#43 Hot Blooded by Christine Feehan, Maggie Shayne, Emma Holly, Angela Knight

My Rating: 7 out of 10 stars

For an anthology, all of these stories were surpisingly good and well-written.

“Dark Hunger” by Christine Feehan
This story takes place within Christine Feehan’s Dark series and tells the story of Riordan de la Cruz and his lifemate Juliette. But Juliette has a secret identity of her own, as well as her own agenda protecting her sister and cousin. Definitely a romance but enough other action going on to hold my interest throughout.

“Awaiting Moonrise” by Maggie Shayne
Jenny Rose is a university professor who travels to the bayou of Louisiana to research tales of a possible unknown, and as yet undiscovered, species of mammal. But she meets up with the town’s sexy (and single) doctor, whose interest in her is more than just academic. I enjoyed this one even more than the Feehan story.

“The Night Owl” by Emma Holly
This story takes place within Emma Holly’s Midnight series (Catching Midnight, Hunting Midnight, Courting Midnight) and if you like to read series in order, is best read after Hunting Midnight since it tells the continuing tale of Bastien and Emile who first appear in that book. It was a good story, though I probably didn’t like it quite as much as Shayne’s contribution.

“Seduction’s Gift” by Angela Knight
Grace Morgan is a Latent, she has the Gift of the Mageverse but would rather live in the real world serving and protecting fellow humankind in the role of a deputy police officer. But her grandmother, Morgana le Fay, sends Lord Lancelot du Luc to seduce her and bring her over, activating her Gift with the act of lovemaking, at least 3 times.

This is the second short story I’ve read by Angela Knight that takes place in the Mageverse series, the first one being “Galahad” which appeared in the Bite anthology, though that one actually takes place later in the series. I didn’t really care for “Galahad” all that much as I couldn’t get into the whole Knights of the Round Table as Vampires thing… but for some reason, I liked this one a little better. Perhaps because it’s actually the first story in the tale. But because so many others thought it was great, I didn’t want to judge the series by a short story and I’ve since acquired the other books of the Mageverse series. If anything, this story has forced me to move Master of the Night closer to the top of my TBR pile.

See the BookCrossing journal page for this book for more reviews and information. See more progress on: read 100 books in 2006.

#42 The Penis Book by Joseph Cohen

My Rating: 9 out of 10 stars

Apolonia handed this off to me during one of the meetings at the 2006 Toronto BC Convention. It was passed around the table and a good time was had by all! :) At one point, I held up one of the centerfold pics with tongue pretending to lick one of the sexy guys and SandDanz snapped a pic with her non-digital camera, so I've yet to see if that came out or not since everyone at our and surrounding tables had me cracking up laughing by that point!

Though I looked through many of the pics in this book there, and read a bit of the text, I definitely want to share it with some of my other non-BC friends, and since this coming weekend is a Pagan holiday (Beltane, which actually falls on Monday the 1st), I'll have a fun group around to laugh over it some more with. :)

And then later... since I still had it into July...
I'm sorry I've had this so long... I've been reading the articles, I swear! ;)

Actually I have... plus I wanted to have it here during the few get togethers we've had at my house over the summer. I was planning to buy my own copy to keep in the RV and bring to Starwood with me. Since I haven't sent it out yet, and I'm heading off to Starwood next week, I'm going to bring this with me. (I promise if a bunch of wacky Pagans get too excited over it and make a mess, I'll keep this one and replace it with the new copy I was going to buy anyway. LOL)

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

#41 Dragonswan by Sherrilyn Kenyon

My Rating: 7 out of 10 stars

This was a pretty good read. I was afraid I wouldn’t like it at first because the beginning started out kind of sappy: Channon kept insisting, “I never do this kind of thing”, when she brought Sebastian home that night after just meeting him. Then she went on and on about how gorgeous he was for like 3 pages… alright, I get it already, the dude’s a hunk! Fortunately, the whole story didn’t continue in this vein and after they returned to Sebastian’s “home”, the action picked up. For a short 86 page story, there was a good amount of intrigue, history, and action. Though I’d classify it primarily as a romance of course, there was enough other stuff to it that it gets a thumbs up from me! :)

See the BookCrossing journal page for this book for more reviews and information. See more progress on read 100 books in 2006.

