Dark Books - Page 10

Holy Smokes (Aisling Grey, Guardian, Book 4)

Katie MacAlister

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 28 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Done with This Series! 2 out of 5 stars.
3 of 8 people found this review helpful.

I have read all of the Aisling Grey books by "Katie Mac." I think I have come to the point, when they are getting too boring for me. Time for a different direction for this author.

I can't BELIEVE I'm saying this.... 2 out of 5 stars.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.

...but there's TOO MUCH SEX in this book!!! By which I mean, honestly, it's just boring. Too much fire, too much panting, too many little bites and kisses, etc etc etc, frankly, ad nauseum. I have long enjoyed Ms. MacAlister's writing, plot and character development, and sexy love scenes, and recognize that I'm not reading Proust here (or whoever), but enough is enough -- and is, in fact, too much! Bleah. Who knew you could be bored by sex scenes?! But as it turn out, you can! I only hope my next read of hers focuses even just a little bit more on the story arc and character quirks at which she's usually so expert (which, by the way, is why she gets 2 and not 1 star for this effort).

Editorial Review:

A new Aisling Grey, Guardian, novel from the author of The Last of the Red-Hot Vampires

Drake Vireo, the green dragon of Aisling's dreams, is finally ready to make an honest woman of her-if she can ever get him to the altar. Being stood up cools Aisling's jets, but not her passion, which is a good thing when Drake disappears and it's up to Aisling to find him. At least her doggie demon Jim is always at her side. Just call him a Guardian's best friend.

Witch Fire (Elemental Witches, Book 1)

Anya Bast

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 34 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

I was disgusted 1 out of 5 stars.
3 of 8 people found this review helpful.

Too much explicit sex. If I wanted porn, I would have rented an adult movie. I read to expand my mind, not my libido. By the 10th sex scene in the 3rd chapter (might be exagerating a little, but not much), I was so disgusted I couldn't read it anymore. Sex scenes should be the icing, not the whole cake.

Witch Fire 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I really enjoyed this book. I put off reading it for a while because it seemed to have more negative reviews than positive. I also thought it was going to be romance focused. That was a mistake. I'd say this book had a 50/50 focus between romance/sex and fantasy. It was put together in a way that made you care for the characters and want them to succeed. I am strictly an urban fantasy reader with not much patience for a paranormal romance. Surprisingly enough, Anya can draw a reader into the story and she definitely kept my interest. Mira is having a mundane life. She's recently divorced from a cheating, jerk of an exhusband. She now works as a waitress and lives in a crappy apt. but she does have pride in knowing that she is providing for herself and going back to school. In the midst of putting her life back together, she is attacked by two men who try to kidnap her. Enter Jack McAllistar who saves her and helps her find out who she really is. Mira and Jack have great chemistry and a lot of sex. The explicit sex didn't bother me, I actually enjoyed it. Witch Fire, is an extremely adult novel but....I'm an adult. Anya has a knack for creating a sensual experience focused on pleasing a women, instead of gliding over the women's pleasure to focus on the male; which a lot of authors (male and female) seem to do. Mira learns that not only is she a powerful air witch but she has the once in a lifetime chance to punish the man who stole her parents' magic and their lives. Anya has built a dark world where witches have the power to raise demons, magically torture and almost rule the world from behind the scenes. I look forward to finding out more about Jack and Mira in book two.
I also recommend:
Dead Witch Walking (The Hollows, Book 1)
Witchling (Sisters of the Moon, Book 1)
Blood Engines (Marla Mason, Book 1)
Magic to the Bone

Editorial Review:

After a chaotic marriage and a rough divorce, all Mira Hoskins wants is stability and normality. But when sexy Jack McAllister enters her life, she discovers that what you want isn't always what you need.

Jack is a powerful witch with the ability to command fire and is anything but normal. As the head of a security detail for The Coven, a national organization that governs national witches, Jack has been assigned to watch over Mira. She is a natural born witch with the ability to call the air. And although she is unaware of her talent, a group of renegade witches has discovered her existence and are determined to steal her power--and her life.

Kitty Goes to Washington (Kitty Norville, Book 2)

Carrie Vaughn

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 62 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Love the book, but I'm a little pissed that it's missing 30 pages right out of the middle of the book! 3 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

And no, I didn't buy it used... I bought it new, right here from Amazon. It goes from page 206 then jumps to page 239. If it was just misnumbering, that would be no big deal, but it jumps obviously in the story and I'm traumatized. Any one else have this issue? I can't imagine I got the only bad copy.

