Kiss of the Spindle by Nancy Campbell Allen – Review

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5 stars, Adventure, Nancy Campbell Allen, romance, series, Steampunk

About Kiss of the Spindle

Doctor Isla Cooper is cursed. Literally. Each night, at the stroke of midnight she falls into a death-like sleep from which she cannot be awakened for six hours. To make it worse, the curse has an expiration date–after a year, it becomes permanent. And the year is almost up.

In a desperate attempt to find Malette–the witch who cursed her–Isla blackmails her way onto Daniel Pickett’s private airship bound for the Caribbean, only to discover she’s traveling with three illegal shapeshifters and the despicable Nigel Crowe, a government official determined to hunt down and exterminate every shapeshifter in England. Isla and Daniel must work together to keep the identities of the shapeshifters hidden while coming to terms with their own hidden secrets, and their blossoming attraction to each other.

Filled with suspense, intrigue, and plenty of romance, Kiss of the Spindle is steampunk Sleeping Beauty story. It is a race against the clock as Isla and Daniel try to hunt down the elusive Malette before Isla’s death-like sleep becomes permanent.

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Review of Kiss of the Spindle

Doctor Isla Cooper is brilliant and determined. It is that determined bit that gets her onto a last minute flight to the Caribbean. Her methods are less than polite and Daniel Pickett’s initial impression is not favorable. However, after he divests her of all her weapons, he begins to feel a little respect/attraction to the good Doctor. And when he learns more about who she is and what she does, the esteem level raises even more. The initial meeting between Isla and Daniel does a tremendous job of setting the stage not only for the forthcoming romance, but also for the adventure and intrigue to follow.

Daniel is aiding three shifter passengers to help them to a better life. Unfortunately, another last minute passenger, the extremely disagreeble Nigel Crowe of the Predatory Shifter Regulations Committee, is going to test Daniel’s patience and his skill as an airship polite. Crowe’s presence on the ship was both annoying and entertaining. Unfortunately, as the journey progressed, Crowe avoided the other passengers, so there were fewer provocative conversations.

Bits of Isla’s background are related in the beginning, but you learn the most about her through her conversations, journal/list entries and her actions. There is much to this very interesting character to get to know. For example, Isla’s experience and skill with shifters will come in handy during the voyage as they face the coming full moon. Yes, there will be a full moon.

The publisher, Shadow Mountain, has a number of ‘Proper Romance’ novels. They are very PG, with some violence, but no horribly graphic violence. There is no intimate sex on the page and anything more is only hinted at. However, romance in Kiss of the Spindle was not lacking into intensity. I would describe it as ‘Proper’-ly complicated and captivating. The initial antagonistic relationship slowly warms to attraction and more, once Isla and Daniel work through all the other intrigue in their lives.

And there is intrigue. Plenty of it. Everybody seems to be hiding something, some more obvious (shifters) than others (Daniel, Isla, even Crowe). And the curse that has Isla dead to the world for 6 hours every night … Well, ending it will challenge everybody.

The fairy tale theme of Sleeping Beauty is secondary to the characters and the story. As I read, I really did not think of the fairy tale at all until near the end. Kiss of the Spindle is the second in Nancy Campbell Allen’s Steampunk Proper Romance series based on fairy tales. The first, Beauty and the Clockwork Beast, is tied to Kiss of the Spindle by mention of characters and background history. But they are also completely standalone stories. I would recommend both of these books to anyone who enjoys steampunk romance.

Though Edelweiss, the publisher provided a copy of this book so that I could bring you this honest review.

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Tangled Dreams by Cecilia Dominic – Review

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5 stars, Book Review, Cecilia Dominic, dreams, parnormal, series

About Tangled Dreams

When the walls between reality and the dream world crumble, sleeping with the lights on won’t save anyone from their nightmares.

Restaurant reviewer Audrey Aurora Sonoma’s life is like a steakhouse meal: utterly predictable, comfortable, and just exciting enough to satisfy her independent streak. But when odd characters from her dreams show up during daylight hours – were-bats and a vegetarian dragon, of all things! – the menu goes from familiar to fusion. When she learns the job she accepted in her dream is real, well… Who would have guessed the goddess Persephone exists? Finding her – and figuring out why the walls between reality and the Collective Unconscious are slipping – seem to be impossible tasks for a mere mortal.

