The old Showalter is back in Black and Blue? Maybe.

How funny, just last week I wrote a review about how much I missed the old Gena Showalter, and then last night I got to the first real juicy scene in the sequel to Last Kiss Goodnight, Black and Blue (#2 in the Otherworld Assassins series).  And, it was a nice surprise.  I am not sure that Black and Blue is still quite up to par (based on standards set by the first Lords of the Underworld books) but… it was a huge improvement over Last Kiss Goodnight.  So, maybe I need to eat my words.  At a minimum, I feel like I found Waldo!  And I am stoked.  I then realized that Showalter’s website says she’s not under contract for any more in this series and I admit to being disappointed.

First, the relationship between our two characters of Blue and Evie was great.  Finally, someone I would call a strong woman.  She’s smart, sarcastic, and totally deadly.  Yippeee!  I loved seeing the contents of her purse.  At first I didn’t get the seemingly random objects and when we find out what that’s all about, it was an awesome little treat.

I liked that while Blue was sort of a little damaged, he wasn’t the typical male with the  “oh no one can love me syndrome”, instead it was all about his respect for Evie’s father.  And while she had her issues too, and was super insecure at times (mostly about her looks), she wasn’t so super damaged that I was constantly reading the “nobody could ever love me” from her perspective either.   And I liked that there was a ton of action. While the action seemed a little repetitive it was still fun to read. The problem with books like this and it’s predecessor is that there are only so many times a reader can take seeing failed escape attempts, rescues where the rescuer ends up kidnapped, bad guys who get away for the sake of stretching the plot further than it should be stretched, and dialogue – in the characters head or out loud – where the same stuff is told to me over and over and over. Although that last point seems to be indicative of this genre, not just a failing of this book or author in particular.

I admit to being a little confused at times who was doing the speaking – and which point of view we were getting.  Again, that too seems to be a failure of this genre (or should I said bad editors in this genre) since I would sometimes need to read a conversation from the start a few times to know who was saying what – new paragraphs don’t always indicate the other person is now speaking and with the “he said” (or equivalent) sometimes it was tough.

There were some little jewels throughout the book as well as rough spots.  References and jokes about the rubick’s cube and the other stuff Evie carries in her purse were awesome.   And the reaction that Blue and the other characters have when looking through the purse – even better.  The sarcasm between the characters was amusing.  And it was nice to see that things were occurring over time and that is how the relationship blossomed.  It was also nice to see that Evie’s dad didn’t just do a complete 180 on how he felt about Blue and Evie so that felt a little more real too.  So, despite the repetitive nature of some of the plot, things moved along at a decent pace to be able to stomach the deja vu feeling that crept up on me from time to time as I read.

And, while I still am not sure the steaminess is 100% back, it was an enormous improvement over Last Kiss.  It didn’t feel gratuitous but natural and didn’t leave me annoyed that what is a common key element of this genre was missing.

All things considered, Black and Blue was a much better book than the first in the series.  And leaves me a little bummed that I may not be able to see how John recovers.

Where in the world is Gena Showalter?

I mean the old Gena Showalter!!!  The one who wrote heart pounding, flushed-cheek inducing, graphically detailed steamy scene writer, Gena Showalter.  Does anyone know?  Can we find her and bring her back?  Please?

Some say she has found religion and that is why her books have lost that steamy goodness, and you can certainly see more theology in the books, but I am not sure I buy it.  Why would someone drift from the steam into violence because of religion? Ok.  I just wrote than and then realized that maybe that’s a stupid question given how often the “love thy neighbor” religion really is a facade for violence, discrimination, and all sorts of other bad things that have lead to more wars on earth than anything…  but, leaving politics aside – I miss the author I used to love to read!!!

