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• *** "Lover's Locket" by Cathryn Fox.
  
  Caira has always been fascinated by the portrait of Zarek that's been in her family for generations. Then an old gypsy woman gives her the Lover's Locket--if she recites its incantation, her true love will be revealed... and she'll also wake the Keeper of Darkness, and unless she can defeat him, she'll die.
  
  Of course Caira recites the incantation (people in stories always do, no matter what the warnings), Zarek comes to life, and they have a lot of sex. Turns out, Caira is the reincarnation of Zarek's love.
  
  I'm thinking this story could have done with an extra 50 pages or so, because as it is, Caira goes directly from fantasizing about a picture to a marathon sex session to ****spoiler, but only if you've never read any stories before **** being willing to die for him **** with no pauses in between. It's kind of the epitome of good sex = twoo wuv.
  
  I wasn't all that impressed with the sex scene, though it was certainly long. I wanted some more emotion in there, not just detailed slot A/tab B descriptions. It gets boring.
  
  And because I wasn't really invested in the story, the dialogue started getting to me. Things like "Zarek, let me love you as I've longed to do." From a modern woman? And by the time I got to "Wiggle your backside for me, Caira" it gave me a serious case of the giggles. But like I said, it wouldn't have bothered me if I'd been more into the story in the first place.
  
  
• ****½ "Kili's Ice Man" by Delilah Devlin.
  
  Kili has long had a thing for gladiator "Ice Man" Gunnar Thorsson. So when she has to give a marketing presentation to the gladiator executives and the "Ice Man" is there, she's beyond nervous. So her friend Willa convinces her to do a quick virtual reality vacation before the presentation to calm down.
  
  Unfortunately, Gunnar overheard her conversation with Willa, where she describes him as just what she wants: not too bright, but with a great body. So he bribes the tech to put him in the same VR vacation with her--and if she wants a caveman, he'll give her a caveman.
  
  Except it worked all too well, and he can't even communicate with more than a few grunts.
  
  I absolutely loved this story. I was initially irritated with Kili--I can't at all relate to the idea of preferring pretty and dumb. If he's got a brain, he can be a troll for all I care. (of course, that's coming from the smug position of not having to choose!) But she surprised me. It's the best kind of romance story, where the hero and the heroine are exactly what the other wants and needs, although they don't quite know it yet.
  
  In addition, it had science fiction elements and a healthy dose of humor. Gunnar's frustration with being a caveman was too funny. I'll be looking for more stories by Delilah Devlin.
  
  
• **** "The Hottest One-Night Stand" by Lisa Renee Jones.
  
  Assistant D. A. Jessica Montgomery is a divorced workaholic. She sees a man in a bar and is instantly attracted to him, but he leaves before she can work up the courage to approach him.
  
  Then her car breaks down, it's stormy, and the only motel in the small town is full. She's intending to spend the night in her car, when the same man comes up to her car and invites her to share his motel room. Where, of course, they have hot sex--it's a romantic erotica anthology, after all.
  
  Up until this point, I was a little dubious about the story. I'm not wild about stories about people doing dumb things and then getting lucky and things working out okay. But then there was an amazing, excellent twist that I'm not going to tell you about, but it was very cool.
  
  And the ending was just perfect--**** general spoiler **** a decision to give a relationship a try. I wouldn't have bought a marriage proposal at this point, or a declaration of forever love. ****
  
  One little quibble that cost this story a half star--I thought the "Latin lover" thing was a wee bit overdone. Particularly since that just consisted of reminding us that he was Hispanic and him calling her "mi hermosa" over and over again.
  
  
• ***½ "Out of the Shadows" by Myla Jackson.
  
  Vampire-killing cop TJ Evans had a great one-night stand with next-door neighbor Cassidy Jones and thought it was the start of a relationship, but she's been avoiding him ever since. Now a category 5 hurricane is on its way, and he finds out the truth when he tries to make sure Cassidy is evacuating: she's become a vampire.
  
  This could be a classic romance between mortal enemies tale--and we do see a lot of Cassidy's anguished emotions, but TJ goes from "the only good vampire is a dead vampire" to "so you're a vampire--no biggie" in the blink of an eye.
  