#40 How to Marry a Millionaire Vampire by Kerrelyn Sparks

My Rating: 8 out of 10 stars

This was a good book which held my interest throughout. I look forward to the follow-up, Vamps in the City. I’m interested to see how things turn out with Shanna and Roman, and where Shanna’s dad and the rest of the Stake-Out crew from the CIA fall into play.

See the BookCrossing journal page for this book for more reviews and information. See more progress on: read 100 books in 2006.

#39 Kitty and the Midnight Hour by Carrie Vaughn

My Rating: 7 out of 10 stars

This was a pretty decent start to a new series, and I’m looking forward to reading it’s followup, Kitty Goes to Washington, which I have here in my TBR as well.

Kitty and the Midnight Hour definitely sets up the situation for the sequel, where paranormals are finally recognized by the masses, and the Government releases scientific reports proving their existence. But in this book, most of the population doesn’t yet believe, and both vamps and werewolves remain in the closet, hiding their true identity, and if they cannot do that, hiding from humanity completely.

Kitty’s radio show, The Midnight Hour, which starts off as a fluke phone call taken over the air, becomes tremendously popular and is syndicated around the US. Other paranormals, as well as humans, appreciate Kitty’s show since it allows them to call in with questions, or simply to talk about certain subjects, particularly if it’s something they cannot discuss with their alpha or master. But The Midnight Hour also makes Kitty a target in other ways…

See more progress on: read 100 books in 2006.

#38 Spirit Warriors by Devin O' Branagan

My Rating: 9 out of 10 stars

This was a really great book! I caught a few grammatical errors, but seeing as this was the first published edition of the paperback, I assume they’ve since been fixed in more recent releases. That said (cuz I’m such a nit pick LOL), I was really surprised with how good this book was, and I enjoyed it immensely. Even though I don’t see how the Native Americans can associate the color yellow with Earth. hehe (My tradition usually associates yellow with Air, which they used Blue for, and though I can see that because of the sky, you then have to make Water green instead of blue, and nice Caribbean water is blue anyway, and then once you’ve used green, you don’t have it available for Earth and are stuck with using yellow.) Okay so maybe that’s the 2nd thing I could pick on, and why I only gave it a 9 instead of a 10.

But none of that detracted from the story for me. I really enjoyed the characters. Fay really annoyed me with how gullible she was as soon as a man showed her the least little bit of attention, but I realize that’s exactly how human nature is, that people see what they want to see when they’re getting their needs met, or their egos stroked as in Fay’s case since Ahriman made her feel loved and needed again. Neva was great, she was my favorite! :)

See the BookCrossing journal page for this book for more reviews and information. See more progress on read 100 books in 2006.

#37 Moon Called by Patricia Briggs

My Rating: 7 out of 10 stars

I enjoyed this book, not one of the best I’ve ever read like the previous reviewers already stated, but I see it as a good start to a new series, and by the end, I was curious to see what would happen between Mercy and Adam, or Mercy and Samuel.

The book strays a bit from what I’ve come to expect with regards to werewolves and vampires, and even introduces a new type of paranormal called a “walker” which Mercy is, she can shapeshift into a coyote, a gift from her Native American ancestry. Though she’s often shunned by the werewolves, Mercy discovers that in many ways she’s just as capable and able as the fuller-bodied wolves, and is even immune to many forms of witch and vampire magic and thralls that the werewolves don’t have. She’s tough and doesn’t let people push her around so I really liked her character for that reason alone, particularly since I’ve previously read some books where the main character is more of a wishy washy female who can’t seem to think for herself. She’s no Anita Blake, and I’d be hard pressed to put anyone in the same category as Anita, but I found her a strong and interesting character nonetheless.

See the BookCrossing journal page for this book for more reviews and information. See more progress on: read 100 books in 2006.

#36 Otherworld Tales 2005 by Kelley Armstrong

My Rating: 7 out of 10 stars

This is a free eBook which can be downloaded from Kelley’s site or read online. It contains 12 short stories, each pertaining to a different character from Kelley’s Otherworld series. These stories are intended to give the reader further insight into a specific character from the series, maybe fill in a few blanks here and there, or simply provide more info on a background story that may have been eluded to, but not expanded upon, in the books.

Of all the stories, I think I enjoyed the ones having to do with Adam (the half-demon) and the other about Talia (his mother) the best, if only because I really enjoy Adam’s character in the books, even though he usually has a relatively minor role.

See this page on Kelley’s site for more information on this free eBook. See more progress on: read 100 books in 2006.