Which book brought me to the brink, asking these questions?  Last Kiss Goodnight, by Gena Showalter.  Everything I have read, and the cover of LKG itself, proclaim this to be the first in a sizzling new series (the Otherworld Assassin series and it seems this is some sort of spin-off or something from her Alien Huntress series, but I’ve never read any of the AH).  But, like with many of the other folks who have read and reviewed this book, I think sizzling is a little misleading.  The author has every right to write what she wants and not write what she doesn’t.  But I think the publishers shouldn’t try to sell me something – when this book is clearly not what they claim it to be.  As a result, I really struggled with where to even categorize this series’ pages here on this site.  It’s certainly romance, because we are faced with the love stories.  And it’s alien, and I don’t usually separate out alien into another category, instead they usually sit in the PNR category too.  But, the steam, spice, sizzle, what ever you want to call all that juicy blush inducing stuff that is typically in the PNR books, and was in the start of Showalter’s Lords of the Underworld series (and not so much now – see my latest reviews) is not here.  Neither is her wit and dark sense of humor.

This book is missing so much of what made me read the first few Lords of the Underworld books without putting them down.  Sure, there’s some kissing and we know that eventually the characters have sex but it’s just not what it used to be.  And I don’t mean we need to have them together in the first 5 chapters.  But when I wait until the last ten percent of the book to finally see the couple in fact couple, I want more than one line and the inference of what happens.  And that’s really all we get here.

I will also note that there is significant violence.  We see Solo ripping a man’s throat out, we see Vika get repeatedly beaten, we see animals being senselessly tortured and we see emotional abuse galore (forcing a child to kill her prized lion).  And yet, the good, the love, is limited.  It’s a shame.

I read a few other reviews that talked about being hit over the head with the theology.  I admit, five chapters in I started skipping the bible verses at the beginning of each chapter.  So maybe that’s what helped limit the feeling of being preached to (and I have read a fair share of those – and hate them – so I would be honest if I felt that way here).  Don’t get me wrong, its obvious that X and Dr E are the little angel and little devil, feeding Solo with choices always trying to show Solo to be good or to convince him to embrace evil.  And good does prevail – as it usually does in these books.  But I didn’t feel like I was having religion shoved down my throat.  Although I can see where that perspective comes from.  I guess I just tried to continue to remember that Dr E and X were aliens, from Solo’s home planet too, and purposefully tried not to think of them as an exercise in religious theory.  The once or twice I felt like I was sitting in the pew at Sunday mass, I skipped to the end of the paragraph and intentionally moved on.  It worked for me.  Although, if this keeps up, it doesn’t bode well for my desire to purchase more of Showalter’s books.

What bothered me most about this book was the female lead.  I saw a review that pointed out Vika’s courage and strength – but I am not sure I see it that way.  Sure, she seems to be planning an escape.  And she seems to be willing to eventually follow through with doing it, but she is a doormat the rest of the book.  She gets abused over and over.  The dialogue is crappy – the pleading Vika does with her father… the conversations between Mata and Vika… the way her being deaf is convenient but so unrealistic – I know deaf people can “hear” music and sounds because of vibrations, but to actually be able to understand a conversation that you can’t see because you are underneath a trailer through the vibrations… please that’s just too much – none of this lives up to the standards I have set for Showalter based on previous books.

We had some good plot holes too – why Vika doesn’t feel the effect of a vow with Solo the way others do; why X knows from the start they are meant to be together; Vika’s ability to hide that she is deaf is way too perfect; how and why did the whole switching eye color thing work, and Solo becoming deaf and them then “sharing the ability to hear” at the end; what the heck to solar flares have to do with traveling and how the heck is that tied to black magic and the no lands; were those supposed to be zombies in the no lands… the list could go on.

I miss the author who wrote all the great dialogue, characters, plot, sex scenes and stories that were the start of the Lords of the Underworld series.  Can someone figure out how to get her back, please, even if we need to use solar flares?

UPDATE:   found the following on Showalter’s website about this new “series”:  “

Q: Will Dallas get a book?  What about the Otherworld Assassins series?

