Dream Chaser by Sherrilyn Kenyon - Reread

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The Dream God Xypher has four weeks to prove his humanity or be returned to Hades in the Underworld.  Xypher instead uses his time to plot revenge against the one responsible for his imprisonment. Simone is a medical examiner with the gift of seeing and speaking to ghosts. Simone uses her gift to help solve murders. One night a chance meeting brings Xypher and Simone together. Xypher and Simone soon discover they need each other to survive the threats to them.

The author's love stories typically stem from "love at almost first sight."  This romance stereotype does not really hinder my suspension of disbelief when she is utilizing it. The character development and the romance usually fit the situation without feeling forced. What appeals most to me about the Dark Hunter world is the substantial subplots that carry through the entire series. Sherrilyn Kenyon's stories are intricate and subtle clues span multiple books.

I liked Xypher. He is loud, overbearing and sarcastic but he has a troubled past that influences his present.  His inner turmoil is very reality-based. And I am honestly more drawn to cranky brooding characters. It was tense debating his ability to do the right thing. Simone was charming enough, but I did not feel a huge connection to her. She had pivotal moments that held my attention. Her past family trauma and how it affects her was well-developed. The romance brewing between the two leads felt organic and I rooted for their relationship.

This book further integrates the demon races of the series mythology. Here we learn no being, including demons, are evil at birth. It is the individual that chooses their emotional path. I appreciate this theme.

Dream Chaser would work as a stand-alone story. I suggest reading the entire series to enhance the experience. This book links to at least one plot from an earlier book. Repeat characters are present here, and characters introduced in this story become important later. (The demon broker character who we meet here is one of my favorites in the entire series.)

This review represents my opinion after the second read through of the book. All opinions are my own and may not match that of others. I urge all readers to come to their own conclusion.

Lie to me by Melinda Di Lorenzo

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Audrey Albertson is an investigative reporter for the Between the Sheets magazine. A belittling at her high school reunion causes her to reevaluate her life, starting with her career. She disguises herself to get a job with recently released felon Derek Stone. The untold story of his crime is what she thinks could gain her notoriety. Derek Stone is desperate to escape public scrutiny after his release from jail. He seeks to hire an image consultant to help him change the public's mind in a month. He instructs his assistant to hire the consultant that arrives first and dismiss the rest. The first applicant on site is Audrey. As soon as they meet Audrey and Derek feel drawn to each other.

The chemistry between Audrey and Derek is fantastic. I am endeared by characters who make me laugh out loud and the characters in this book did that repeatedly. It is hilarious as they quip back and forth and their inner monologues are equally amusing. Audrey and Derek are well-developed characters. They have inner strength and hidden turmoil that unites them. For reasons they can't explain they share secrets no one else knows and feel better doing so. Their captivation with each other was credible.

A turning point for the couple took place in Derek's basement studio. Derek wanted to share with Audrey art he was preparing to sell. Derek's sadness showed distinctly in his paintings and these emotions compelled Audrey to confess the lie between them. Derek begged Audrey not to break his heart, sensing her confession would change everything. This section was an emotional contrast to their earlier exchanges. It was one of my favorite parts of the book.

After the lies and half-truths come out they deal with them. I worried with the secrets they kept, a happily ever after would feel forced but here their resolutions matched their personalities. Usually, I prefer paranormal situations be at the center of the stories I read. I find most modern romances just bore me. This story and its characters kept my attention. I would recommend any fan of the romance genre give it a try.

All my opinions are my own and may not match that of others. I urge all readers to come to their own conclusions. I voluntarily received a free copy of this book through Library Thing for my honest review.

The Walking Dead: Here's Negan by Robert Kirkman

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I believe villainy has a lot to do with perspective and I anticipated Negan might be less evil than he looks on the surface. Negan's origin story did not disappoint. I see him in a slightly different light now. I am more versed with the television show. I have read a few Walking Dead comics mostly from the beginning of the series. I can't judge how this story compares to Negan's comic incarnation. My only complaint is that comics take very little time to read. The wait between installments is worse than a tv show, although not as bad as waiting for an epic fantasy novel. I imagine this is why I don't invest more time and effort in comic book reading.

Beyond the Rules by Anna Del Mar

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Beyond the Rules by Anna Del Mar. This book was an enjoyable deviation from my regular preference of urban fantasy or paranormal romance. I would recommend Beyond the Rules to readers who enjoy modern erotic romance. The following is my summary and honest opinion of the book.

Nina is discovered when trying to expose Dimayev is working with a cyber-terrorist. She is desperate to get to the hacker Ulysses who can help her uncover his crimes. Nina's escape is almost thwarted when her small passenger plane is shot down by Dimayev's men.

