July TBR challenge

AngieW’s July challenge was romantic suspense. I can do that, right? I’ve got all kinds of R/S in my TBR pile. Couldn’t get interested in any of them. I read Crazy Love, which is romantic suspense and was on my TBR list – but it wasn’t in my TBR pile, I read a library copy when it was release. Does that count?

Another book that had been on my TBR list but not in the pile (again) was Keri Arthur’s Full Moon Rising. It was on my reserve list for three months and arrived via interlibrary loan at last! It is an erotic paranormal urban fantasy romantic suspense novel.

Title: Full Moon Rising
Author: Keri Arthur
Copyright: 2006


Sorry about the white space, couldn't get rid of it
no matter how much I fiddled with the image.

A rare hybrid of vampire and werewolf, Riley Jenson and her twin brother, Rhoan work for Melbourne’s Directorate of Other Races, an organization created to police the supernatural races – and protect humans from their depredations.

While Rhoan is an exalted guardian, a.k.a. assassin, Riley is merely an office worker – until her brother goes missing on one of his missions. The timing couldn’t be worse. More werewolf than vampire, Riley is vulnerable to the moon heat, the weeklong period before the full moon, when her need to mate becomes all-consuming.

Luckily Riley has two willing partners to satisfy her every need. But she will have to control her urges if she’s going to find her brother . . . . Easier said than done as the city pulses with frenzied desire, and Riley is confronted with a very powerful -- and delectably naked – vamp who raises her temperature like never before.

In matters carnal, Riley has met her match. But in matters criminal, she must follow her instincts not only to find her brother but to stop an unholy harvest. For someone is doing some shifty cloning in an attempt to produce the ultimate warrior – by tapping into the genome of nonhumans like Rhoan. Now Riley knows just how dangerous the world is for her kind – and just how much it needs her. (Book flap summary. © to Keri Arthur and/or Bantam

Why did I want to read this book? I like werewolf books. I think I put it on the TBR list because of a favorable comment over at Smart Bitches when Dayton's The Compass Rose was reviewed and polyamory was a topic of discussion.

How was the cover? Liked the cover. Candle, wolf, shadows, woman in profile, it brought in elements of the plot.

Did I like it? I’m not sorry to have read it, since her paranormal world is a little different from some that I’ve read. Plus it was set in Australia, which is different (although there was no real sense of place, I thought). But the constant boinking veered too close to Anita Blake for me -- it wasn't all sex, but there was a whole lot of it. First, the naked vampire? He’s nominally the hero, but he appears and then disappears; they don’t have sex until well after the midway point of the book, after Riley has begun to experience moonlust. ( My issues with the sex in this book. )

More world building would have been nice. Information was dumped occasionally, rather than being worked into the story.

This book screamed “intro to series” to me. All kinds of bait for future books was laid out: who’s the bad guy who got away? What about the naked vampire? Will Riley’s powers enhance because of the experimental drugs she was given? Will she become a Guardian?

Suspense? Yes
Romance? Not so much.

My grade: C-.

New to me author? Will I read her again? Yes, new to me. I'd be willing to read her books again, but from the library until/unless future books work better for me.

Keep or return? Library book so I can’t keep it. But no, not a keeper for me. Too much was left unresolved, waiting for the next book. Series bait. Too much sex, not enough of anything else.

Anything else? I had never seen a copy of KA’s books in the bookstore before (I looked before requesting it via ILL), until this weekend, when I saw several of her ImaJinn trade paperbacks at the WaldenBooks in the Gallery at the Inner Harbor. They look similar, in terms of urban fantasy/paranormal suspense.

A book to add to the library reserve list

I was on the fence about reading Suzanne Brockmann’s Into the Storm. I bought her last book in hardback and was extremely disappointed by the abrupt character shifts in Max and Gina, the hero and heroine who finally got their HEA after a longish story arc. I don’t have anything invested in the latest SEAL hero, Mark Jenkins, but have enjoyed the series, generally speaking.

At the bookstore today, I picked up a copy of Breaking Point, the mmp of her last book. Didn’t buy it (why spend the $? I still have the hardback at home) but I wanted to see if an excerpt of the next book was included. Yup. I like the heroine so far. But the thing that makes me interested in reading the book? Jenk’s childhood nickname: Weebles. As in Weeble-Wobbles. Sing song voice: Weebles wobble but they don’t fall down! I had a Weeble-Wobble Haunted House – I think Mom still has some of the figures in the box of toys she keeps around for when people with small kids visit her. I adored that thing, especially the revolving bookcase in the library. ::sigh:: Anyway, I planned on waiting until Into the Night was out in mmp to read it, but I’ll put a copy on hold at the library now.

First I read Crazy Love just because there’s a character named Skeeter (like a childhood friend), now I’m going to read Brockmann’s latest because of a childhood toy. What’s next? A book titled Little Hugs because I loved those little barrel shaped, Kool-Aid-like drinks as a kid? Ah, nostalgia.