Author Unpublished

Title: Meet Me

Author: Azure Boone

Genre: Erotica, Contemporary

Rating: 2 Stars

Description/Synopsis: Tasha feels safe in her online affair. Plus she’s broken no hard moral rules. But that all changes when her cyber lover types those two forbidden words: Meet Me.

WARNING - SPOILERS MAY ENSUE BEYOND THIS POINT - REVIEW BELOW

There's only one reason I really didn't give this 1 star: I finished reading the book. The writing was clear and easy to follow, which is probably one of two semi-reasonable reasons the writing wasn't awful. The other reason is that the sex scenes, though a bit trashy at times, weren't laughable. I'm sure to someone they were even sexy. Not to me - but maybe that's because I've read so many romance and erotica novels over the years that I'm rather immune to their effect.

This story is centered around a woman, Tasha, who's married and has 8 kids. Unfortunately, her husband is a bit of a jerk and ignores her most of the time. Tasha also believes him to be cheating on her, and he openly patronizes her and criticizes everything she does in front of their kids, as well as friends. Fed up with him, Tasha turns to her computer and an online group of friends to get herself through life without resorting to murder.

The general basis of the plot isn't a bad one. I actually applaud Tasha her ability to successfully raise 8 healthy, well-adjusted children despite her relationship.

The problems start when Morgan, a man in Tasha's online group goes from being a kind, friendly man, to a bit of a horn dog. Suddenly this guy wants to meet her, and he's talking dirty out of nowhere. Now, as someone who's been teaching children, teenagers, and adults for years about online safety, this really set off a warning bell in my head. My first response was "okay, someone took over his profile." When I learned that wasn't true, my second response was "Okay, she needs to get away from this guy, because obviously he's not who he says he is." Guys that act that way online out of the blue, or even just right away after you meet them are generally after one thing: sex - and couldn't care less about you as a person or your personal safety. Simple fact of the matter.

Now, remember that Tasha is married (albeit to an ass), and has 8 kids.. yet she barely waffles over the moral/ethical choice to go meet this guy in a hotel after he's already declared that he wants her. Her friends for the most part don't even have a problem with it. This isn't just unsafe, it's STUPID. Ladies - never agree to go to a hotel and meet some guy off the internet. Pick a neutral, well populated place, and take a friend. Tasha did take a friend, but other than one brief mention, she wasn't really present to help out - not to mention the Tasha went to the meeting agreeing not to wear any underthings.

...Seriously? It's not like she can even claim the excuse that she went to just talk. If a guy asks you not to bring your underwear, you can be fairly certain of what his expectations are. Come on.

Soon, Tasha finds herself LOCKED in a room with this guy she barely knows, and sex ensues. I couldn't say I was surprised, but I was still reeling over this woman's stupidity. She doesn't know him, he obviously wants sex from her - even expects it, has locked the door, claims he can't have children (therefore no condom!... we won't even go into the many reasons that was stupid)... and seems perfectly fine with this decision.

Can we have silence for a moment over this woman's infuriating idiocy?

Thank you. He then declares afterwards that he wants to marry her - setting off another round of warning sirens in my head. To make a very long story short, Tasha eventually agrees to be "set up" in an apartment by this guy (that she still barely knows) has lots of domineering if not outright uncomfortable sex (despite being married and having 8 kids - I'm not going to let you forget that), and pretty much leaves her husband and takes her kids with her.

If Tasha were real I'd call child/family services to come collect her kids because obviously she can't make sound judgement calls.

The worst part however was the enraging end of the story where Morgan restrains her during sex (whatever, to each his own) and then reveals that he's not actually who he says he is. (DUH). He's actually her husband. WHAT?! He suddenly had a change of heart over their marriage, sold his toys, and has been working to win her back by pretending to be this random guy online. Somehow, she didn't notice that this guy she's been having sex with is the same person as the guy she's been married to for at least 13+ years.

... Can I hear a great big resounding W.T.F.? I was so mad I wanted to punch the author right then and there. I was secretly hoping Morgan was going to turn out to be some kind of rich millionaire (as cliche as that is) or famous person and -that- is why he seemed so familiar to Tasha, and was able to set her up in a very nice apartment. I was so grossed out by her husband and his attitude (not to mention his crotch-rubbing friend.. i'm not kidding.) that I wanted to throw my kindle across the room when it was revealed that Morgan was the same person.