Ex-SEAL members Tanner, Aiden and Zar rescue Nina from the plane wreckage. The men take her to their secure home in the secluded mountains of Montana to recuperate. Nina soon realizes these men are the key to her survival in more ways than one.

Tanner, Aiden, and Zar have strongly bonded through past experiences. The men have decided that to be romantically successful they need one woman to share. Tanner is educated in personality profiling. He quickly comes to the conclusion Nina is the girl who could fulfill all of their desires.

The good: Where this story succeeds for me is in the execution. Nina is not just an intimidated, naïve virgin. She is intelligent and could feasibly make a go at protecting herself from Dimayev. Nina makes sound decisions and is comfortable and open about her sexuality. She comes to conclusions about her relationships with the men from a place based in reality. Their actions are not driven only by the fantasy of the ménage a quatre scenario.

There is a plot present beyond the romantic couplings. The characters may struggle but they seem stronger together mentally as well as physically. Throughout the story Tanner, Aiden, and Zar hunt to bring Dimayev down. When Nina is cleared to help them gather evidence she effectively contributes to the case. These things were important for me to relate to the characters in the story.

Random tidbits: I appreciated that the first couple that got together did not profess to love each other the day after they met. They recognized the chemistry between them and just let things happen. I appreciated although the men claimed jealousy would not be an issue, it eventually was. Realistically it would come up. They dealt with it as a group in a way I believed would suit them. The sexual encounters lived up to the genre of erotic romance. The explicit scenes were steamy and most of them felt organic.

The bad: The surface plot is pretty basic. There is the girl who needs to be rescued from the bad guy. Said girl happens upon her saviors that take her in and immediately try to make her theirs. She quickly falls for the level-headed alpha male, followed by the sweet but troubled alpha male and then slowly connects with the abrasive alpha male to round out the trio. And of course one of the men is a sexual dominant. I have read this story before. I did not like this story very much.

This author has caught my attention. I will look to Anna Del Mar for my next modern erotic romance.

All my opinions are my own and may not match that of others. I encourage all readers to come to their own conclusions. I voluntarily received an ARC copy of this book through Netgalley.

Loving Her Alphas by Ari Thatcher

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Rayne was spending summers at her Grandpa Joe's hunting lodge when she met the Whitmore brothers Caleb, Nick, and Dalton. She decides after a bad break up to turn Grandpa Joe's run-down lodge into a resort. Rayne wrecks her car on her move to Silver Bear Mountain.  A wolf attacks and bites Rayne while she is looking for help after the accident. Rayne escapes the wolf only after another wolf appears and a fight ensues. She makes her way to an isolated house and finds a key to let herself in. Rayne attempts to clean herself off and tend her wound when the owner of the house returns. Rayne realizes Nick and his brothers live in the house and the fantasies she had as a teenager rush back.

As the shifters in charge, the Whitmore brothers must stop Rayne from opening a resort. The other shifters on the mountain do not want strangers near their land. They have declared they will kill to protect it. Caleb, Nick, and Dalton are hoping Rayne will rethink the resort or she will sell the land to them.

The brothers share everything, including their women. They know Rayne possessing a dormant shifter gene that can awaken by bite or sex is a slim one, so they try to resist their attraction. For their pack to remain shifters, they cannot mate with a human. Their shifter gene will breed out if they do. What they don't count on is how hard they fall for Rayne.

Rayne and Nick had decent chemistry and acted on it quickly.  When Rayne began to consider multiple partners she did not suffer a lot of inner torment about it being wrong. It gets on my nerves when women in books judge themselves in ménage situations. I appreciate that was not the case here. The frequent sexual encounters were pretty steamy.

Rayne showed signs of some anxiety.  Her rubbing her arm to stop the desire to crawl out of her skin or itching from the inside out soon seemed like subtle hints toward a shifter transformation. I enjoyed the narrator's approach to this scenario. It caused little twinges of tension waiting to see if, how and when she might turn.

The plot itself did not hold a ton of depth. It was mainly an anthology of sexual fantasies. It did not bother me too much until the end. One of the brothers decided to leave the pack for fear of his jealousy tearing them apart. It felt sudden. Until that point, Rayne and the brothers interacted fine. Lacking an emotional tie to them, it just made me roll my eyes.

The flow of some of the sex scenes was problematic. For example, a character would be lying on top of another and suddenly would be beside them doing something different with no segue. This issue happened often enough I started backtracking to find where I misunderstood. Feeling like I missed something became annoying.

