Blog Tour: Hunting Season by Nikki Jefford

Back-to-back blog tours this week - today I'm hosting a stop for Nikki Jefford's Hunting Season, the fourth book in the Aurora Sky: Vampire Hunter series. This is a young adult, urban fantasy series set in Anchorage, Alaska, which I think is pretty darn awesome.  

Check out the rest of the book tour stops at Xpresso Book Tours.

Of Silk and Steam by Bec McMaster

BLITZ!

Today, I'm participating in the spotlight post blitzing for Of Silk and Steam by Bec McMaster. The book comes out tomorrow, March 3rd, from Sourcebooks Casablanca!

When I was given the opportunity to participate, I was so thrilled because while I haven't read all the books in the series, I've really enjoyed the ones that I have. So much so, that I'm going to have to invest in the entire series in paperback so I can enjoy all the gorgeous covers sitting on my bookshelf.

This steampunk-paranormal romance series has intrigue, action, great love stories, great scheming, lots at stake and is absolutely on my list of favourite romance series. I am sad that Of Silk and Steam is the last book in the series only because it means moving on to new stories (though I'm hoping there's a glimmer of possibility in a second series featuring a younger generation? Maybe? Please?). As it stands, I think this is one of the most satisfying final books of any series that I've read lately. It pulled together all sorts of machinations and plots put into place by earlier books and... well... I've actually got a full review of the book below, so check it out!

Stick with me today because after hitting you with lots of information about the very awesome Of Silk and Steam (including an excerpt) and author Bec McMaster (who I assume is also very awesome because she's written these lovely books), I'm also sharing a giveaway and, care of the publisher, I'll let you know which London Steampunk heroine I would be (based on a cool little quiz they had bloggers take).

Two for One - Reign of the Vampires and An October Bride

A two for one today. I didn't love either of these two very different books, unfortunately, but I can see how they might appeal to a different reader. 

Waistcoats & Weaponry by Gail Carriger

The Basics:
Waistcoats & Weaponry by Gail Carriger
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Book Three in the Finishing School series.
Steampunk, YA
Published November 4, 2014
Source: Received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Amazon Kobo Goodreads

Why I picked up this book:

Gail Carriger. Love love love.

Forged by Desire By Bec McMaster

The Basics:
Forged by Desire By Bec McMaster
SOURCEBOOKS Casablanca
Book Four in the London Steampunk series
Romance, Steampunk, Paranormal
Published September 2, 2014
Source: Received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Amazon.ca Kobo.com

Why I picked up this book:

The cover, the description... I was hooked.

Deadly Curiosities by Gail Z Martin

The Basics:
Deadly Curiosities by Gail Z Martin
Solaris
Book One in a new urban fantasy series
Fantasy, Urban Fantasy
Published June 22, 2014
Source: Received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Amazon.ca Kobo.com

Why I picked up this book:

The cover hooked me - the artwork reminds me of Rob Thurman's Leandros series. Plus I generally love urban fantasy and am always on the lookout for new authors in that genre to read.

Night's Promise by Amanda Ashley

The Basics:
Night's Promise by Amanda Ashley
Zebra
Book Six of Children of the Night
Paranormal Romance
Published February 4, 2014
Source: Received from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Amazon.ca Kobo.com

Why I picked up this book:

Honestly, I recognized the author's name, and combined with the cover image, thought she was one of those collection of authors who write really good historical romances. At some point, the fact this was a paranormal romance did register, but since I'm a fan of those too, I figured this would be a great fit.

Charlotte: Prowling for Enchantment by Mima

The Basics:
Charlotte: Prowling for Enchantment by Mima
Pocket Star
Book Two in the Dare to Decide series
Erotica
Published on Jan 6, 2014
Source: Received from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Amazon.ca Kobo.com

Why I picked up this book:

An erotic choose-your-own-adventure? Colour me intrigued.

