New at H&H: Look Me in the Eye

Online today from me at Heroes & Heartbreakers: Look Me in the Eye When We Do That.

The idea came to me while reading a particular scene in Christine Warren's Black Magic Woman. Initially Macmillan sent me the book in advance of its release so I could write a Fresh Meat about it, but my timing was way off. Instead I wrote Reading Series in Order as a result of Warren's unusual method of incorporating her Fixed series into the longer, more mainstream The Others series by rewriting the original stories as longer books, then interspersing brand new books. The first release of The Others, for instance, which was published in 2006, is actually ninth in the series' reading order.

The scene that set me off was a love scene, and after developing the concept, I got approval to write a more expansive piece, which I did last week. It's probably going to be the last of its type for me for awhile so that I don't lock myself into a specific blogger mode over at H&H. Once you read it, I think you'll understand what I mean.

I say that with a caveat, though; if you don't regularly read my stuff, don't read this one or you may end up with the wrong idea about me. Truly...I'm not pervy.

As for me, I've got two PW books to review this week, so I'm off to Starbucks to read for awhile. Yesterday, btw, I tried out the new Starbucks card app on my Droid...OMG great is how I'd describe it.

New at H&H: Look Me in the Eye

Tracker's Sin by Sarah McCarty

Tracker's Sin

Sarah McCarty

Grade: B/B- (and aren't I glad I am no longer required to get more specific!)

Tracker's Sin, book four in Sarah McCarty's Hell's Eight series, worked for me better than books two and three (Sam's Creed and Tucker's Claim). Sam's Creed was more than a little purple prosey, particularly in terms of a rather outlandish love scene on horseback, and I had problems understanding the heroine in Tucker's Claim. This fall's outing is a more worthy follow-up to Caine's Reckoning, book one in McCarthy’s frontier historical series for Harlequin's Spice imprint. Given that it also resolves a major plot-line running through the earlier books - which I grant needed to be done - I wonder how McCarty will avoid jumping the shark with book five, which I imagine will detail the life of Tracker's twin, Shadow...how he will fall in love, and whether or not he'll make use of the same sort of cream Caine's wife Desi oh-so-helpfully, and more than a little creepily, provides to sister Ari on her on her wedding night.

Read this review in its entirety at Amazon. It is not a Vine review; I received a digital copy from the publisher.

Tracker's Sin by Sarah McCarty

Jared by Sarah McCarty

Jared

Sarah McCarty

Grade: B-

Urban Fantasy Romance

I've been out of town this week, and the one book I finished was one I sold the night before leaving to one of "my" customers...Sarah McCarty's Jared. It's the second in her Shadow Wranglers series (following Caleb), which features a family of nearly 300-year-old vampire ranchers.

Although it's not connected to one of the author's lesser-known books - The Conception, which was supposed to have been the first in The Others series that never came to fruition, possibly because she moved from Ellora's Cave to Berkley and Harlequin in the interim - I can't help but wonder whether the idea for her Shadow Wranglers grew out of the EC-published book. Both, after all, feature vampire brothers battling formidable foes who will stop at nothing to achieve their evil goals - including horrendous scientific experimentation - and seemingly innocuous or weak heroines who turn out to have unique biologies that render them the perfect mate, and, as you might suspect, are the only women able to turn their battle-hardened vampires into loving husbands.

I think in the past few years I've read just about everything Sarah McCarty has written. At AAR you can find my review of Sam's Creed, her response to winning an award in AAR's annual reader poll for Caine's Reckoning, and some commentary about Running Wild at both AAR and my old blog. She's not an author I would have read five years ago, but now she's an auto-buy for me, even though her books have an over-the-top quality and can be incredibly kinky. The kink is toned way down in Caleb and Jared; probably the most kinky of all her books is Mac's Law. It's a book so kinky and focused on a single sex act that I'm not sure why I like it, but I've long moved beyond questioning what draws me to particular kinks.

