sandra Scholes http://www.loveromancepassion.com/?p=11441

by Sandra Scholes, guest reviewer

There are a lot of genres thrown into this novel by Maggie James, but for the most part it is about vampires, or should I say, one vampire in particular; Joseph Markus who happens to lead a double life. By day he is a rich entrepreneur who has far too much free time on his hands, and what he does with it is seduce beautiful young women, and with the other half, he plays the lead crooner in a rock band called Slang. He's an arrogant and showy sort of character who doesn't mind having the women around him, but he doesn't treat them right as is about right for his personality type.

When he is accused of being a cold-hearted murderer, he feels he has no one to turn to as he is still mourning the death of his former lover, and such a change in his personality will come as a surprise to any reader of this horror romance/glitz lifestyle/mystery novel. Katarina is the new woman he falls head over heels for, as she is different from the girls he usually falls for. She denies him her love in the same way he denied his true love and affection for the other women he bedded way back when he was a younger man. Eventually she will have to succumb to his otherworldly charms, but not yet, not when she can make him wait a little longer, until he is begging her to be in his arms.

The start of the novel is sensual enough, and what is more inviting than the image of a handsome man waking from sleep in a king size bed - another man in the other bedroom. Yes, this caught my attention as did the first three pages, then I really got into it in a major way. His other friends are Philip, and Julian, both vampires, both brothers, and the other members in the band, but they are hiding a secret. One of them can't control their vampire side and can't come to terms, with which they really are, let alone what they have become, and if he doesn't feed soon, he will go insane, or worse.
The brothers and their struggles are interesting to read about, and the point where Joseph falls for Katarina is a section of the story that becomes a turning point for him and how the rest of the story fares as a result – which happens to be a good one.

I would recommend this novel to those who don’t just like vampire, horror fiction, but something more than the norm – check it out and get a copy, I can definitely say you won’t be disappointed.

As this is Maggie's first novel, I can give her credit for it being a thrilling read, and to be very honest, I would be prepared to read her work again - can't wait for the next in the series.

Rating: ★★★★★

Buy: Love Bleeds: Only After Dark Series (Book 1), Love Bleeds: Only After Dark Series (Book One) UK

Online Stores ]]> http://www.loveromancepassion.com/review-love-bleeds-only-after-dark-series-book-1-by-maggie-james/feed/ 2 Review: Lady Anne and the Howl in the Dark by Donna Lea Simpson http://www.loveromancepassion.com/review-lady-anne-and-the-howl-in-the-dark-by-donna-lea-simpson/ http://www.loveromancepassion.com/review-lady-anne-and-the-howl-in-the-dark-by-donna-lea-simpson/#comments Mon, 20 Jun 2011 23:21:19 +0000 Keira http://www.loveromancepassion.com/?p=1881

arcrev

I have a funny story with this book and by story I mean an epic fail. I was returning some books back to the library and somehow Lady Anne sneaked back with them. When I realized what I’d done it was as if I’d been amputated! So painful. Of course I returned the books on a Sunday; the only day in the week the library isn’t open until late in the afternoon or early in the day.

After a pretty good freak out, I waited until I could call. Ended hanging up once because I was on hold for five minutes and called back. Then I had to wait on the phone for twenty plus minutes before somebody from circulation got to me. They either forgot me or they were busy. I told them about the book and the person I talked with probably never got a call like this before because I was given a hard time.

Finally, I managed to convince them that the book was mine and not a library book. I don’t understand how this was so difficult as 1) it is not stamped with the library name nor was it 2) tagged with a detector strip or that pocket thing and 3) clearly says advance review copy on the cover! This is why I write in books to identify and claim them.

In the end they put the book on hold for me and now it was a matter of getting back over there. The library where I dropped the books off while on errands was all the way across town. I really didn’t make this easy on myself. Luckily I got there, but it was close! One more red light and it would have been better luck next time. Needless to say I was very, very pleased to get this book back and finish it… which I did later that night.

What I liked best about Lady Anne and the Howl in the Dark was its tribute to Gothic romance, followed swiftly by a capable intelligent heroine. The hero liked that best about her too so how could you not fall in love with him? Lady Anne is very plain and a spinster to boot, which are some of my very favorite things to read in romance.

Simpson writes in a witty and engaging voice. I loved Lady Anne. She was such a treat. Her musings on Lord Darkefell are particularly fabulous:

It was either that or go back to pondering the feel of Lord Darkefell’s too-perfect lips pressed against hers. And his too-perfect body against hers. He was entirely too perfect—if there was such a concept as overabundant perfection—in a physical sense and entirely too maddeningly imperfect in every other way.

Without giving anything else away I will say this: if you like mystery, intrigue, werewolves, and Gothic you will love this book! Oh and chances are you're going to jump to conclusions about the mystery and be totally wrong - I was!

Rating: 3.5-4 Stars

Buy: Lady Anne and the Howl in the Dark

Online Stores ]]> http://www.loveromancepassion.com/review-lady-anne-and-the-howl-in-the-dark-by-donna-lea-simpson/feed/ 2 Review: Heirs of Darkisle by Cassandra Pierce http://www.loveromancepassion.com/review-heirs-of-darkisle-by-cassandra-pierce/ http://www.loveromancepassion.com/review-heirs-of-darkisle-by-cassandra-pierce/#comments Tue, 31 May 2011 09:26:57 +0000 Keira http://www.loveromancepassion.com/?p=7123

Pierce combines and intertwines multiple threads of mystery and romance with a splash of Gothic overtones in Heirs of Darkisle. It's smart, solid, and fabulous.

The major players:

  • Briana – Heroine and sister to Todd
  • Todd – Alcoholic moocher
  • Ami – Todd’s lover
  • Graham – Briana’s friend and sometimes lover
  • Sebastian – Hero and Victorian vampire
  • Ruby – Sebastian’s sister

Act one:

The story opens with the introduction of Sebastian and Ruby Morgan reopening the home of their grandfather Edgar Morgan. Almost immediately they are set upon by a drunk couple having sex on their property. An altercation between Sebastian and Todd brings in the police and Briana Dempsey.

Briana works with Sebastian to find a way to drop any charges against Todd. The solution is deceptively simple—have Todd work it off by refurbishing the mansion. But Todd is too addicted to booze to really commit until Ruby steps in and takes matters into her own fangs.

The romance:

Sebastian is a lovely hero and with the exception of his hypnotize fist/ask questions later policy not a too bad vampire. He’s determined not to drink blood ever again and injects a cocktail of substances into his bloodstream every night for nourishment. He tries to and can’t fight both his bloodlust and regular lust when it comes to Briana.

Briana is both unnerved and attracted to Sebastian in equal measures. He’s a vampire, but he’s good? She’s tired of always playing it safe with Graham, who’s convinced they’re perfect together, but she doesn’t think so. A risk or two when it comes to the heart is just the thing she needs to feel more alive.

The murder:

Ami is found washed up on the Morgans property. Possible motives abound and characters implicated until unequivocal evidence mounts up against Briana. Did Sebastian set her up? Did Ruby? There’s a questionable murder case in their recent background that looks incriminating.

Rating: 4 Stars

Buy: Heirs to Darkisle (Kindle), Heirs to Darkisle (Paperback)

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