Less Action, Still a Good Ride 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Kitty, the werewolf turned talk show DJ, is on the move as a single werewolf without a pack's protection. Since her old pack was oppressive and abusive, Kitty is enjoying her new 'identity'. Here, Kitty has been called to Washington to testify before the Senate in a hearing publically announcing werewolves, vampires, and other creatures of the night. Kitty finds hereself messed up with new characters, she can't know who to trust and everyone seems to have their own agenda. By about 100 pages in this story, I was feeling disheartened. The story seemed slow, bogged down by too many new characters and not enough action. Time and again Kitty remarkes on things being a letdown, or 'anticlimactic' which fits the story here, actually. In the first volume, "Kitty and the Midnight Hour", I remember being disgusted by Kitty and how she let the alpha treat her. That book turned around for me when Kitty decided to stop playing the weak victim. This story too ends up much better off than I had given credit for. An old favorite shows up from the first book and several more interesting things shape up. There is a betrayal or two, a murder or two, and Kitty remains a strong heroine. I found myself a little sorry to have this one end. I also rate the bonus story "Kitty Meets the Band" as an excellent addition. It's only a short story, but its fun. I recommend this one, and I also look forward to the next installment.

Editorial Review:

Celebrity werewolf and late-night radio host Kitty Norville prefers to be heard and not seen. So when she's invited to testify at a Senate hearing on behalf of supernaturals, and her face gets plastered on national TV, she inherits a new set of friends, and enemies, including the vampire mistress of the city; an über-hot Brazilian were-jaguar; and a Bible-thumping senator who wants to expose Kitty as a monster. Kitty quickly learns that in this city of dirty politicians and backstabbing pundits, everyone's itching for a fight.

Embraced By Darkness (Riley Jensen, Guardian, Book 5)

Keri Arthur

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 21 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Not like others in the series... 3 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This installment of the series had NONE of the highly erotic scenes that to date have been a trademark of the "Riley Jensen" stories. It was especially a disappointment after the last book, Dangerous Games, which was super-hot. The story itself was okay, but nothing to write home about. FYI-if you are expecting sizzling scenes, you will get nothing from this book beyond perfuctory, traditional (obligatory?) sex scenes.

Editorial Review:

She's hunting a killer—
and shattering every boundary—
she's ever known.…

Part vamp, part werewolf, Riley Jenson plays by her own rules, whether it’s her stormy love life or her job as a guardian. But when her family’s alpha male demands that she solve the mystery of a vanished girl, Riley can feel a trap closing in around her. Because the job comes with a catch: if Riley fails, her own mother will die.

Now the stakes are raised, the hunt is on...and when more women vanish, Riley is caught between a lover who demands that she give up her work, a serial killer who knows no boundaries, and a club where humans and supernaturals mix—at their own peril. Thrust into a realm of seduction and violence unlike any she could have imagined, Riley has to battle to save everything she holds dear. But the ultimate hunt has only just begun....

Awaken Me Darkly (Alien Huntress, Book 1)

Gena Showalter

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 66 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

RIDDING THE WORLD OF EVIL, ONE ALIEN AT A TIME: THAT'S MIA SNOW'S MISSION.

Snow is in the forecast.

In a time and place not too far away, Mia Snow is an alien huntress for the New Chicago Police Department. Heading up her expert team of Alien Investigation and Removal agents, Mia's unmatched at battling the elusive enemy among us, and she's the perfect girl for the job. She's seen her brother die at the hands of aliens. She's earned each of her scars. And she'll die before she cries. Now, a series of killings have Mia and her partner Dallas tracking alien suspects -- but a sudden blast of violence leaves Dallas fighting for his life.

They are ice and fire.

The chance to save Dallas appears in the form of a tall, erotic stranger. An alien. A murder suspect. Kyrin en Arr, of the deadly Arcadian species, holds the power to heal the injured agent but not without a price. For Mia Snow, that price is surrendering to Kyrin's forbidden seduction...and embracing their electric attraction. She's walking a knife's edge, risking her badge and even her life. The closer she gets to Kyrin, the more Mia learns about her own heart, her human needs -- and the shocking secret that will shatter everything she's ever believed.

Kushiel's Avatar (Kushiel's Legacy)

Jacqueline Carey

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 76 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The land of Terre d'Ange is a place of unsurpassed beauty and grace. It is said that angels found the land and saw it was good ... and the ensuing race that rose from the seed of angels and men live by one simple rule: Love as thou wilt.

Phèdre nó Delaunay is a woman pricked by Kushiel's Dart, chosen to forever experience pain and pleasure as one. Her path has been strange and dangerous, and through it all the devoted swordsman Joscelin has been at her side. Her very nature is a torturous thing for them both, but he is sworn to her and he has never violated his vow: to protect and serve.