Anyway, it turns out that it's not just kink that draws me to McCarty; while I noted before writing this that AAR rated Caleb as "burning," my sensuality rating for Jared is "hot." A strong hot, to be sure, and explicit, but as far as erotic romance goes, it's nowhere near burning.

Let me get specific about Jared. Jared Johnson rescues Raisa, a delicately beautiful vampire from the enemy: Sanctuary vampires who plan to create a master race of vampires and to kill Renegades like the Johnson brothers before taking on humanity. Both characters came from a different time; Jared may be one tough dude, but he has an almost courtly manner when it comes to caring for Raisa, who has somehow survived as a vampire for almost three hundred years even though drinking blood makes her violently ill. Raisa's on her own mission, though, and while Jared would take her under his protection, she is as honorable as he is and plans to carry out her task whatever the personal cost.

Along the road to his ranch they must spend some time with one of the few werewolf packs who won't tear a vampire to shreds, and it is while under their protection that Jared learns about Raisa's blood allergy...and that his is the only blood she can drink. More complications ensue once they make it back to his ranch, complications involving two of his three brothers. To say more would give spoilers, and while I guessed one of them, the other came entirely out of left field for me, so kudos to McCarthy for that.

McCarthy's books are perfect for those who like to read about killing machines who are forced to deal with emotion and embrace their humanity as a result of falling in love. Which is why I put up with her sometimes ridiculous love scenes - we won't get into the book featuring a chapter-long sex scene performed on horseback - and the other flaws that crop up in her writing.

I'm going to add an "If You Like..." recommendation here...if you like McCarty's vampires or werewolves, you might like Lora Leigh's Breeds. I'm nearly finished with Lion's Heat and find Jonas Wyatt cut from the same cloth as the Johnson brothers, although he's an extremely difficult character. Still, it's amazing what love will do to a killing machine...

Jared by Sarah McCarty

Books To Look For

I've been very vocal about my love for Gail Carriger's Soulless, my only Publishers Weekly starred review for 2009. And I've hand-sold quite hard Lori Handeland's Phoenix Chronicles. At the bookstore I hand-sold about 50 copies to date of the former - and because of that sales record the store will be sent roughly the same number of copies of the sequel, Changeless. As for Handeland's series, I've sold roughly 3 1/2 dozen of book one, somewhat less of book two, and less still of book three.

Part of the problem is that with an urban fantasy series, you can't sell books two or three without selling book one. Because we haven't had many copies of each book at one time, I can't often do what I managed to do during my last two shifts: sell all three together. Most readers new to the series, though, take a slower approach and simply buy book one. When they come back, we don't have books two or three, and they end up ordering copies online, or they go elsewhere. It's tough because the series is very much a sleeper; I can only hope it catches on, and with Keri Arthur's Riley Jenson series coming to an end in June, there will be one less series with which it must compete.

Last week I read Changeless, which is terrifically funny, very visually Steampunkish, and, like Soulless before it, pitch perfect. The cliffhanger ending is its only flaw, but I'm sure all will be resolved in book three (Blameless), to be published at the end of summer. But back to Changeless...there's a moment during which a rather clueless character remarks about the love between "Pyramid and Thirsty" that so reminded me of A Midsummer Night's Dream that I marveled at Carriger's skill. (My daughter has so far been the only one to "get" the reference, which surprised me as those I asked were literate folk.)

I've not yet read Chaos Bites, although I did read the excerpt Handeland has up on her site. As expected, it was exciting, intriguing, and sexy, and I look forward to reading it as soon as it goes on sale. Because it's such a sleeper series, though, I worry about its long-term success and whether or not the author will be given the opportunity to take it where she wants it to go. At the author's website, just one title (Demons at the Gate) is listed beyond Chaos Bites...I hope the series won't end there.

So here are covers of both books, with links to the author's sites, as well as some of the other books I'm looking forward to in the near future:

What are you looking forward to reading...and if you read urban fantasy, can I convince you to try The Phoenix Chronicles?

Books To Look For