Customer Reviews
Four paranormal stories - By: Helen Hancox, 26 Dec 2007 
This is a collection of four stories by well-known authors of paranormal romance of the more erotic variety.
DRAGON DANCE by Angela Knight
This story started off excellently with our heroine, Arial Dean, trying to negotiate the release of a woman & two children in a hostage situation. Initiallly the story seems to be an ordinary hostage situation but then we learn that the man who has taken his wife & children hostage is a Hyper, someone who has some extra powers. These powers became apparent in the population five years before & can have devastating effects on the mental states of those who become Hyper. Arial & the other law enforcement officers have to calll in Tracker, a Hyper who works for the Feds, to try to deal with the hostage taker. When Tracker arrives he & Arial rescue the family, but with some collateral damage - to Arial. When Arial realises she has become a Hyper & turns to Tracker to help, she is starting a new journey in life where she discovers there is a lot more to the Hypers than previously thought. Arial's personal Hyper skills may be necessary to defeat the evil Kali, a woman who has taken six slaves & wants to get Tracker & Arial too.
This story was interesting & well written although the sex scenes felt rather unnecessary to the plot, at least in the detail in which we were given. The situation of the Hypers was interesting & I would have liked more to be made of it. However it was an enjoyable read & the characters were well drawn & appealing. Four stars.
CAUGHT BY THE TIDES by Diane Whiteside follows Emma Sinclair, a young widow, who sees a man washed ashore near her home in Cornwalll & goes to rescue him from the incoming tide. Although he's far too heavy for her to lift she finds that the magickal spells she learned years ago, that never previously worked, seem to help him. She nurses him to health, finding his recovery amazingly fast. This is because Owen Bentham is a King's Mage & messenger & Emma herself has previously unknown magickal abilities - she is a chalice which means she can amplify the power of a mage. Owen's mission of returning from France with the antidote to a spell that Napoleon could use to find safe UK harbours was disrupted by a local mage working with a French mage; that local mage wants to both kill Owen & take over Emma's chalice skills. Owen & Emma have to work against him, utilising the magick stored in Emma's house & some new magic of their own.
This was a charming enough story set in an interesting time (the time of Napoleon) with magickal overtones. The romance side was an instant love-at-first-sight rather than anything more deep & complex but was pleasant enough to read. There were some aspects of the story that didn't quite work for me, such as the Gryphon's occasional appearances, but it was a reasonable read. Four stars.
QUEEN OF ALL SHE SURVEYS by Emma Holly
This story is another set in Emma Holly's Yamish world (also visited in full-length novels 'The Demon's Daughter' & 'Prince Of Ice') & the story has some similarities with 'Prince Of Ice', at least as far as the special mating abilities of the Yamish royals go. However the other background of the Yamish world isn't reallly featured in this story & it works perfectly well as a stand-alone short story. The hero of this story is Memnon, only son of King Ravna, whose battles in the long-running war with Queen Tou aren't very successful. King Ravna agrees to give his son to Queen Tou as a war tribute in order to have captured soldiers released. Memnon is sent to Tou's city & has to join her harem of men. It soon becomes apparent, however, that there is something special between the two of them; Tou is god-touched & King Ravna had also received the favour of the gods - it seems that Ravna's son & Tou might have a special affinity for each other.
Much of this story is taken up with the sexual antics of Tou & Memnon but there is also an attack on Tou's city which forms a brief part of the plot at the end. The main focus is always the relationship between Tou & Memnon which is described in detail. Like alll Emma Holly's books this is a well written story set in an interesting world but the short story form leaves little room for much plot other than the sexual relationship & I would have appreciated more detail about the rest of the situation of Tou & Memnon. Four stars.
IN A WOLF'S EMBRACE by Lora Leigh
This story is apparently part of a series as there are several other characters named whom we don't actuallly meet. The hero, Matthias Slaughter, is a Wolf Breed, a man who has been geneticallly engineered with wolf genes & who, along with the other Breed, was experimented upon & tortured for much of his life. He & the other Breed members now work to track down those responsible & bring them to justice - in Matthias' case, often summary justice. Unfortunately when he shoots Dr Benedikt Albrecht in the back of the head in his hotel room, he doesn't realise a young woman was in the room too; not just any young woman but Grace Anderson, the woman he realises is fated to be his mate. He kidnaps her so that she can't turn him in, takes her to her cabin in the country where he can persuade her of the justness of his actions.
Most of this story consists of the conversations between Matthias & Grace where he persuades her that shooting a man in the back of the head without warning is OK, that it is a necessary part of the struggle against those evil people who torture Breed members. His explanations don't seem that convincing to Grace but fortunately the mating bond takes over & she seems to accept it. The story is mostly about their mating bond, with a short escape from danger at the end. There's a reasonable amount of characterisation for Matthias, a man without family who's always been on his own, but Grace was rather more of a cipher. It was a reasonable enough read but nothing special. Three stars.
Originallly published for Curled Up With A Good Book, www.curledup.com. © Helen Hancox 2007
Lora Leigh's Breeds latest is what makes this a 4* book. CARE: SPOILER - By: Mrs. Rita Roberts, 06 Dec 2007 Yes, sure the book has some reallly hot stories - the Angela Knight one is a futuristic/Human-mutant-with-supernatural-powers tale that was short but sweet with a HEA. The Diane Whiteside one I completely skipped after reading her pretty dismal single release from last month, The Northern Devil. Emma Holly's one was hot, hot, hot, but didn't (for me at least) have even a hint of romance in it. Sorry, but how one woman (though a Yama - an utterly sexual being - she may be) can take 4 blokes one after the other in a matter of minutes, with the male lead watching, then perform oral sex on the male lead, whilst there is talk of c*** dripping out of her as she does so, is seriously gross. Yes, it is erotica, but not romantica. LL's book picks up from Tanner's Scheme, & we get to catch up on the fact that Tanner & Scheme have had twins, Roni is pregnant, Sherra has had a baby, which is great. Matthias is forced into killing a scientist abusing & experimenting on Breeds, but Grace, his mate, catches him in the act. He has to earn her trust & learn to trust her & her love. It's so much more than just erotica, & more romantic that Tanner's Scheme, so for this alone, this book is a keeper. I just wish it had been a full-length novel & not the short-but-sweet novella that it was.