  Basically, this is another story that could have used a few more pages. If TJ's emotions had been more fleshed out, if he'd had a harder time accepting that the woman he thought he could fall in love with was a creature he was dedicated to hunting and killing, this would have been an excellent story.
  
  
• ***** "Tempting Grace" by Sasha White.
  
  Minister's son Lukas Martin has been asking Grace Walters out, but she keeps turning him down. Grace is an ex-stripper who wasn't unlike the troubled teens she works with now. And she's older than he is. If she didn't think so highly of Lukas, she'd probably accept his invitations, but as it is, she doesn't think she's good enough for him.
  
  Then Grace suddenly gives in, on the condition that it's for one night only--she doesn't explain why, but the reader knows it's because she lost one of her kids.
  
  Sasha White was why I bought this anthology, and I wasn't disappointed. The story between Lukas and Grace is rich with emotion and sensuality.
  
  It's mostly Grace's story, as she has the emotional journey of learning that she's more than her past and becoming able to accept love. But Lukas isn't given short shrift, either. He's come to know and love Grace through working with her, and his doubts and frustrations at her repeated refusals are so vivid they brought tears to my eyes.
  
  While reading this, I realized that most times when I've read this sort of plot--a heroine who thinks she's not good enough for the hero--the hero knows she thinks this and basically ends up behaving like a cross between a psychologist and a teacher, doing and saying things for her own good, teaching her to trust herself. Lukas didn't do that. Lukas was more real than that. He reacted the way a real-life hero would, with frustration and persistence. I can't tell you how much I appreciate that. It puts the hero and heroine back on an equal footing, even though the heroine has some issues she needs to work through.
  
  
• *** "A Familiar Kind of Magic" by Sylvia Day.
  
  Familiar Victoria St. John has turned feral after the death of her master, and it's up to Hunter Max Westin to either tame her or kill her.
  
  From what I can surmise, Familiars need a master. They can shapeshift, and they act as foci for their masters' magic.
  
  And of course (see above, re: erotic romance anthology) the taming takes the form of sex.
  
  I had a real love/hate relationship with this story. On the one hand, it was probably the most steamy story of the anthology. The sex scenes were hot and inventive, but they were also extremely sensual with lots of sensory details. There was also a very strong emotional and plot component to the sex scenes, as Familiars are by nature submissives, and Victoria's been fighting that part of her nature. I suspect if I'd been... heh... familiar with Familiars, with this world, I'd have absolutely loved this story.
  
  But I was squicked almost beyond bearing by the childlike way Victoria was portrayed, and the nearly-parental feelings Max seemed to have for her. It's probably an eye-of-the-beholder thing, but every time they weren't having sex and he was tending her like a child, I got squicked all over again, and I just couldn't get over that.
  
  
• **** "Quick Silver" by Vivi Anna.
  
  Sangria Silver is a freelance conveyer, delivering packages that are probably mostly illegal, given the rates she charges--but she can't be certain, because she has a rule to never look inside a package.
  
  That rule gets accidentally broken when a car accident opens the shiny metal case, revealing sex worker Vance Verona. Sangria had known this assignment was bad news from the beginning--her contact knew far too much about her, and was offering far too much money. And when Vance mentions that it's the First Lady behind it, Sangria realizes she's as good as dead.
  
  I really, really loved the premise for this story, and the near-future setting. But once again, I wished it were longer. So much more about Sangria's job and the future world could have been explored. In fact, I'd love to see this as a movie. It's got such a fun plot that you could even tone the sex scenes down to an R-rating and still have a cool movie.
  
  It also suffers from the problem you find in a lot of romantic suspense books and movies: the bad guys are after them, but the hero and heroine find time to grab some nookie anyway.
  
  Also, the ending was a little abrupt.
  
  Really, though, a very fun story. Futuristic action-adventure. I've just spent way too much time trying to cast the movie in my head--I suck at the casting game, by the way, because I didn't come up with a couple I liked. If you have any ideas, leave them in the comments.

Labels: 3 stars, 3.5 stars, 4 stars, 4.5 stars, 5 stars, books, EroticRomance

// posted by Darla @ 10/15/2008 12:21:00 PM