Kate

Along Came a Spider by Kate SeRine

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne


Grade: B
Hotness Level: Blaze
Kink Level: No Kink
Genre: Paranormal, Fairytale
Series: Transplanted Tales #3
Reviewed by Kate
191 pages

 Trish Muffett came over from Make Believe at the same time as Nicky Blue and she immediately felt like she had found her soul mate. But they parted ways with barely a hello. Now Trish is investigating some strange deaths and Nicky has turned vigilante. Their paths meet again when Nicky saves Trish during an attack. But it’s getting impossible to tell who’s on the good side and who’s turned evil.

I really liked the premise of this book. Fairytale and nursery rhyme characters living in today’s world. But they’re not exactly who you think they would be. Miss Muffett (Trish) can’t get rid of her trademark curls, but her fear of spiders isn’t because she saw one while eating her whey. And who can resist a reformed bad boy? Nicky started his life in the Here and Now as a crime boss. But now he’s trying to rid the world of one of the biggest bad guys-Dracula. But Dracula has set his sights on Trish. I did struggle at times, trying to keep all the background characters straight. This may have come from the fact that I haven’t read the first 2 books in this series.

Fast-paced and unique, Along Came a Spider kept me turning pages from beginning to end. I wouldn’t hesitate to read another book in this series. Do you have a fairytale themed series you like?

Menage Monday – Training Their Mate by Vella Day

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

Training Their Mate (Pack Wars, #1)
Grade-C
Hotness Level-Inferno
Kink Level-High Kink
Series-Pack Wars #1
Genre-Paranormal/Shifter
Reviewed by Kate

When Liz makes a botched attempt to kill Harvey Couch(who raped her mother), Harvey sends some thugs after her. But not just any thugs, werewolf thugs. It’s a good thing that Trax overhears Couch’s orders and manages to save Liz from the attack, but not before she discovers the existence of werewolves. Trax takes Liz to the home he shares with his brother Dante do they can protect her from other attacks by Couch.

Trax and Dante recognize Liz is their mate(they’re werewolves too-but good ones) but are afraid that if they reveal their furry selves, she’ll run and be in danger. They decide to wait until she’s fallen for them before they tell her the truth. we all see where this is going, don’t we?

Liz’s character is filled with the need for revenge, But surprisingly, she’s smart enough to realize she’s out of her league dealing with werewolves. So she leaves Couch to Trax and Dante. Of course, once she’s no longer worries about revenge, she has nothing else to focus on except Trax and Dante. Trax and Dante are part of an organization who take out the bad werewolves like Couch. Dante is a bit of a softy as far as Liz is concerned. But Trax has a one track mind and can’t pay much attention (or be nice) to Liz until after Couch is caught. Trax is a dominant, so when he does pay attention to Liz, it usually involves tying her up. I honestly pictured the pair doing a good-cop/bad-cop routine throughout the whole book. Trax was unfeeling and Dante was always there to soften the harshness of Trax’s character.

My frustration with this book came not from the characters or the plot, but more from the world the author has created. I had so many questions that went unanswered until the very end ( if they were ever answered), even though they had no bearing on the plot. Questions like: How did Dante and Trax know that Liz was their mate? Was it normal for two males to share a mate? Could non-werewolf females be impregnated by werewolves? The list went on for a while. I feel part of the responsibility of a paranormal/shifter author is to make the reader aware of the rules in their world, because let’s face it-each author’s world is a unique. Not knowing the rules of this world really pulled me out of the story quite a bit.

I am an occasional reader of shifter romance. How about you? A huge fan or not so much?

The Taming of Ryder Cavanaugh by Stephanie Laurens

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

The Taming of Ryder Cavanaugh (The Cynster Sisters Duo #2)
Grade-B
Hotness Level-Blaze
Kink Level-No Kink
Series-Cynster Sisters Duo #2/Cynster #20
Genre-Historical
Reviewed by Kate
448 pages

Mary Cynster is the youngest in her generation. The last chance for other families to join their names with the Cynster name (which holds much clout). However, Mary is known to be a take-charge, bossy kind of gal. In fact, she has most of the eligible men of the ton rather intimidated. Ryder Cavanaugh is not intimidated though. He’s intrigued. He likes the challenge that Mary presents for him but most of all he likes that sense of family that she has, a sense that he didn’t have growing up. Things can’t be that easy, of course. Mary has set her sights on someone else (Ryder’s half-brother) and is resolutely ignoring the stirrings she feels for Ryder. Ryder knows Mary would be able to walk all over his half-brother. She needs someone more her equal, someone like him. Challenge accepted.

My first thought when I picked this book up was “Holy Crap! The family tree in the beginning is making my eyes cross.” Then I realized that I had managed to pick up the 20th book in this series. And finally I realized that somehow in my 6+ years of reading romance, I had managed to NOT stumble across one of the other 19 books. Amazing. And then I started reading.

Mary and Ryder’s relationship made me smile from the first page. Mary’s continued denial of her feelings for Ryder made the first part of the story drag a bit, but once she finally admitted her feelings to herself (about a 1/4 of the way in), the story takes off and never slows down. The relationship between Mary and Ryder was humorous, even if not out right laugh causing. There was such a sense of fate surrounding the two that you just couldn’t help but root for them. And for all you suspense fans, there’s a bit of that here too. If I had one complaint, it would be the epilogue. It seemed to be more of an epilogue for the series, and since I haven’t read the earlier books, it was a bit confusing trying to keep everyone straight. I’m sure readers of the earlier books would appreciate it though.

Reminding me of Julia Quinn, Stephanie Laurens has made a new fan. I will not hesitate to turn to her for my next historical romance fix. And although the thought of reading the prior 19 books is a bit daunting, it’s a task I will be undertaking.

Because once I start a series, I can’t stop, I’m not a huge fan of super-large series. I prefer a trilogy of books. How about you? What’s the perfect number of books for a series to contain?