A: Right now, I have no more Alien Huntress or Otherworld Assassin books under contract.  However, Dallas appears briefly in Last Kiss Goodnight but has a bigger role in Black and Blue.  BUT.  I would like to write his happily ever after one day, one way or another.  Nothing is currently in the works, however, and I’m sorry for that! “

Sooooo… might really only be 2 books, which is really more like a book and a sequel, not a series.  But that’s just my opinion…

Wicked good Wicked Nights

I nearly squealed like a fan girl when I realized that Wicked Nights is the first in a series which is a spinoff from the Lords of the Underworld!   I have loved the Lords since picking up the first book.  Getting an opportunity to continue to read about them and their world is awesome.  And Ms. Showalter doesn’t disappoint with the first installment in this in the spinoff.

Wicked Nights is not about demons, but angels.  I guess that’s why this is a spinoff – after all, after all those demon possessed how could we continue a series shifting to be about angels?  Well, in my mind it’s easy.  But, I guess that publishers know what they are doing (although I almost missed this one, since I haven’t been able to get into Ms. Showalter’s other series and had I not caught a blurb on goodreads, I might have skipped this.  I personally think they should be linked better….)

The series has been set up so that these angles are part of the same world as the Lords, and the battle that is going on between the greek gods and the titans also has implications to the “Diety” – the “modern religion’s” version of god.  The angels are going to assist in the upcoming battle between all the godly like beings.

Not breaking from the formula, here we meet a central pair who are destined to fall in love: Annabel and Zacharel.   Annabelle was convicted of murdering her parents and sent to live in a mental institution for the criminally insane.  The problem?  She didn’t do it.  We are introduced in the prologue to what will turn out to be a demon and the big bad guy in the story but we don’t really know much about him until much much later on.  Turns out this interaction lead to Annabelle unknowingly becoming the demon’s consort.  So, when she is rescued by Zach and his band of dysfunctional misfit angels it is clear that she has been targeted and is fighting constantly to maintain her sanity and save her life.

Annabelle ends up with Zack around and they get to spend time together and like all books in this genre it’s not really a spoiler to say they fall in love and figure out a way to be together.  I will note however that this book did have a handful of interesting twists and turns that while not all of them were entirely shocking many were definitely unexpected.   How the demon was summoned, how the demons ended up in Annabelle’s life, and even who the demon turned out to be are all wonderful little twists that weren’t as predictable as many of the things that happen in this genre repeatedly.  We are also introduced to an entire new band of folks whom I expect books will be dedicated to overtime thereby extending the life of the series.

Of course, let us not forget that it was an excellent and awesome surprise to see a handful of the Lords on more than one occasion make appearances here in this book.  I only hope that that continues.  I liken this series (at least in potential) to Laryssa Ione’s Demonica and Riders of the Apocalypse series – they really are not so much an original and spinoff as much as an extension of a good series that takes a slightly different direction at some point to focus on a new set of characters.  It would be wonderful to see this series take after the Demonica – because the Riders don’t leave the Underworld General staff off in some corner.  Instead, we get to see quite a bit of them in that spinoff.  **Fingers crossed** I so hope the same happens here.

I will say, in what was a surprising move however was the softening of all of the steaminess versus the Lords books.  Don’t get me wrong there were some lovely moments but they were sweet and tender and less steam and that’s not something this genre embraces as easily as the very very steamy scenes.  It’s understandable, especially once you have the history of our handsome angel leader you understand why things take this type of stance.  And, this books also seems to have the characters build a much more solid foundation in a relationship leading up to these two falling in love then is typical.  It’s not unwelcome, just a little different than most of the PNR pace.  It does not all seem to be based on just a bunch of good looks and some good sex – there is a much more well developed relationship by these characters then I’ve seen recently in books of this type.

Annabelle is also a unique heroine in this type of book in that she is far from helpless.  She may be in a mental institution but she stands up for herself, she fights back and she doesn’t take crap from anyone.  She is not the typical damsel in distress who is useless on their own that we see in so many books like this one.  She also doesn’t instantly fall for his good looks and doesn’t let that completely change who she is or her personality.  She also isn’t the super-butch female who blends in with the guys so much that she struggles with getting people to remember she isn’t just one of the boys (seems that most of the females in these books fit the damsel in distress stereotype or the disguised as one of the boys stereotype).  Instead, she is very much a female who is just tough and she is much easier to respect as a result.   It’s refreshing to see an arrogant egotistical male learn his place in a relationship and allow the heroin to still have her freedom and her independence and to look at the future books knowing that the two of them will very much fight side-by-side and it’s not just him playing lips service.  Anyone who has read more then a book or two in this genre knows that always comes back in later books to be an issue.

