Tag: Melina Morel

Two Things

Posted January 5, 2010 by Tracy in Reviews | 4 Comments

#1 – My December 2009 Reading List is now posted over at my other blog.

#2 – My guest review for Smolder by Melina Morel has posted at The Book Binge.

Vengeance has its price. But you pay for passion forever…

Descended from werewolf hunters, Catherine Marais has vanquished countless of their vile kind-including the one that slaughtered her father. Her debt of blood and honor was fulfilled-but her heart is empty.

The only one who ignites Catherine’s passion is Ian-a handsome, elegant vampire whose seductive touch she cannot resist. But when he offers her the dark temptation of eternal commitment to each other, Catherine must look within her heart-and her truest desires-to find the answers she seeks…

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Tagged: Guest Review, Melina Morel, The Book Binge

Guest Review: Smolder by Melina Morel

Posted January 5, 2010 by Book Binge Guest Blogger in Reviews | 1 Comment

Genres: Paranormal Romance

Tracy’s review of Smolder by Melina Morel

Vengeance has its price. But you pay for passion forever…

Descended from werewolf hunters, Catherine Marais has vanquished countless of their vile kind-including the one that slaughtered her father. Her debt of blood and honor was fulfilled-but her heart is empty.

The only one who ignites Catherine’s passion is Ian-a handsome, elegant vampire whose seductive touch she cannot resist. But when he offers her the dark temptation of eternal commitment to each other, Catherine must look within her heart-and her truest desires-to find the answers she seeks…

When I first started this book I was totally confused. Catherine and her partner Paul were killing werewolves – apparently the vilest of creatures – but yet Catherine was having a love affair with Ian, a vampire. Ok, vamps good…werewolves bad. But why? Then the vamp’s houseman comes clean that he’s a werecat – and apparently that’s ok too. But why? We do find out why werewolves are bad and the others are ok but not until about 30 pages later and only then with a one sentence explanation. I have to say I was greatly confused by the first part of this book. Clearly I needed to read Devour, Morel’s last novel, in order to have a clue as to what was going on at the beginning of the book. Unfortunately I hadn’t.

Despite that lack I managed to get through the book. The story encompasses so much more than what is described in the blurb that it’s almost difficult to tell you the basics. Catherine and Ian are lovers and love each other deeply. (At least I think they do – they can’t seem to live without the other but when they’re together all they do is have sex. To me there’s a heck of a lot more involved in love and a HEA.) The request from Ian to Catherine to make her a vamp is in there too, but it’s not the biggest part of the book, by far. Then there is Catherine’s 16 year old niece, Solange, who has a mighty crush on a boy, Luc, who is 2 years her senior. Solange has been sheltered her whole life and the family is worried that she’ll do something drastic. When Ian’s houseman finds out that Luc is actually a werewolf that makes things even crazier. But Luc isn’t what anyone expects. Then there’s the sketch that the werewolves have of Catherine and they basically have a hit out on her. Of course we add in Paul and his wife wishing to have a baby but are scared to. I had no idea why they had this fear until later when it’s explained that they might have a werewolf baby because of previous werewolf descendants. This was odd since in another part of the book an Alpha werewolf says that only 2 were’s can have a were baby…and Paul and his wife are both human. Then there’s the human clone that’s made. Are you overwhelmed yet? I was. And we won’t even get into the entire cast of characters that I had to keep straight. Wow.

But it wasn’t just overwhelming to the point of are you kidding me? It was more that even though there was a ton going on in the book I didn’t feel emotional about anyone – which was just disappointing. Was this because I hadn’t met these characters in the previous book? Could be, I’m not sure, but I felt like I was coming into a story already in progress and couldn’t quite invest myself fully in the book. I have to say that I was rooting for Luc and Solange more than anything but even that wasn’t fully realized.

Unfortunately this wasn’t a book that worked for me.

Rating: 2 out of 5

This book is available from Signet Eclipse. You can buy it here.

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Tagged: 2.0 Reviews, Guest Reviews, Melina Morel, Paranormal, Reviews, Signet Eclipse, Tracy's Reviews

What I’ve Been Reading This Week

Posted December 21, 2009 by Tracy in Features | 12 Comments

Hi there!

