Recent Reads

Midnight Run by Lisa Marie Rice

Why this one: Well – I knew it was a series and I took a gamble that I would like them and ordered all three of the Midnight books

Amazon Blurb: Clair Parks has been very sick, but she’s fine now – just fine and ready to pain the town red. Well, pink. On her first excursion into the wild world of dating, she nets Bud, a tall, sexy, gook-looking lumberjack. She won him fair and square, her prize for not dying. But after a weekend of wild sex, she discovers he’s not what she thinks he is. Undercover police officer Lieutenant Tyler, “Bud” Morrison can’t believe his eyes. What’s a ‘princess’ doing in a dance club know for it’s rough trade? She needs rescuing, and rescuing women is what Bud does best. He saw Claire first-finders keepers. After a weekend of the hottest sex he’s ever had, he’s definitely keeping this one. When trouble comes her way, he pulls out all the stops to protect her. Except Claire doesn’t want Bud at her back. She wants him in her bed

Level of Steam: Whew! This one boiled the kettle dry in no time!

My thoughts: I liked this even better than the Midnight Man. It was hotter for one thing. The hero Tyler “Bud” Morrison is a cop undercover in a real dive. He’s instantly smitten and in deep lust with Claire Parks our rather innocent young heroine who after years of living as an invalid is ready to experience life to its fullest. And this includes loosing that pesky virginity.

“No, no!” You’re thinking, “Not a virgin heroine!”

Yes – she is a virgin, but I thought the reasons perfectly believable. Although she was innocent she wasn’t naively stupid.

And I liked Bud even better than John, the hero in Midnight Run. He was alpha without the slight obnoxiousness some of them can have. And he became a real dufus part way through, much to the annoyance of Claire. This one also had a couple of funny moments that the first one didn’t and I’m all for the funny spots.

So far I’m quite pleased with this series. I did start the third one Midnight Angel, but either I wasn’t liking it as much or the storylines were too similar because after barely getting started, I put is aside for a while to read something different. It’s not always a good thing to read back to back to back books in a series by the same author.

Grade: 4.5 out of 5

In Darkness Reborn by Alexis Morgan

Why this one: I’ve read the first two in the series and really liked them. They are paranormal without the vampires

Back Cover blurb: Once a warrior for the Others, Barak q'Young is caught between two worlds—exiled from his homeland, and a pariah among his enemies, the Paladins. While hunting a betrayer who's selling the precious blue gems that light the Others' world, Barak must aid geologist Lacey Sebastian in her research for the Paladins. Barak is instantly drawn to the fiery, beautiful woman, but Lacey initially despises the enemy intruder. Soon she sees beyond his violent past, though, finding the dark warrior intriguing—and extremely sexy.

Though neither can resist the passion that blazes between them, Barak is torn between loyalties, hiding a secret gift that could prove useful to Lacey's research, at the sacrifice of his own people. But when Lacey is kidnapped and held hostage, Barak realizes that he will do anything to save her . . . even risk his own life.

Level of Steam: it would make a steaming cup of coffee – best with Bailey’s added

My Thoughts: I’d been looking forward quite eagerly to this one ever since we got to see Barak in the first book, Dark Protector. He came from the other side and supposedly is one of the bad guys. But he save the heroine in that one so he wasn’t as bad as they thought he was. He popped up again in Dark Defender and I think everyone who has read this series has been waiting for Barak’s book.

First off - I liked this book. I recommend it, and I will keep buying the series. But I was disappointed. Alexis Morgan has done a decent job of world building and explaining the purpose of the Defenders. But so far she has barely touched on the people the Paladins are defending the world against. We are three books in now and know nothing about them. I was hoping to learn more about them in this book but alas – we learned next to nothing. It wasn’t until fairly near the end of the book that we even got a glimpse of why Barak is willing to stay in this new world he has entered. She really gives us no insight into his history.

Still – as I said I enjoyed this book. Barak is kind of a sad hero. He is living in a place where he is despised by almost everyone and he is very much alone. He doesn’t think he is good enough for the heroine, Lacey Sebastian, in this one. Lacey is forced to work with Barak. After her initial hatred of hatred begins to dissolve, she begins to see him as a person in his own right – not just an enemy of the people she has grown up with. I didn’t think her character was quite as good as say Laurel Young in Dark Defender, but Barak more than made up for it.

As I said, I liked this one and I’m certainly anxious for the next one, which looks like it might take place on the other side where we may finally get some answers. But if you’re looking for insight into the Others – this book doesn’t give them

Grade: 4 out of 5

'til later

My Most Recent Read

Dark Protector by Alexis Morgan


I find it a bit hard to judge this one. I read a few reviews on Amazon before doing this review. A number of them compared this book, the first in a series, to the Carpathian series by Christine Feehan, the Dark Hunter series by Sherrilyn Kenyon or even the Brotherhood series by JR Ward. I don’t particularly like comparing series so I’m not going to compare this with any of the others.
As I mentioned this is the first book of a series. First off I liked it. I really did. I fully intend to get the second book very shortly – later today even. But I found it a bit sketchy on details for a new series. Devlin Bane is a Paladin, a slightly different group of people than human. They are a warrior class who defend to the death the fault lines of the planet when there is a fissure. They fight another group called The Others, a vicious bunch who would wreck havoc on Earth should they ever enter en masse. And when I say to the death, I mean to the death. The Paladins you see, also have the power to come back from the dead and live to fight another day. But each time they ’die’ they loose a bit more of their humanity and eventually they become one of The Others themselves. Laurel Young is a special doctor called a Handler who works with the Paladins, patching up their injuries or helping them return from the dead. There is a definite but forbidden attraction between Laurel and Devlin. Handlers and Paladins are discouraged from getting close as it’s the Handler’s job to ‘put down’ the Paladins when they ‘turn’. But of course passion can’t be denied and they end up working together to find out who is trying to permanently get rid of Devlin, who is the traitor and what is really going on with the Others. This one had good suspense, good hero & heroine, good secondary characters, good everything I like in a book.
I think Ms. Morgan who also writes Westerns I’ve yet to try under the name Pat Pritchard, has a good idea going here. For those such as myself who like paranormals but aren’t really into the vampire thing, this really fits the bill. But I just have so many questions that haven’t been answered in this one.
How do they know they are Paladins?
Why do they live longer?
Do they age like regular people if they don’t turn ‘Other’?
Can they *ah* *um* reproduce?

I'm thinking some of the answers to the Immortal questions here since I love The Highlander the Series so much.

See – this is a good thing/bad thing. Bad thing because I don’t know the answers and but good thing because I liked this book enough to want to know the answers. Hopefully, as she goes further on, I will get some of them.
So, I quite liked this one and it’s now the next day and as you can see by my sidebar, I went to the bookstore in a small snow storm last night to get the next one, that’s how much I want to continue reading them. Granted the book store is on the way home and I didn’t have to drive out of my way – but still….

Grade: 4 our of 5