Overall this book was decent. Not the best I have read but not the worst either. It would be good for someone looking for a tantalizing paranormal romance.

All my opinions are my own and may not match that of others. I encourage all readers to come to their own conclusions. I voluntarily received an ARC copy of this book through NetGalley.

Intensity by Sherrilyn Kenyon

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My first impression was not terribly favorable, but I had a certain expectation which I now think logically never would have come to pass.  On my next read through I think I will have a better chance of being a bit more impartial.



Intensity is the official end of the Chronicles of Nick series. Knowledge of CoN is necessary for things to make sense in this book. Intensity is laying the groundwork for the upcoming Shadows of Fire series. I believe this is why I have more questions than answers. I hope the next installment continues to clarify things.

As the story begins, Nick finds himself accused of murder. Nick's family and friends work to prove the charges are false. The murder conflict wraps up a little too quick.

Nick encounters characters who have more information on his ancestry. These meetings take place in a separate realm that one could argue are not based in reality. One of my frustrations with this story derives from this concern.

Nick finds someone has counteracted his attempts to fix his timeline. By the end of the book, Nick believes he has found a way to protect it. For the Dark Hunter storylines to remain unchanged, Nick makes a logical choice. Nick's place in the Dark Hunter series is an important one that cannot be altered. Despite the necessity, the decision is difficult for me to accept. One could argue the experiences in the Chronicles of Nick are now pointless. I will trust in the author's master plan but what good are our lessons if they are forgotten?

The gang discovers crucial information about the Sephiroth swords and the mystery surrounding them could aide in future conflicts. The Dark Hunters series is moving forward as CoN plays out in the past. We have come full circle with Nick's journey. It is time for the CoN characters to come out of hiding to impart wisdom and help with these conflicts.

I don't want to communicate I didn't enjoy this book, I did. Sherrilyn Kenyon's stories contain intricate plots. Subtle clues are everywhere and can span multiple books. I love and hate her for this. I get easily frustrated when I cannot solve a puzzle right away. Nick has been a favorite of mine since the Dark Hunter series. After all he has been through, he deserves his happily ever after.

All my opinions are my own and may not match that of others. I urge all readers to come to their own conclusions.

Deathtrap by Dannika Dark

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Deathtrap is Book 3 of the Crossbreed series. This book is fine as a stand-alone, background information enriches the story but is not necessary. I highly recommend the entire series for anyone who loves urban fantasy and paranormal romance.

Raven belongs to Keystone, a group of investigators for the breed world. The members happen upon a murdered female. During the search for clues, they realize her newborn has gone missing. The higher authority keeps them on the case since it is likely the child will end up on the black market. The crime uncovers and connects to one of the character's pasts. The full connection is deep, emotional and I did not see it coming. I felt the betrayal. I even had a verbal reaction to it. If I had a physical copy, I would have thrown my book. I appreciate when a story grips me so much I forget what is around me.

The bonds between the members continue to grow and their trust in each other builds. I enjoy getting to know everyone better as partners and individuals. I feel their loyalty to each other and do not doubt they would do anything necessary to keep each other safe. Shepard has a heartbreaking backstory. I hope he gets full closure to the wrongs he has suffered. I hope he finds the courage to confide in someone and not carry his burden alone.

The author takes time for romance to blossom for her couples. Their sexual tension is more fierce that way. The chemistry between Christian and Raven is intense. They complement each other perfectly and are realizing they cannot deny the attraction they feel. Christian and Raven have an intimate talk about his bodyguard job. I think this is important for him to come to terms with things in the present. It was also important for me to hear. I never felt right about how that situation ended for Christian. Christian and Raven realize they have an unexpected connection in their pasts. I am so rooting for them to make their relationship work. They both deserve some happiness.

Raven and her father Crush spend a few emotional moments together. Christian gains knowledge of him that could be good for Raven. Raven's relationship with her father is important to her. I don't know if she will be able to walk away and never see him again. I worry how Viktor is going to react to the things going on with Raven. Between the potential romance with Christian and now her father's knowledge he is going to need to be understanding. I sense Viktor is a good man it just makes me nervous.

Raven meets an interesting character she dubs Chaos. The two of them have some great interactions. I suspect Chaos gave Christian and Raven unseen help during the pursuit of the bad guys. It is obvious he will play a part in future books, possibly as an antagonist. I hope he does not lose his charm and I am eager to find out his breed.

Other conflicts for Keystone develop to set up future installments. The world Dannika Dark has created is rich, the characters are unique, and the relationships are meaningful. I have not read a book of hers yet that I did not love.

All my opinions are my own and may not match that of others. I encourage all readers to come to their own conclusions.