Sunday, June 29, 2014

Mini Reviews: First Strike by Pamela Clare & The Witch's Dream by Victoria Danann


First Strike (I-Team # 5.9)
Laura Nilsson knows what she wants: a successful career as a broadcast journalist—and a little fun between the sheets now and again. What she doesn’t want is marriage or kids. When a ripped and sexy stranger intervenes to stop a couple of drunks from harassing her in a hotel bar in Dubai City, all she can think about is spending the rest of the weekend with him—in her bed. There’s just one little problem. Unmarried sex is illegal in Dubai.

Navy SEAL Javier “Cobra” Corbray is on his way home from a rough deployment in Afghanistan when he finds himself having dinner with “the Baghdad Babe.” What she wants from him—sex with no strings—could land them both in prison. Still, he’s more than happy to oblige her. She’s confident and sexually assertive, and he’s secure enough to lie back and let her make the first strike. But, as she’s about to find out, he’s more than her match.

Yet, neither Laura nor Javier has any idea what lies ahead—or how this weekend of mind-blowing sex will impact their emotions. Will they act on their new-found feelings in time, or will they let something special slip away… perhaps forever?

Warning: This story ends with a cliffhanger.

Type: Contemporary Romance/Erotica, Intro Novella
Heat: 3 out of 5
Rating: 3 out of 5

Amazon | Goodreads
First Strike is a quick steamy prologue novella that gives the naughtified version of how the main characters of Pamela Clare's Striking Distance meet during a chance encounter in Dubai. And all the steamy bits as they fall into a lusty illicit weekend tryst that could land them both in hot water because of laws against pre-marital relations in that country.



For what it is, an erotic prologue, it's not bad. There were some transitions spots that gave me some trouble and had me re-reading bits but other than that it's a sexy little read touched with a bit of danger from the taboo qualities of their encounter's location. The characters were both likable and passionate and surprisingly even though they spent the majority of the time doing all kinds of nekkid naughty things to each other you get a nice bit about them as individuals and what's important to them.

You do get recollections of this first meet in the actual book so it's not completely necessary to read it unless you want the X-rated details of how it all went down.

More Clare on herding cats

Review--Naked Edge



The Witch's Dream (Knights of Black Swan #2)
His dreams were left behind when Elora Laiken chose his best friend. Now Sir Engel Storm has had it with love, but a transplanted witch with a big secret is set on changing his mind.

B Team is on temporary assignment to Black Swan headquarters in Edinburgh where they are supposed to fill in for stretched-thin resources and assist with a werewolf issue. They’ve been given permission to stop in Ireland for a few days and help celebrate a handfasting at the palace in Derry.

When they reach Edinburgh, the afterglow of an elftale wedding ends abruptly when Kay's fiance is taken by a demon with a grudge. While Black Swan's best tracker looks for Katrina, Elora, Ram, and Baka are tasked with bringing in a stray werewolf causing havoc in London and finding him a suitable new home.

Type: Paranormal Romance
Heat: 2 out of 5
Rating: 2 out of 5

Amazon | Goodreads
Alright so. After book one in the series I was pretty frustrated--the heroine picked the wrong hero in that one. But book two was supposed to be about that man and I was dying to see Storm find his happily ever and moving on from the woman who broke his heart and find the one he was meant for. And...that didn't happen really.

Storm and Litha. Well, they spent about 20 pages of the book in each others presence. And a portion of that was in dream form which was pretty frustrating. Instead there was more of the couple from book one. And a secondary storyline of one of his teammates and his kidnapped fiance. Plus two weddings, two proposals, a rogue werewolf and a baby.

Again, like the first book, I really liked the actual characters. They're interesting, unique and you can tell really care deeply for each other. And I love the whole premise of the series of a team put together to protect and deal with the bumps in the night.

There was a lot of potential with this one. I would have loved to see Litha actually helping Storm deal with getting over Elora and moving on. But it just didn't happen because they were hardly together until the end since she was sucked into another dimension and all. When the two finally came together I loved them. They're cute and sweet and there was some nice humor happening. I just wish more of the book had actually revolved around them...since it was their book.

But those couple things I did enjoy just aren't enough for me to continue on with the series. I just don't think Danann's style is for me. There's way too much narrating by the storyteller about what's going on with everyone and very little dialogue. Just a mass of details that could be done without. Too many threads happening and too little focus on the romance for me. But she's gotten crazy positive reviews for the series so maybe it'll work for you. I'll be passing on the rest. 

More Danann on herding cats!



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