Date with a Vampire by Raine English

The Basics:
Date with a Vampire by Raine English
Aspendawn
Romance
Book One in The Tempted Series

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Blurb:
She gave him her heart, but he wanted her soul…

Melody Johnson dreams of meeting a man as dashing and wonderful as the heroes in the books she reads. Being a realist, she knows that’s highly unlikely. Besides, men always leave her for someone more exciting—until she wins the lottery, that is. Pursued by scores of men happy to help spend her fortune, Melody longs to have her quiet life back. When a network executive offers a reality show, she seizes the opportunity to show the world she’s off the single’s market. Melody leaves her quaint hometown in New York for a sunny island in the Pacific where twenty gorgeous bachelors will vie for her heart and where she can stage a phony engagement. What she never expects, though, is to fall in love with a vampire. 

Guystof LeBreque is a four-hundred-year-old Romanian vampire who hates the taste of blood. He’s roamed the earth for centuries, loathing the monster trapped inside him. After his mother’s death at the hands of vampire-hunting assassins, Guystof vows never to turn a woman into a vampire. But when his father gives him an ultimatum to marry a rich woman in sixty days or lose his legacy to his bloodthirsty brother, Guystof battles his conscience. Does he keep the promise he made to himself, or does he keep his brother from power? Guystof resorts to drastic measures. He becomes a bachelor on a hit reality show. What he doesn’t anticipate is losing his heart to the woman whose mortal life he must end.

What worked for me:

There are so many good ideas in this book:

• Small town girl wins a huge lottery and has to cope with the ensuing attention, romantic and otherwise.
• Small town millionaire winner goes on dating-style reality show to find true love and/or escape unwanted romantic attention.
• Small town girl falls in love with Romanian Count who happens to be a vampire, whose brother tries to sabotage relationship.
• Romanian Count/Vampire needs to woe wealthy woman, who fears being wanted/used only for her money, to become his bride to save his kingdom from his evil brother.
• Romanian Count/Vampire struggles to present himself as human while wooing wealthy woman to be his bride, while trying to cope with all the modern trappings of a reality tv show....

Lots of story to work here, many different angles to work with, lots of room for romance!

That Guy was a hot Romanian vampire who didn't want to drink blood was a nice touch. I also appreciated that his family's castle is in some disrepair due to their financial straits. Exploring that poverty alongside Melody's sudden financial windfall was another potential avenue for this book to explore.

What didn't work for me:

There's so much stuffed into this book that there's no time to explore any of it in any depth. Each new threat is introduced only long enough to propel the characters running head along into the next one. 

While this might have increased the tension, the writing isn't strong enough to support it. 

That's the part that really drags the book down for me - the writing just isn't very strong. Some of the things that are thrown out there - particularly the cannibals, their existence suspected because of some dead livestock - result in reactions so farfetched that I would have thrown the book at the wall if I wasn't reading it on my laptop. The romance happens so quickly - there's an initial attraction quickly followed by strong chemistry, but the encounters that follow don't always improve Melody's opinion of Guy and vice-versa. That they bond so quickly and so thoroughly was a bit baffling. 

Theo, Guy's brother, is also a bit of a letdown. His meddling starts by enlisting one of the other bachelors on the show to woe Melody away from Guy. However the bachelor he chooses is fairly incompetent at this, and Theo has to step in and literally take control of him. This is another wasted opportunity as he's quickly revealed to Guy, and any headway he potentially could have made with Melody is wasted. If the bachelor he magicked to his side had been a little suaver or if Theo had himself (or while in control of the bachelor) been able to woe Melody without revealing himself to Guy, there was opportunity for some really interesting conflict. Instead Theo drinks blood from, and kills, some livestock, inciting cannibal theories, shutting down production of the reality show early, and so on....

There's no subtle touch here, everything is big ideas that immediately fizzle under the speed at which they are played out. It was frustrating, because I really liked the concept presented in the blurb, and there *was* so much that could have been really, really good.

Bottom Line:

Date with a Vampire has lots of good ideas that fizzle out under the weight of so much *stuff*. This book had great potential, it needed to have a narrower focus to make it really shine. There were too many details that missed the mark for the book to be a hit. I was disappointed because there was so much promise in the basic concepts. 

2 stars
For only the most dedicated of vampire romance fans.