Damien Lewis turned down promotions to keep his life orderly and predictable. He has enough challenge with real-life hassles like eating regular meals. And forget dating. But after encountering three naked, delirious Jane Does on consecutive nights, he suspects more than drugs are behind their appearances, and he soon becomes much more involved than he’d like.

As the walls between the Collective Unconscious and real world continue to erode, vampires, demons, and, of course, were-bats come through to prey on those who get in the way of the god who is masterminding it all with human help. Can Audrey and Damien face their biggest fears and work together to stop the waking world from being overrun by creatures that no human has dared to dream of? Or will their nightmares become real – and permanent – when the pathways open for good?

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Review of Tangled Dreams

The title of the book is perfect. The is a lot of dreaming and between the dreams and waking life, there is much that could use some untangling!

Tangled Dreams is the first in the Dream Weavers and Truth Seekers series to feature a romantic couple as the heroine and hero. Since I really like the romance aspect in most of my reading, this is very appealing.

The couple, Audrey and Damien, don’t know they are a couple for, well…. It will take them a while to really work that out. Which I like. Love at first sight doesn’t usually trip my trigger. But love after a lot of denial, constant adventure and some soul searching – that hits the spot.

In the meantime, Audrey and Damien have so much to keep them busy. Both are dreamers. Well, of course. That is what the series is about. But Audrey learns she is also a Dream Weaver. What does that mean to her? She can use her dreams to accomplish things, in the Collective Unconscious (CU) and in the real world. It will be an educational adventure for Audrey.

Damien seems to be unlucky enough to get caught up in the whole adventure. He doesn’t think much of this CU theory and believes some of the crazies he has found out on the street are just plain crazy. Not refugees from the CU. Damien is going to learn a whole lot in these pages too!

Someone is causing the walls between the CU and the real world to erode and this does not bode well for humanity. There is some evil masterminding going on and that person will use as many tricks as possible to accomplish the big plan. Including drugs. Which means there must be a drug supplier and and dealer. This is beginning so sound crime syndicate-like.

There are quite a few colorful characters, human, gods, vampires, demons, fairies, dwarves, and a few others I couldn’t readily identify. Lets just say, it is very strange nobody noticed them at Java Lemur, the coffee shop that is both a magical hot spot and the place where Audrey and Damien first glanced each other.

Aphrodite and Cupid are a couple of my favorite god-characters. Their roles are appropriately understated, unexpected and key to the story line.

Readers of the series will recognize Margaret of Cornwall (aunt of King Arthur) and Madame Lucia. Margaret had a staring role in Truth Seeker, but Lucia’s role has always been smaller. Personally, I really like Lucia. She is mysterious yet helpful. I really hope to see more of her in the future.

I’ve been reading this series from the beginning: the prequel (Perchance to Dream), book 1 (Truth Seeker), and now Tangled Dreams. The Dream Weavers and Truth Seekers series continues not only to expand, but also to evolve as a good series should. Consider leaving the real world behind and check out the Collective Unconscious in this series. Sweet Dreams!

The author provided a copy of her book so that I could bring you this honest review.

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Lost Valyr (Project Enterprise #7) by Pauline Baird Jones – Review

Tags

5 stars, aliens, favorite series, humor, parrot, Pauline Baird Jones, scifi, scifi romance, series, space exploration

About Lost Valyr

She’s a scientist in the wrong galaxy. He’s an alien in the wrong century. Can their love reset a terrifying future?

Dr. Rachel Grant knows her way around the Garradian tech on the Kikk Outpost. But the technology she encounters in an alien medical lab stumps even her brilliant mind. With a little help from her scheming parrot sidekick, she manages to push the right buttons and transport them to an uncharted planet…where they find a recently defrosted alien, who heats up Rachel.

Valyr wasn’t going to warm up to the bright-eyed scientist anytime soon…not after she pried centuries of cryosleep from his cold fingers. But waking up in the wrong century is nothing compared to the robots targeting his still-frozen team. And their situation only gets worse when he discovers the spiderweb of destruction trailing in the robots’ wake. With their backs against the wall, Valyr is blown away by Rachel’s determined passion in the face of impossible odds… but they’ll need more than a chemical reaction to survive what is headed their way.