I still have the heebie jeebies. *shiver*  I don't understand why this guy couldn't just try to fix his marriage in a reasonable manner rather than sneaking around lying to her to trick her into wanting him. I'd consider that a huge betrayal and divorce his ass immediately.

Right now, the book is free on amazon, but seriously, don't download it. The ickiness you'll feel after reading it isn't worth it. Back away slowly.

Title: Across A Moonlit Sea [Pirate Wolf 1]

Author: Marsha Canham

Genre: Historical Romance / Adventure

Rating: 5 Stars

Description/Synopsis: He was French by birth, half English by blood, and reported to be all larceny by nature. One of Queen Elizabeth's legendary sea hawks, the rogue nobleman Simon Dante nearly lost his life when his partner turned coward and betrayed him for a king's ransom in stolen gold. Simon vowed nothing would stop him from seeking revenge ... until he found himself at the sensual mercy of a lady privateer.

Beau Spence had learned the hard way how quickly men tired of their spoils. For eight years she had sailed the Caribbean with her father and not once had she met a man who caused one moment of regret for the life she had chosen ... until a reckless challenge from the infamous Pirate Wolf forced her to fight back with her own powers of seduction. And when these two renegades reluctantly join forces, it is their firestorm of raging passion that sweeps them into a sea of danger and desire .…

WARNING - SPOILERS WILL ENSUE BEYOND THIS POINT - DETAILED REVIEW BELOW

Wow, what can I say? After the last flop of a book I read I decided to grab what I consider "easy reading" which in this case, turned out to be a simple historical fiction. Authors don't usually try to be too adventurous in their writing when it comes to historical fiction and I find it usually tends to be a little closer to a Harlequin than a best seller.

I was so glad I picked this book. At first I had a bit of trouble getting into the first two pages of the story - this wasn't anything the book had done wrong, it's just that I've been reading so many Urban Paranormal Romances that getting my head into the old language of a historical romance (not to mention wrapped around all the seafarer talk) took me a bit of time. I can't blame the book for it though if I'm not up to date on old privateering jargon. By the time I met the two main characters however, especially Beau, I was hooked.

The story was full of grand ship battles and plots for treasure that I ate up with a spoon. The characters were rich in personality and motivation, and the friendships fierce and loyal (just how I like them). Oddly, the only problem I came across that I figured others might not appreciate is the first "alone" *wiggle eyebrows here* moment between Beau and her future squeeze, Simon. It had extreme undertones of rapeyness (He doesn't rape her though, don't worry). I know a lot of readers will have a problem with their forceful first encounter, but let me assure you that not only did he not hurt her physically, he didn't hurt her emotionally.

Beau is not some simpering flower stuck on board a vessel. She's a merchant's daughter, and probably the scariest thing you'd find on that ship other than Simon himself. That includes his cannibal first-mate. Simon doesn't scare her - he riles her up and puts himself in a good position for her to castrate him (she even tries once!). I wouldn't want to be on Beau's bad side.  Despite the rapey undertones with the way they first encounter each other, however, not once did it bother me. Maybe I'm just one of those people who can say "eh, it's a book" and move on, but I think the reason it didn't bother me was that it didn't seem to bother Beau. It just made her angry - and Beau angry is highly entertaining.  So if you have a problem with borderline rapey scenes in books, rest assured that this scene probably won't bother you as much as you think. Try to give it a chance anyway.

If you love Historical Romance Fiction, Pirates, and Adventure, give this book a try. You won't be disappointed.  Shortest review ever! I have no real complaints.

Title: Undertow

Author: Callie Kingston

Genre: Paranormal Romance / Fantasy

Rating: 1 Star

Description/Synopsis: While she sleeps beside a log on the wild Oregon coast, a rogue wave pulls Marissa into the sea. Now she dreams each night of a merman who rescues her. Obsessed with returning to this beautiful creature, she again risks her life in the frigid ocean.

Will Marissa remain lost forever in the eddies of her mind, or can real love save her from the abyss? Sometimes, the dangers which lie within are the deadliest.

WARNING - SPOILERS MAY ENSUE BEYOND THIS POINT - REVIEW BELOW

I don't know where to even begin with this one. Judging by the description and the way this book was categorized you'd immediately think this book was about a young girl who falls in love with a mermaid. You'd be wrong. According to reviews, this book is about something far different (I'll get into that). Not having read the reviews, however, I went into this book with no idea of what I was getting into.

