The Quest for the Three Magic Words

Put simply, the quest for the three magic words is an irksome phenomenon I’ve witnessed in novels with a strong romantic component, characterized by the stubborn refusal to say the words, “I love you.” In a broad sense, the goal of any HEA romance is for the characters to fall in love, and often the […]

Book Review: Echo 8

This was a quick, easy read — I finished it in one sitting. Echo 8 is a blend of science fiction and romance that manages to treat both genres with respect. In other words, it works as both a science fiction novel and as a romance novel. The scifi is exciting and plausible enough to […]

Book Review: Wanted: Undead or Alive (Love at Stake #12)

When I saw that this would be the story of Phineas and Brynley, I have to admit I wasn’t excited. Phineas, though quite a characters, has always struck me as very immature. And Brynley is prickly. BUT … I actually liked it. There was better characterization in this story than I’ve seen in many of […]

Book Review: Mother of Storms

Immense. That’s the best word I can think of to describe this story. At first glance, it’s the story of an apocalypse — a nuclear attack accidentally releases enough methane into the air to cause catastrophic global warming and resulting hurricanes. But it doesn’t take much of a peek beneath the surface to see that […]

Book Review: Sexiest Vampire Alive (Love at Stake, #11)

Gregory is a 100% bottle-fed vampire. That is to say, he’s never bitten a mortal; he has survived entirely on synthetic blood. So he seems like the perfect person to go talk to the president, who has recently learned of the existence of vampires, to try to persuade him that he is no threat. Gregory […]

Book Review: Eat Prey Love (Love at Stake #9)

This corny vampire series continues in book 9, when Shana’s sister Caitlyn comes for her nephew’s birthday party and gets thrust into a world she never imagined. She instantly falls in love with Carlos, a jaguar shape-shifter trying to save his species from extinction. But in order to do that, he must marry and have […]

The Vampire and the Virgin (Love at Stake, #8)

Book 8 in the Love at Stake series gives us another male vampire and female mortal with a gift — this time she’s an empath and human lie detector. Apparently she’s a virgin because no man has ever been completely honest to her. So of course she decides to get together with a vampire who […]

Book Review: Secret Life of a Vampire (Love at Stake, #6)

The undead son of Cassinova has quite a reputation to live up to! Jack meets Lara when he throws a bachelor party for Ian and things get a bit out of control. Lara, a police officer, is called to the disturbance. It shouldn’t have been a big deal. All Jack had to do was erase […]

Book Review: The Undead Next Door (Love at Stake, #4)

Jean Luc, famous French fashion designer and vampire, has to go into hiding because people are starting to wonder why he hasn’t aged in 70 years! He decides to his out in Texas, where he meets Heather, schoolteacher, single mom, and aspiring designer. Although she’d prefer to design clothes for real women. Aside: Has anyone […]