Always the Quiet Ones by Cassandra Carr

“You know, I never really put a label on it, but yeah I guess I am.  The whole thrill of getting caught, the whole thrill of driving you crazy in a place where people could see us – it’s pretty hot.”

Title:  Always the Quiet Ones

Author:  Cassandra Carr

Rate: D

King of the geeks Marty Johnston has a serious crush on his co-worker Elizabeth. The principal IT consultant wants more than just a flirtation, but guilt over a one-night-stand-but-maybe-more Marty had on his last business trip before meeting Elizabeth could cost him his big chance with the girl of his dreams. He’s comfortable dealing with computers, not people. Can he step way outside his comfort zone to sort things out, or will he lose the one he’s falling for?

Thoughts:  The blurb pulled me in immediately with this one, but I have to say it was not at all what I expected.  Considering Marty was supposed to have this “serious crush” on his co-worker …. well, I just didn’t get that vibe at all from this book.  I got only slightly more “relationship” undertones from Marty and Elizabeth as I did from Marty and his one-night-stand-but-maybe-more, Shelby!  The book was short, which in this case was a definite negative in terms of character development  – for it made the character come across as stale and boring, and unbelievable for the most part.  The story just wasn’t there for me with this one. 

Part-Time Reaper by Casse Narome

Title:  Part Time Reaper

Series:  Reaper Tag Em’ and Bag Em’ series

Author:  Casse Narome

Rating:  D

Shaina has 99 problems and death ain’t one…Well, actually it is. She is the newest reaper. Shaina’s partner is her ex best friend as well as her former boyfriend who disappeared without a goodbye four years ago. Her current boyfriend isn’t a boy at all but an ancient angel with a defect. He has never heard the voice of God.  Yeshua has a place in her soul and he refuses to let go while Samuel possesses her body and leaves her craving more but who will win Shaina’s heart?  Headaches, heartbreaks and mayhem…Yeah, Shaina has 99 problems but Death is the least of them.  Will Shaina be able to heal her shattered heart and save his lost soul?

Review:  Ok, first off I’m going to say that New Adult is a bit of a ‘touch and go’ genre.  I have read some that I absolutely LOVE, and some…well, not so much.  Unfortunately this one fell a bit in the latter category for me.  The premise was a good one…but the characters just ruined it completely for me.  An issue I have with most of the New Adult titles is that I read them and the characters just have a major immaturity problem.  I would expect this maturity level in the Young Adult genre….but come on!  Even YA characters are more mature than most of the New Adult ones!  And Shaina was a classic example of this.  I honestly had trouble making through the book.  Of course, there were moments when I would think that the book was going to get past all that, but it always seemed to delve back into childish behaviors that -unfortunately- seems rampant in the New Adult genre.  I was really hoping that this was sort of an exaggeration in the beginning – to kind of show how far her character has come, how much she has grown, but it just never really happened.  I may try other titles from this author, but not anymore of the New Adult ones.

 

 

Ablaze by Morgan Black

Title:  Ablaze

Series:  Fireside Series Book #1  (novella)

Author:  Morgan Black

Rating:  D

What if love was like gasoline? Light a match and become engulfed in it’s flame.  Cheyenne is attempting to run into the arm’s of her betrothed Collin, when fate intervenes and she becomes trapped at her family’s cabin with another man. Luke, a ranch hand at her father’s farm, makes her heart race. When the lights go out, she finds herself falling into his arms, and into his bed.

Review:  This book is perfect if you’re looking for the a short length erotic novella about the standard rich girl who sleeps with the ‘hired help’ – in this case one of her father’s ranch hands.  She’s pretty much engaged to an ‘appropriate’ guy – one her family deems worthy of their breeding and class – and she’s been brought up knowing what was expected of her.  She’s always been attracted to Luke however, but not in an “I can’t resist him” kind of way.  She never intended to act on her desire, and certainly not enough to defy her family.

The problem with this story for me, first off, is the length.  It actually seems more like a chapter or two rather than a novella, and the length did not give me enough time to get invested in these characters, or even get to know them really.  What little I learned about them however, I didn’t like.  When they find themselves trapped in a cabin together – snowed in unexpectedly, Cheyenne decides to take advantage of this one opportunity to pretty much get the desire out of her system.  And all I can say, is sex with Luke must be as hot as the cover of this book, because all of sudden Cheyenne does an about face in her attitude.  It’s wrapped up with a very abrupt cliffhanger that is supposed to get you wound up for the next book.

For me, it seemed a little too standard, a little too pat, a little too cliché….and the whole ‘hired help’ fantasy left me rolling my eyes and feeling like I was stuck in a time more suited to the 1800’s rather than the present day.  While I don’t mind that type of fantasy, the tone for this one just turned me off completely.  I think the potential is there, but the execution just missed the mark.

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Serafina and the Silent Vampire by Marie Treanor

Title:  Serafina and the Silent Vampire

Series:  Serafina Series Book #1

Author:  Marie Treanor

Rating:  D

Silence has never been so sinful…Welcome to Edinburgh’s unique psychic investigation agency, Serafina’s.  Serafina MacBride is psychic – but not strictly honest. While staging a hilarious vampire attack at a client’s party, Sera is stunned to encounter a real vampire – annoying, gorgeous and inaudible to everyone but her. When her client’s son is found dead with puncture wounds in his neck, she tracks the silent vampire to his lair.  But the amoral and seductive Blair is also on a mission – to find and kill a nest of young vampires who’ve invaded his territory. Soon Sera is drawn into the bizarre world of the undead, where danger lurks in the shadows along with forbidden sensual delights – and a murderous conspiracy to flood the world with financially astute vampires who talk.  Supported and hindered by Blair’s eccentric, undead friends, and by her own motley crew from Serafina’s, Sera and Blair uncover surprising truths about each other and about the mysterious Founder from whom all vampires are descended.  In the end, Sera draws on powers she never knew she had in a frantic fight to defeat the forces of evil and preserve the strange, complicated being she’s trying so hard not to love.

Review:  This book was not quite what I was expecting.  It’s one of those that had me going back and re-reading the blurb, wondering if I misread something!  I was almost immediately turned off to the story by Serafina herself.  To say that she was ‘not strictly honest’ is a bit of an understatement.  She spends the majority of her time as a charlatan, conning people out of their money.  Not only does she con them, but her and her ’employees’ stage events in order to do so.  The way the story was told regarding that left you with no sympathy for her or her friends whatsoever.

Loving books on vampires, I thought for sure this one would be great – however, even the vampire aspect of it didn’t really mesh with me.  I didn’t really think that the ‘inaudible’ part would actually mean that he talks without ever moving his lips!  I assumed that he would be invisible to everyone but Serafina, and that she would be the only one who could hear him.  That it would be somewhat of a twist on vampire lore and he would be somewhat like a ghost (rather it be a permanent thing or simply temporary).  Instead, he’s visible to everyone, no one else notices anything weird about it, and to Serafina he doesn’t move his lips.  The idea of this in my head just weirded me out on the whole storyline, and it just didn’t get any better for me after that.

Perhaps it’s just me, but I just didn’t connect with this book at all.  It started off on the wrong foot with me, and it just never clicked into place.  I usually like something a little different from the standard, particularly when the author can pull it off and make me believe that it could be possible.  But I just didn’t feel that with this book.  So much so that I had a hard time reading it.

Apparently, I am in the minority though….after writing this review I checked it out on Amazon.  At the time it had 31 reviews – 12 of them were 5 star ratings, and 13 of them were 4 stars, so keep that in mind if you’re thinking about picking it up.