The story started out strong. I made it a habit to leave myself notes as I read so I would remember all the little things that stuck out at me about the story, and for the first two pages all those notes were positive. The author seemed to have a way with using subtle hints in the text to influence the reader about how the main character felt. These little cues in word choice stuck out at me as being extremely well written.

However, by page three my notes started taking a drastic turn. It started with an extraordinary burst of emotional drama by the main character when she discovers that her boyfriend may be cheating on her. Now, I can understand a woman getting upset that her boyfriend is cheating on her - come on, who wouldn't? However, the evidence she finds is circumstantial at best, literally two words: "Miss you." Suddenly the main character is flipping out on her boyfriend talking about how suddenly all his behavior over the past few weeks makes sense.

My reaction to this was a very slow "W. T. F." people just don't react that way unless they've had suspicions for a long time, and going into this story we weren't provided with any of that information. Suddenly I found myself taking a step back from the character thinking "This woman is completely irrational." It doesn't help that her stupid boyfriend says the one line you should never say to a woman: "Don't get all crazy about this." Seriously? I could let that slide though as her boyfriend just being an ass. It happens. Unfortunately, this absurd situation didn't end there. The main character pops in with the most cliche relationship line ever: "I thought you were different. You're as bad as all the rest. Worse!" How many times have we all heard that.

I rolled my eyes. That is never a good sign. Now at this point I realized that the ENTIRE reason this woman is sitting on a beach wishing she could die is because of her boyfriend and that one conversation.

(Let's have a moment of silence here)

Really? I lost all respect for the main character in this moment. As far as I was concerned she was now some whiny teenager that was so dependent on her boyfriend for her happiness that suddenly she couldn't live anymore once she found out he *might* have had another girl on the side. (It was never really cleared up whether he had actually been cheating or not.. since she never actually let him speak.) Please understand that I'm not saying that to be mean. I was once a suicidal teenager. I've been there - but I was abused for years before I got to that point. This snot of a girl was willing to throw in the towel over a single relationship. It irritates me. Greatly.

At this point, I decided to swallow down my anger and keep reading, hoping this was going to get better. It didn't. This is where I first started to notice the author's predisposition for writing long, poetic sentences that were so absurdly colorful in the starkness of the rest of the text that I just stared at them and went "What?". One example was this gem:

One deception after another, in brilliant colors, like each scene was painted with unearthly crayons, her mind shuffling through them like a deck of cards. And at the bottom, the face of a little girl. (Page 4).

Take a moment. Read it over. Forget the fact that this is a ridiculously long run-on sentence and the punctuation is just plain wrong. At this point, I'm not even sure what she's talking about. These strange poetic, overly colorful blurbs are all over the place in this book. I can honestly say that in my opinion, the writing is awful.

From this point on things just got... I guess unbelievable is the word I'm looking for. We learn by page 4 that this girl, who I was assuming was a teen (and it was later confirmed that she was 17 years old) had several tattoos. (which her mother didn't approve of). I don't know if any of you have ever been in a tattoo shop, but without parental permission you can't get a tattoo (let alone several) at 17 years old. Most certainly you can't get tattoos that run the entire length of your calf (which would take several sittings to do). It's absurd.

The story continues and the text is riddled with huge time-jumps. One example would be when the main character is sitting on a beach as the tide comes in and suddenly she's chest deep in water the next sentence. Then she's only in a few inches of water the sentence after that. I'm sorry, I grew up on the Southern Coast of Oregon where this book is based, and the tide does not come in that fast. (Fast, yes, but not THAT fast.) This is later evidenced again as the main character goes from getting out of her car to ordering food, to leaving a tip and walking out in less than a paragraph. It was almost as if the author was trying to skip over what she considered "the boring bits" without even attempting to use them to her advantage. A little internal dialogue probably would have helped in times like these.

Another sore sticking point with me was the entire reference to Oregon. I'm sorry, I grew up in the EXACT location this book was based. I lived there for 19 years, and I know quite a bit about the area. Unfortunately, though the author reportedly also lives in that area, it seems she didn't do her research. Some of the things she wrote in this book just aren't true. Most of these have to do with local legends (which I hope I can safely assume she fictionalized for the sake of writing this book), others had to do with locations in relationship to each other.