Lost Valyr is the seventh standalone book in the explosive Project Enterprise sci-fi romance series. If you like heart-pounding chemistry, ragtag bands of misfits, and action-packed space battles, then you’ll love Pauline Baird Jones’ rollicking romance.

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Review of Lost Valyr

I always enjoy meeting up with old friends from previous Project Enterprise encounters. Colonel Braedon Carey, Helfron Giddioni, Doc Clementine, Robert Clementine, Emily, and of course, Sir Rupert. Of them all, Doc was the very first Project Enterprise heroine that I met (yes, I read the books out of order), so she is an old friend. I can’t quite see why Rachel finds her so daunting but she does.

Almost immediately, Rachel gets herself into a situation that she is pretty sure Doc and the other brass are not going to be please about. The sitrep – transported off planet, by alien technology, to a medical lab containing a recently awakened-from-cryosleep man named Valyr. Sentient, talking parrot Sir Rupert is Rachel’s work companion and he has made the trip with her.

The transport, by all appearances, was merely an elevator. Alien technology. You gotta love it. I like how all these humans are trying to maintain a presence in a galaxy furnished with all the cool gadgets they don’t understand and, many of which are still being discovered (i.e. they have a lot of nerve). Wouldn’t that be a dream job though! What else are they going to find?

Sir Rupert, who was interesting in Time Trap, gets even more intriguing in Lost Valyr. His talents and goals are slowly revealed. In fact, he is the one that got the elevator to ‘work’. With a co-worker like Sir Rupert, things are going to get interesting. He also has a delightful sense of humor.

Next up are the robots. Are they good or bad? They attack outposts, looking for something and at the same time are pursued by Zaddek (more on Zaddek in a sec). And despite the robotness of their actions, some of their thoughts are a bit human-tinged. Some, not all. So what is their purpose? And where do they fall on the good-to-bad scale? I enjoyed this group of robots as characters and as major plot enhancers. But beware, they are on their way to the outpost where Rachel, Rupert and Valyr are hanging out.

If you don’t want to wonder if a character is good or bad, lets talk about Zaddek. So, a spider as a bad guy. Personally, I like spiders in my garden.  But up close, they are creepy looking.  No two ways about it, Zaddek is really bad! He has been known eat his own crew members. That has got to hamper his overall effectiveness as a captain. What if he eats the very person that can save the ship. Who would volunteer to crew for such a captain? No one. Can you say ‘shanghai’? But there is at least one crew member that is doing what she can to get the hell off the ship and in doing so, Savlf may do more than save herself. Zaddek and Savlf have a very unhealthy relationship. The trouble is Zaddek, like so many successful evil geniuses, is arrogant. Now, we all know that arrogance in the criminal mastermind is a fatal flaw. Zaddek’s arrogance prevents him from realizing just how unhealthy the relationship with Savlf is (mwah, ha, ha). I have to say, Zaddek is so evil, that knowing his weakness from the beginning, gave me hope for all the good guys.

Lets talk about the romance in the the room – Rachel and Valyr. Valyr doesn’t talk much. Rachel seems to make up for it. Though much of conversation is internal, they still seem to communicate well. Rachel thinks that because she is low ranking she won’t get to keep her ‘alien’ like Doc and others that were allowed to keep their odd and alien matchups. Does Valyr want to keep her? He has some unexplained mission, and might have other things to do.

By the end of the book, Rachel and Valyr do seem to have become a couple.  However, Valyr’s presence and purpose are not clearly defined. Readers of the series may link him with events that took place in a different part of the galaxy. Lost Valyr, more than most books in the series, hints at previous stories. Now, I am not saying you have to read the other stories. Lost Valyr is a fine story all on it’s own. If you have read the rest of the series, you will appreciate this one all that much more.

There is so much going on in Lost Valyr. Amazon says there are 337 pages. You need all those pages to cover all this ground. There is romance, aliens, cryosleep, the US Military in Garradian space, old friends from earlier books in the series, the Gadi, robots, Zaddek and his crew, and lest I forget to mention, there is Bangle, the helpful AI of the central outpost. Plus, Ms. Jones’ delightful brand of quirky humor enhances the overall reading experience. Read Lost Valyr. You will not be bored. However, you may be in danger of losing sleep.

The author provided a copy of her book so I could bring you my honest review.

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