But Phèdre's plans put Joscelin's pledge to the test, for she has never forgotten her childhood friend Hyacinthe. She has spent ten long years searching for the key to free him from his eternal indenture, a bargain he struck with the gods-- to take Phèdre's place as a sacrifice and save a nation. Phèdre cannot forgive-- herself or the gods. She is determined to seize one last hope to redeem her friend, even of it means her death.

The search will bring Phèdre and Joscelin across the world, to distant courts where madness reigns and souls are currency, and down a fabled river to a land forgotten by most of the world.

And to a power so mighty that none dare speak its name.

Kushiel's Chosen (Kushiel's Legacy)

Jacqueline Carey

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 94 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Mighty Kushiel, of rod and weal
Late of the brazen portals
With blood-tipp'd dart a wound unhealed
Pricks the eyen of chosen mortals

The land of Terre d'Ange is a place of unsurpassed beauty and grace. The inhabiting race rose from the seed of angels and men, and they live by one simple rule: Love as thou wilt.

Phèdre nó Delaunay was sold into indentured servitude as a child. Her bond was purchased by a nobleman, the first to recognize that she is one pricked by Kushiel's Dart, chosen to forever experience pain and pleasure as one. He trained Phèdre in the courtly arts and the talents of the bedchamber--and, above all, the ability to observe, remember, and analyze.

When she stumbled upon a plot that threatened the very foundations of her homeland, she gave up almost everything she held dear to save it. She survived, and lived to have others tell her story, and if they embellished the tale with fabric of mythical splendor, they weren't far off the mark.

The hands of the gods weigh heavily upon Phèdre's brow, and they are not finished with her. While the young queen who sits upon the throne is well loved by the people, there are those who believe another should wear the crown... and those who escaped the wrath of the mighty are not yet done with their schemes for power and revenge.

Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: Guilty Pleasures, Vol. 1 (Graphic Novel)

Laurell K. Hamilton

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 36 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

The Worst Comic I Have Ever Read 1 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I hate to do this for many reasons. One, because this book was expensive. Two, because I liked Guilty Pleasures as a novel. Three, because I'm already considering giving up on the "Anita Blake" series altogether, and this comic adaptation just made me more convinced that I should. What I'm trying to say is that... regrettably, this is the single worst comic I have ever read.

This nicely bound hardcover collects the first six issues of Laurell K. Hamilton's first "Anita Blake" novel. The way it is adapted makes me feel like Stacie Ritchie, the woman who adapted the novel into a comic script, doesn't know the first thing about comics. Instead of letting the art tell the story, she bogs it down with repetitive dialogue and countless narration captions that simply did not need to be included. The novel was in first-person, so had a lot of narration, but when one adapts a story into a different medium (comics especially) the internal narration has to be cut down extensively. But Ritchie goes to all lengths to include absolutely every bit of Anita's thoughts in here, which make it a chore to pull the story out of this. It's basically the novel "Guilty Pleasures" with horrid art. There was no effort at all to make this work as a comic book.

The art, no matter how you look at it, is simply inexcusable. Anita's legs are the size of tree trunks. Other characters have legs that are twice as long as their upper bodies (no joke). The colorist did a fair job in working around Brett Booth's mind-numbingly awful pencil work, but there is simply no saving this book. The art amps up the melo-drama of this story, making an enjoyable novel into a campy comic book with the cheesiest looking vampires this side of Count Chocula.

After trying time and time again to force myself to enjoy this comic, I had to admit I hated it. There was a glimmer of hope towards the end, as there is an original short story included called "Vampire Victim" that is written by Laurell K. Hamilton and her husband, but again, the whole thing comes off as utterly amateur. I'll never read another Marvel adaption of an "Anita Blake" novel, because the creative team behind this comic simply has no idea how comics function. I'll give original "Anita Blake" comics one more shot (because I already have The First Death, but unless that book shows a catastrophic improvement, this series as a whole should be buried and forgotten.

0/10

Editorial Review:

New York Times bestselling author Laurell K. Hamilton brings Anita Blake to the world of graphic novels. Anita Blake lives in a world where vampires, zombies and werewolves have been declared legal citizens of the United States. Anita Blake is an "animator" - a profession that involves raising the dead for mourning relatives. But Anita is also known as a fearsome hunter of criminal vampires, and she's often employed to investigate cases that are far too much for conventional police. But as Anita gains the attention of the vampire masters of her hometown of St. Louis, she also risks revealing an intriguing secret about herself - the source of her unusual strength and power. This hardcover edition contains an all-new, original, never-before-published short story by Laurell K Hamilton.