Charming by Elliott James

Basics:

Charming by Elliot James
Orbit Books/Hachette Book Group
Book One of Pax Arcana
Urban Fantasy
Published Sep 24, 2013

I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

John Charming comes from a line of knights charged with upholding the Pax Arcana - a spell that keeps mortals from knowing about the magical creatures on earth. Any creature that threatens to expose that supernatural realm is fair game for the Knights Templar. 

Unfortunately for John, his mother was bitten by a werewolf before he was born and has inherited both the need to be a knight and some of the qualities of the werewolf. His fellow knights were not, ah, amused.

Hiding out as a bartender, John's life takes a turn when a beautiful blonde and a vampire both walk into his bar. Surviving them will be a trial fit for a 'prince'....

This is an urban fantasy tale from a male perspective (both from the first person point of view of a male character, and written by a male author). James' book calls to mind comparisons the Hunted series by Kevin Hearne and (inevitably?) Jim Butcher's Dresden Files. I think Butcher's work has a bit more depth, but I could see this on par with Hearne's material. Another book or two in the series should solidify where Charming belongs in the pecking order, as it were.

Shaking things up from my normal review format for a moment:  this book is all about momentum, which both works and doesn't work. 

Momentum is a key part of every fight scene (of which there are many!). James writes these in a meticulous fashion, tracking body position and motion in a distinctive way that I suspect means I could pick his fight scenes out of a line-up. I liked it, but it did  give some fights a slow motion effect. 

Pacing is definitely a weak point for this book. It starts off quite slow because of large amounts of exposition, and then builds to a very enjoyable clip by the end of the book. Truthfully, after the first thirty pages, I thought this was going to be a write off, but by the time I finished?  I can't wait to read the next book in the series. 

There's also John's personal dilemma. The guy's clearly struggling to come to terms with his inner beast, and this is another area in which momentum comes to play. Once he starts trying to work through his conflict, things start to snowball - I can't say more without getting spoilery!

What worked for me:

The Pax Arcana is a clever device for keeping the normal population unaware of the supernatural. I like the need to uphold it with the Knights, I like that it has limitations and that modern technology places new tensions on its effectiveness. In general, I liked the world that James is building here, even if I don't agree with how much of it he threw at us in big chunks.

This book has an abundance of interesting characters. John Charming intrigued me - both as a male main character which is the minority in urban fantasy, but as a man who has some fairly serious issues to work through above and beyond the vampire threat. I liked that he seemed like a real guy. There's also a team of people that I easily would have spent more time with - Sig and Molly in particular made an impression.

I found the author interview at the end of the book interesting and it  explained some of the issues I had with the book. It's worth a read just to see where James is coming from and if you read between the lines, I think it's possible to infer discussions he had with his agent or editor which was pretty informative.

What didn't work for me:

There are a number of plot points that are left dangling or that are not fully explored. Without being too spoiler-y, there's a love quadrangle and one member of it is given fairly short shrift. The material that doesn't really conclude in this book is easily fodder for future books, so I'll look forward to James making use of those pieces. 

The exposition and weighty descriptions were all indicators of a rich world that James has created. In the interview at the back of the book, he mentions just how much detail he developed that didn't make it to the page - including several more interludes. Thank goodness these were removed! The effects on the pacing of the story would have been dreadful. I think it still could have been tightened up, particularly in the first several chapters.

For example - Chapter 7: How to Ghoul-proof your Home - includes a couples pages of information about the defenses John has set up at home. However, none of these seem to come into play at all - even when a potential threat *does* enter his home later in the book. There's no payoff for wading through the description, in this case. It's all interesting material, but it's presented as these info dumps that can be off-putting.

The only disappointment I really had by the end of the book was that there weren't more traditional fairy tale components worked into the story. Hopefully more will be present in future books in the series.

Bottom Line:

When I started reading the book, it was dragging so much, I wondered how I would finish it in time for the review date I had set for it. But once the vampire hunt plot heated up, I had a hard time putting the book down to deal with life. I'm definitely interested in reading a second book in this series!

4 stars
For fans of urban fantasy, of Kevin Hearne's Iron Druid series, of strong women and the men who adore them.