How is everyone? Are you all ready for Christmas…well, the ones celebrating it, that is? 🙂 I think I am. Well, I need to wrap a lot of stuff but I can’t do that when the kids are around so I’m excused, right? lol

I’m out of whatever kind of reading thing I was in a couple of weeks ago. Thank heavens! I’ve had no problem picking up books this week. I think what did it was A) Your suggestions and B) reading a bunch of m/m. I love reading it…but sometimes it makes me long for a good m/f HEA I guess.

Anyway, on to what I read this week:

First up was Star Crossed: Demon Tailz by Reno McLeod and Jaye Valentine. This is an m/m novella that I was totally into up until the twincest started and I just couldn’t do it. I had to stop reading. I can read a lot of stuff…apparently that’s not included. Ew. DNF

I liked the writing by McLeod and Valentine so my abrupt halt in my previous read didn’t stop me from picking up Star Crossed 2: Opposite Ends of the Spectrum. This story involved a demon and an angel who meet while being held captive and were shown off at what appeared to be a carnival freak show. The two men escape and start a relationship. 10 years later and they’re still in love, but trouble is a brewing – how will the two work things out? I liked this book but was slightly confused by the end and the whole angel thing. If you’ve read this – we need to talk. lol 3.5 out of 5

Next up was Hell Cop by Astrid Amara, Nicole Kimberling and Ginn Hale. I really liked these story about 3 different cops who work in the city with demons and sorcerers and all kinds of various beings. They’re called hell cop’s because it’s pretty much hell working there. 3 really good m/m stories. 4.25 out of 5

Accidentally Were? by Anne Douglas was next on the list. Another impulse buy at ARe. It was the story of a straight laced woman who has a one night stand and now all the dogs in the area are following her around. lol She goes to talk to her best friend’s neighbor cuz he’s a vet. Well he just wants to do her on the floor of his house…so he does. See – she had had sex with a were-being of some sort and one of them had nipped her enough to change her and she happened to be ovulating so she was in heat and all the beasts in the neighborhood were following her scent. Sounds weird but it was pretty funny. The book has some hot sex, humor and of course twu wuv. 🙂 3.75 out of 5

Half Past Dead by Zoe Archer and Bianca D’Arc was a book I read for The Book Binge. If you like zombies you’ll want to read these two stories, maybe. lol I’ll let you know when my review posts.

My Tracy’s TBR Challenge read for the week was Seduce Me At Sunrise by Lisa Kleypas. This was Win and Kev’s story and I really liked it. I had read mixed reviews of the story and though the book made me want to crawl through it and smack Kev at times I really liked it. 4.25 out of 5

Bad Boys, Bad Boys by Mia Watts was my next read. Another impulse purchase (yes, I do that a lot) but it was pretty darned good. Two cops, best friends and partners, and one’s been having erotic dreams about the other. One night when Geo is drunk he puts the moves on his friend, Mack, and Mack’s freaked out, but can’t stop thinking how good it was. I loved how the two worked it all out. There’s one scene when they’re on a stake out and they’re in the car kissing, yet practically beating each other up as well. Great scene. Do I think it would happen when they were on a stake out? Probably not but that’s where suspension of belief comes in to play. 🙂 4 out of 5

Next was Jock Dorm: Dar and Gregg by Bobby Michaels. Dar and Gregg meet because Dar, a non-jock, gets put into the Jock Dorm. He falls hard for his roommate and they become great friends. But Dar can’t handle being in love with Gregg when Gregg’s not gay. Guess again. This part of the story was just cute. Gregg and Dar falling in love was pretty cool and I liked that part of the book. Their sex was hot too, the first couple of times, but then it was just too much for me. I think if the book had been shorter with about 1/3 of the sex I would have loved it. I’m sure there are others out there that loved the length of the book and the amount of sex, I’m just not one of them. 🙂 2.5 out of 5

And last but not least was yet another book that I read for The Book Binge, Smolder by Melina Morel. This one didn’t work for me – which was sad since I was looking forward to reading it. I’ll let you know when my review posts.