At this point, my hackles are pretty much raised. I tried so hard to keep reading this book - I almost gave up at 9%, but made it to 13% before I gave up. I think my biggest pet peeve about this entire book however, was that the main character was clearly off her rocker. She kept going on and on about how terrible her life was and how depressed she seemed to be, all the while being outwardly cruel and snotty to everyone who crossed paths with her. At one point I actually wrote in the note: "This chick isn't depressed, she's just plain apathetic." It seemed like she was filled with this hatred of everyone and every thing, but all the while she was almost obsessed with this idea that a merman had saved her from drowning. She lied to her friends and her new boyfriend, and spoke of what I considered paranoid delusions: that she was meant to find the merman, and someone must have snuck into her hotel room to leave her clues.

This is when I gave up. Clearly at this point any person in their right mind would see that this main character was completely insane. She had an awful personality, hated everyone, was paranoid, and obsessed with a mythical creature after simply dreaming that he existed.  This wasn't romantic, it wasn't well written, it was god awful.

Now, that being said, in researching  links for this article, I went back to Amazon and Goodreads and read some of the reviews. I was completely bewildered by all the 4 and 5 star ratings this book got. So I started looking for some reasonable explanation of how people got through this mess. What I came to learn through my reading is that this book may have been grossly miss-represented as a paranormal romance / fantasy. From what I understand, a lot of people considered this a very dark, psychological fiction, and reportedly the main character may actually be insane. I can't attest as to whether this is true, but it would certainly explain some of what I read.

I have to push that aside though. The only opinion I have going into a book is generally my own, and as an author I know that it is my job when writing a novel to make sure that what I'm writing is represented in such a way that my meaning can't be misinterpreted. The main character's obvious personality disorder aside, the book simply wasn't well written. It wasn't clear, there was a lot of "telling" instead of "showing", grammar was wrong, punctuation was horribly misused, and entire sections of events were left out.

I am utterly baffled by the reviewers that said this was "well written". I obviously live in an alternate dimension from them. It's my only explanation.  I awarded this book 1 star because I couldn't force myself to read any more. It's not often that I can't get through a book (It's only happened twice before), but in the event that a book is that boring or that ill-written, my only course of action is to close it and mark it as a FAIL.

Title: A Chance for Charity

Author: S.L. Baum

Genre: YA Paranormal Romance

Rating: 3 Stars

Description/Synopsis: A new family has just arrived in the isolated mountain town of Telluride, Colorado. Welcome the Johnstons - Jason (a doctor), Rachel (a designer), and their niece Emily (a current High School Senior).

Emily has lived the life of a quiet loner in the past, trying to go unnoticed. But with Telluride being such a small and welcoming town, she finds a group of friends at school almost immediately. When Emily meets Link (another new transplant in town) her world turns upside down. She doesn't understand why she feels a magnetic pull toward him, or why she unknowingly lets her guard down around him. Link is just as confused by his own need to be with her.

Emily knows she is playing with fire. She should be doing whatever she can to keep herself isolated, to keep Link from getting too close. Danger has a way of finding Emily's family - that is what keeps them on the move. They arrive in a new town every few years - it is safer that way.

Because... Emily isn't really Emily... her real name is Charity - and Charity has an even bigger secret. Charity and her family are not like other people, they have "skills" that mere mortals cannot begin to comprehend.

Before long, Charity is struggling with the reality that her two lives are coming closer to each other with each passing day. Soon Link will find himself wrapped in a supernatural world that he never knew existed - and discover that mortals are not the only beings that walk this earth.

WARNING - SPOILERS MAY ENSUE BEYOND THIS POINT - REVIEW BELOW

Omg look at that gorgeous cover. I am such a cover whore. I judge every single book by its cover. Bad habit.

A Chance for Charity starts out strong. We're introduced to the main character of the story, Emily who is a seventeen-year-old new to the town of Telluride... except she isn't. Unbeknownst to everyone except her "family", Emily's real name is Charity, and Charity is an immortal. Though she's really 80-90 years old, she stopped aging around 20 years old and has no idea why. She isn't the only one though. Charity lives with her "aunt" and "uncle" Catherine and James (alias's: Rachel & Jason) who are also immortals. None of them have any idea how they happened to become immortals, they just are - and that's the charm of this story. I loved the fact that for once the supernatural cast weren't immortal through some tragic accident, brutal assault, or magical mishap. There's no family genetics in play... nothing. It's completely random, and I love it.