The Black Jewels: Trilogy: Daughter of the Blood / Heir to the Shadows / Queen of the Darkness

Anne Bishop

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 146 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

A dark and bloody bore 2 out of 5 stars.
1 of 3 people found this review helpful.

The Black Jewels Trilogy is a puzzling paradox: full of sound and fury, and yet the apocalypse signifies little.

The writing is an odd mix of trying to be dark and black and sepulchural, but that language, along with the brutality of the Blood, never gets a reasonable counterbalance. There are Queens upon Queens upon Queens... yet we never see a vignette of a Queen doing her job well, as a contrast to the corruption that underlies the entire Blood structure. The Blood are supposed to be caretakers of the land and the landens... and yet the landens hardly make an appearance, so the reader never gets a sense of what that relationship is like. Nearly everyone that the main characters deal with is a Prince or a Queen or a Warlord or some permutation thereof, or else that minor character is a one-note caricature. Bishop creates some interesting concepts, but the exposition needed to make those concepts come to life is left out: how does one catch a Wind, for example? Instead, there are pages devoted to being a "snarly male" and what amounts to a great deal of posturing with ultimately no resolution besides vamping around and glowering, with gory bloodletting as the author wishes.

Our heroine, Jaenelle, is dreams-made-flesh, the Blood's own Witch, and (sadly) a Mary Sue. All the good guys who see her love her immediately; she quickly makes friends of all the other characters we're supposed to like, she has Unbelieveable Cosmic Powers and thirteen uncut Black Jewels; she has "haunted sapphire eyes," she has her own brand of ultra-black Jewel. She is best friends with the Unicorns and Tigers and Spiders and Scelties and Dragons. She is able to provoke a "response" in Daemon Sadi (look! it's "Demon" with an "ae" in it! how witty!) when no other female can do so in thousands of years. Couldn't we have seen a flaw in Jaenelle that didn't involve her propensity to completely overextend herself in the service of others?

The overarching premise of a corrupt system waiting for a messiah to come and reform it is workable, and there are some good moments in the series - one that springs to mind is the scene between Witch and her grandmother Alexandra, when Alexandra rejects the very savior she wished for. Ultimately, the world ends... but this reader was left unaffected.

Editorial Review:

Anne Bishop's critically-acclaimed Black Jewels Trilogy is the saga of a young but still-innocent Queen more powerful than even the High Lord of Hell-and the three sworn enemies determined to win her and gain a prize that could be terrible beyond imagining...

The Sandman: Endless Nights

Neil Gaiman

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 43 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

More Sandman Generally Means Happiness 4 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This collection of short stories, each one featuring one of the Endless, was worth the attempt. I consider myself a fan of the Sandman (I believe the regular run to be one of the greatest comics, ever, and near the top of all literature). I like anything that will allow for more authentic adventure in this world that Neil Gaiman has created.

I am happy to have it.

That said, the execution of this particular volume is inconsistent. Instead of making them all conventional short stories, Gaiman decided to be daring and make a couple of them rather surreal. I admire his daring, though not everyone will be satisfied with, say, Delirium's tale which is fairly hard to follow.

Personally, I loved the Despair feature (which cannot really be called a story)--small vignettes of people in Despair, or reflections on her nature.

Of the more traditional stories, the book starts strongly with Death and Desire but finishes kind of weakly with Destruction's and Destiny's. Destruction is a wonderful character, and I was hoping to get something that used him to more effect, but he is hardly there in his tale (indeed, Delirium gets more dialogue and time), and Destiny simply doesn't make a very compelling protagonist (and so Gaiman doesn't give him a story, just kind of talks about Destiny).

The show-stealer, as though there could be any doubt, is Dream's tale, which gives us insight into all of the Endless in the long ago (back to a time when Destruction still wore his mantle, Delirium was Delight and Dream and Desire were the best of friends... kind of).

Sandman fans will appreciate this collection, though it is unlikely that every one will like every tale. Still, as much as I love the universe, these characters, and the author behind it all, I am happy that Mr. Gaiman continues to make his particular brand of art.

Editorial Review:

Featuring the popular characters from the award-winning Sandman series, THE SANDMAN: ENDLESS NIGHTS reveals the legend of the Endless, a family of magical and mythical beings who exist and interact in the real world. Born at the beginning of time, Destiny, Death, Dream, Desire, Despair, Delirium and Destruction are seven brothers and sisters who each lord over atheir respective realms. In this highly imaginative book that boasts diverse styles of breathtaking art, these seven peculiar and powerful siblings each reveal more about their true-being as they star int heir own tales of curiosity and wonder.