I am so looking forward to the next book to see what happens to these great warrior angels that we have been introduced too!  I hope we don’t have to wait too long!

Skip Royal House of Shadows…

Lord of the Vampires by Gena Showalter is the first in a series called the Royal House of Shadows.  With each of four planned (so far) installments being written by a different author, I struggle with how I feel about this start to this series.  I am thinking skipping it and reading some of the author’s better stuff is time better spent.

This is another series in the PNR category, so by default its has to be to some extent a good distraction from real life.  But, the epilogue sets out a plot that is a little confusing – being repelled from a place but driven to return to get vengeance too…?  And the role of the time pieces, and the curse of the other kingdom’s royalty and the fact that in that kingdom time doesn’t work the same.  It’s all a little confusing.

As much as the characters are likable, this follows the formula of the PNR from start to finish.  So, it’s nothing super unique or different.  I like Showalter’s other stuff, so I was looking forward to this.  But her other stuff, especially the Lords of the Underworld seemed a little easier to read.  The flashes here – some of which seemed to be flashbacks and some were just flashes elsewhere, I think – interrupted the flow of the story and the narration.  They were clunky and more then once I had to wonder whether the flash was into the past or not and what that meant for where/when our 2 main characters were.  How Nicolai got access again to his magic was never really clear, how Jane ends up in Delfina (that magical kingdom in his dimension) wasn’t really clear, and what exactly the Blood Sorcerer stuff was relevant wasn’t really clear either – it felt over planned, over plotted.  A little like too many cooks in the kitchen… and I wonder if the input of all 4 authors is why this happened.

Having read a few (and I mean a few, I shy away from series with different authors for each installment) other series like this, I have yet to find one that doesn’t fail in the same ways.  There are too many ideas and the resolution is usually pretty messy since the tone often changes book to book.

Like 99% of the books in this genre, the two characters meet and instantly fall in lust.  Her because he’s beautiful and him because he sees something in her others don’t.  Then they have some sort of adventure which causes them to need to spend lots of time together and they have sex and then decided they can’t be without each other.  If it’s the end of the series we (might) get most of the issues tied up and if not, we are strung along to the next installment.  Here, same thing.  Showalter’s writing wasn’t as smooth and enjoyable as usual, but it wasn’t bad.  I think she may have been burdened by a set of ideas that need to be complicated to account for each of a number of authors’ style to complete the series.  Not having read any of the authors who are tagged with books 2-4, I am not sure what to think about what comes next.  Because it was such a quick little read, it wasn’t a bad escape.  But there are better choices, written by others and written by Showalter.  Not to mention, this is only about a 2 on the steaminess scale.  I think catching up on the Lords is time better spent.

Ok, so I cheated!

I realized that in order to catch up on many of the PNR pages it would take for-ev-er!  So… I cheated!  For those series where there are a whole buncha installments already I am taking a different approach.  I have a page for the series which summarizes the series, lists the books and which couples pair off in each installment and important facts about each installment and other important characters.  And, as I read new installments, I will either update the page or create pages for the new installments as I read them.

This means for series like the Black Dagger Brotherhood or the Lords of the Underworld there is a single page for the first 8 or 9 books.  And, I will take it from there as the next installments come out later this year.

It’s not that I’m not willing to do the work.  It’s just that I want to be ready to read Lover Unleashed next week and I won’t be if I try to do the first 8 (and a half) pages!

So, the new pages are:

• Black Dagger Brotherhood – through Lover Mine
• Lords of the Underworld – through Darkest Lie
• Accidental Friends – pages for each through Accidental Human, with Accidentally Demonic scheduled for “release” today

More to come!