As we get into the story we learn a little bit about Charity's past, and as it turns out, she was once engaged to be married to the love of her life: Roger. Unfortunately, Roger went to war and never quite made it back, leaving our heroine alone and heartbroken. Afterwards, she attempts to kill herself (which in this particular case doesn't bother me because I think it was important to show that Roger wasn't just "some guy" that she liked way back when. She adored him... and since we never get to meet him in the course of the story, it helps to solidify that part of her life off-screen.) and discovers that she can't die.

Soon thereafter, she meets Catherine and James and quickly becomes friends with the other two immortals.  I have to say that I really enjoyed the relationship between the three of them. In so many stories where there's some kind of supernatural family it always feels like the main character is separate from the rest of the group... yah, they're family, but they're just characters in the background that occasionally show up to offer advice or throw their dominance around. That isn't how this family worked. Catherine and James were very much a part of Charity's story, and even though they were pretending to be her aunt and uncle, I was glad to find that they weren't automatically pushed into the role of "parents". They treated Charity like a good friend and let her make up her own mind about things - and I can appreciate that.

Anyways, as the story goes on, Charity ends up going to high school as part of a "cover" because everyone knows you can't live forever and stay in one spot. That would be ridiculous. (I'm not being sarcastic.) Immediately she becomes good friends with a loyal group of students, and though they sort of faded into the background a bit at times, I also really enjoyed their characters. S.L. Baum certainly has a way of creating depth with characters. For the entire first half of the story, I never got that impression that any of the characters were "secondary", and that was refreshing.

Now here's where the problems begin. About the time that Charity meets Lincoln (or Link... god that's an awful name for a book character... every time I saw it I thought of Link from Legend of Zelda) the book's cohesiveness starts to slip. The romance between Charity and Lincoln is a little hard to swallow. He's 22, and as far as he knows, she's 17. That's a problem. I know it shouldn't have been jarring because obviously she stopped aging when she was 20 and she's really old enough to be his great-grandmother, but it was still a little disturbing how easily he got over the age difference. It just always feels skeezy when a guy "overlooks" that he's dating a minor. Can't help it. Moving on.

After this point, other characters (mainly Charity's friends) start to slip into the background. I'm not even sure when, but at some point I looked up and went "wait.. didn't she have friends?" They just disappear for a long while and are re-introduced once closer to the end of the book. I really wish that they had been more present, even if that means they were just calling Charity on her cell phone during vacation. The overall result was that the story started to lose a bit of that "engaging" quality you look for in books. I went from page-turning like my life depended on it to reading maybe half a chapter here and there over 2 or 3 days.

Unfortunately, it gets worse from there. As the story progresses we're introduced to the real plot: hunters are after Charity and her "family" and want to kill all the immortals because they think they're witches. I have a bit of a problem with this... not a big problem, but still a problem. I could understand hunters going after vampires or witches.... but the immortals don't really have any powers other than living forever and being able to heal people. They're all good people. How is it that this family of hunters hundreds of years after the first is still willing to hunt down and kill these seemingly peaceful beings? Maybe that's my naivete speaking. I never understand hate-mongering.

As the end of the story approaches things just get more and more ridiculous. I actually liked the twist of shape shifters helping out the hunters. I didn't expect it, and it was cool - but I found it rather convenient that in this mess suddenly witches (okay I could get past them at least) showed up to help the immortal family.... then a female shape shifter that inexplicably falls in love with one of the witches after knowing the guy for all of five minutes... even after the witches helped kill her brothers. It was getting pretty cozy in immortal land.

I can admit that though it was rather predictable, I was glad to see Link being transformed into a vamp. I think the author did a good job setting us up with the vamp lore far enough ahead of time that when the symptoms started showing up it was an AHA! moment. unfortunately that too was wrecked with a vamp friend suddenly shows up out of nowhere to conveniently explain the entire situation... including the fact that he once fed his blood to Charity (unbeknownst to her) causing her to be an immortal/vampire hybrid.. and making link a tribred. All touch with reality was lost at this point.

I hated the way this story ended. Things were just too convenient and it felt like the author was just trying to wrap things up in a nifty little bow as quickly as possible. So, while I did like a majority of the book, there were definitely some WTF moments. Either way, it was still worth the read, and I'm glad I read it.