#54 Night Fires by Karen Harbaugh

My Rating: 8 out of 10 stars

I went into this book not sure how I'd feel about it, thinking it might have too much romance for my liking, but I was pleasantly surprised. The story takes place during the French revolution, and tells the story of Simone, secretly a vampire outlaw known as LaFlamme, and Michael Corday, an English spy sent to France to track down and eliminate the man funding the Revolution and threatening to bring it to other countries. Simone and Michael's relationship begins as one of convenience, for they are each to help the other in their mission. But soon, Simone feels compelled to reveal her true nature to Michael, and his own feelings of despair about his life begin to dissipate. This book held my interest right up until the very end! :)

See the BookCrossing journal page for this book for more reviews and information.

#53 Menage by Emma Holly

My Rating: 8 out of 10 stars

I'm glad I finally found a chance to squeeze this book into my reading queue. It was a wonderful read... I could barely keep my hands off myself. The story starts out with what would be any woman's fantasy: Kate has two hot male housemates, Sean and Joe, living with her, and not only are they hot for each other, but they're hot for her too! After Kate discovers Sean and Joe together in her bedroom, Sean dares her to join them. What follows is a hot and steamy sexual relationship between the three of them, a ménage à trois, with all partners being faithful to one another, meaning they don't date or sleep with anyone else outside the threesome. Throughout this, Kate and Joe develop more serious feelings towards one another that go beyond sex and lust, and how these dynamics work within the current relationship is the subject of much of the book.

This is my 4th Emma Holly book and I definitely look forward to reading a lot more!

See the BookCrossing journal page for this book for more reviews and information.

#52 Bitten & Smitten by Michelle Rowen

My Rating: 9 out of 10 stars

Sarah Dearly was just turned into a vampire, and she isn't happy about it. The past week has been hell, she's just lost her job, and the one vampire she cares for wants to kill himself. Welcome to the life of Sarah Dearly, and her hilarious romp through new vampire territory.

This debut novel by Michelle Rowen was a terrific read, and I look forward to the sequel, Fanged & Fabulous, due around Spring 2007. She also wrote one of the chapters of Bewitched, Bothered & BeVampyred, which I have waiting on my TBR and am even more anxious to read now. The story reminded me somewhat of Betsy in MJD's Undead series; Sarah's just as quirky and funny, if not more so.

See the BookCrossing journal page for this book for more reviews and information.

#51 Dark Desire by Christine Feehan

My Rating: 6 out of 10 stars

I liked this second book a little better than Dark Prince. I think it had a bit more of a story to it instead of just the romance, though I still got sick of all the flowery romance scenes and descriptions. I prefer my sex scenes to be a bit more graphic. I mean, I'd rather have Feehan talk about his "hard, thick penis" instead of "the hot, thick evidence of his desire". It's amazing how many flowery words and descriptions she can come up with to describe this part of the male anatomy!

In this book, we re-encounter some of the characters from the first book, as well as meet a few new ones as well. I believe that in these first few books there's a lot of establishing of the characters and the Carpathian race in general going on, so I'm still hoping these get better as I go along (woosang said so LOL) so I'm going to continue reading. I'm looking for more story, more danger and intrigue, and if more explicit sex if it's going to be there anyway. I've got the next 2 of the series here on my TBR and book 5 is supposedly coming to me via bookring anyway. I figure by book 5, I'll have a good handle on this series, and know if it's going to simply be too romance-y for me or what.

#50 Cirque Du Freak 2: The Vampire's Assistant by Darren Shan

My Rating: 9 out of 10 stars

Loved it... just as much if not more so than the first one. I love how these books are quick and can be read in a single day, allowing me to squeeze them easily into my TBR queue. :)

In this book, Darren is fighting his urge to take human blood, which he needs to keep him alive, instead sustaining himself only off the blood of animals. He feels that by taking blood from humans, even a sip or two without killing or draining them, would truly make him evil. He's also dishearted because he can no longer have friends his own age... his attempt to play street hockey with some kids in one town cripples one of the boys when things get rough. So he and Mr. Crepsley rejoin the freak show, so that Darren can be with others of his kind without fear of keeping his true nature hidden. But can he resist his body's need for human blood? Or must he instead conquer his feelings that doing so is evil, in order to sustain his life....

See the BookCrossing journal page for this book or Amazon.com for more reviews and information. This book is also available for mooching from me through BookMooch or PaperBackSwap.

#49 The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse by Robert Rankin

My Rating: 8 out of 10 stars

I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about this book going in, as this is the first I’ve read by this author. Rankin’s satirical style reminded me a bit of Christopher Moore or Terry Pratchett. The story, started off a bit slow for the first few chapters, but then immediately drew me in beyond that.

Jack and Eddie Bear set out to solve the mystery of who’s killing off the famous nursery rhyme characters one by one. Humpty Dumpty, made famous by his fall from the wall (which many in Toy City actually thought was an attempted suicide), was the first victim, followed by Little Boy Blue, and others.

The writing is very stylized, the humour of a British nature, and though I found it quite hilarious, having to read certain parts out loud to DH, I can see how it would put some people off for the silliness of it all. Not me though! I immediately went and added The Toyminator, which is more of Eddie Bear’s story, to my wishlist. :)

See the BookCrossing journal page for this book, or it’s Amazon page, for more reviews and information. I also have another copy of this book available, which you can mooch from me through bookmooch. :)

#48 Secrets Volume 6 by MaryJanice Davidson, Sandy Fraser, Alice Gaines, Angela Knight, Sandy Tetzlaff

My Rating: 7 out of 10 stars

Wow, these were some great reads. I hadn't realized when I started this that it was actually erotica, so I was pleasantly surprised by that too.

Flint's Fuse by Sandy Fraser
I enjoyed the character of Dana, who was a tough as nails rich bitch who always got her way (and her man). And Flint too, who though he had feelings for her, didn't let it get in the way of doing the job he was assigned to do. I'm glad they wound up together in the end.

Love's Prisoner by MaryJanice Davidson
My first intro the MJD's Wyndham Werewolves, who appear in later books starting with Derik's Bane. I really enjoyed it and look forward to reading more about them now. Jeannie's character reminded me a little bit of Betsy from the Undead series, and I understand that in the final story in Dead and Loving It, which actually takes place before Undead and Unpopular, the werewolves meet the vampires. So I'll be curious to see if Jeannie and Michael are still around then. I hope so as I really enjoyed their story here.

The Education of Miss Felicity Wells by Alice Gaines
This one was only alright for me. The innocence and virginity of Felicity was a bit annoying. That she'd go to a known casanova to teach her to please her husband, and expect to retain her virginity throughout the process, was a little silly in my mind. But then again, maybe she's just stupid!

A Candidate for the Kiss by Angela Knight
The sex in this one was hot! I didn't care for the author's habit of inserting a chapter break in the middle of a conversation. You usually expect a chapter ending to allow you a good place to put down the book and get back to it later, but in the case of this story, I'd often have to go back and reread the last few paragraphs of the previous chapter to pick up where the new chapter started. Since I've got some of Ms. Knight's books on my TBR shelf, I can only hope she's become better in this regard because I found it quite annoying! At least the story (and the sex) was good.

See the BookCrossing journal page for this book or it's Amazon page for more reviews and information.