My next novel will be out June of 2018. I’ve been posting about the process of writing it, and a lot of you are asking what am I working on? Is it an Anita Blake novel, or a Merry Gentry one? Or something new? The answer to your question is in the picture we’ve just posted, or at least clues to the answer are there. The picture will tell you what series, some of the characters featured, and even some of the important plot points. There’s even a clue in this message. All you have to do is decipher the clues and you’ll have your answer. You’ll get your biggest hint next week, which will end some of the speculation, but not all of it. Shall we play a game?
As most of you know by now, I’m kind of a big fan of Amy Lane, in general, and as an author. I stumbled upon Vulnerable back when it was first published, and I have been watching, waiting and cheering each time a book came out and we got to join Cory on her journey through an alternate world where all the rules are good ones…
The new Amy Lane website http://www.greenshill.com/
Uhhhh i’m not sure I can talk about this in a coherent fashion but wth I’ll give it a shot. Everything, EVERY SINGLE THING from the second Cassie and Pritkin end up in that security booth is pure pain. Like when he made the decision to switch back, did he know his body wouldn’t have the energy to heal the wound? Probably. He just looks at the injury for a second and decides in that split second to die for Cassie. I mean, damn, Pritkin’s not perfect by any stretch of the imagination but his commitment to Cassie is INSANE. And then, then, he’s dying and he’s still trying to keep her safe?? He knows that if he admits that he can’t heal she won’t leave him, and he can’t look at her and I think it’s partly guilt, because she’s so upset, he didn’t think she’d be so upset, and partly that it hurts way more than he was expecting? Like not the physical pain, but the separation from her, he’s faced with saying goodbye to her and I don’t think he can do it. And don’t even get me started on Cassie’s reaction, the panic, the pleading, the disbelief: “I stared at him, unable to believe this was happening. That he could just disappear, along with everything rich and strange he’d brought into my life. Vanished, like magic.” Listen, I’m not crying, you’re crying. I’m not saying Cassie was in love with Pritkin at that point, because I don’t think she 100% was. But he’s already more than just a friend to her.
The pain continues. I’m honestly surprised Pritkin doesn’t get slapped more often, he’s dying and he tries to use it as a freaking ‘teachable moment,’ like what is wrong with you??? Okay, I know what’s wrong with him, he’s horrendously bad at comforting people because he’s spent the last hundred years actively repressing his own feelings and has such low self-worth that I don’t think he actually realises how badly his death would affect her. “One person is not so important in the scheme of things.” GOOD FUCKING BYE TO MY HEART. And then he’s so gentle with her? He cups her face and wipes away her tears and runs his fingers through her hair??? I love how he seems to like rediscover this forgotten capacity for tenderness with her, I love how when she kisses him to get him to feed, he just kisses her back, he kisses her goodbye, you can’t tell me that he didn’t feel something like love for the first time in decades at that moment. That he didn’t have a bittersweet revelation that he repressed as hard as he could after but never quite managed it. And Cassie’s “I can’t lose you,” that’s a ‘more than friends’ line if ever there was one. UGH what did I do to deserve being battered with these FEELINGS.
The actual sexy stuff is somehow WORSE bcs you’ve got all this reigned-in need and passion on Pritkin’s side and Cassie’s trying so hard to get him to let loose. Her reaction when he says please?? There’s a little streak of dom in our girl. And don’t even get me started on Pritkin calling her ‘Miss Palmer’ during sex (WHY IS THAT SO HOT?? – that’s pretty much my motto for this whole book) and just, the slow, deliberate way he teases her – ugggggh PLEASE. Anyway, this chapter ruined my life, I’m emigrating to the sun.
OK, So I have been a little silent for a while but figured I’d do my somewhat usual call and response to a post. I’m planning to do another reread soon, and I am sure I will have way more to say, but as we know these post and responses keep me a little on track…
There’s a great deal of angst and so much has changed between Cassie and Pritkin, but I view this a little differently. I think that both Cassie and Pritkin slip under each others defenses. Cassie is growing up and collecting friends, lovers and family left and right. Pritkin is trying to protect an unprotectable Pythia from everyone and anyone. Between body swaps and time jumps, its all too damn much. Pritkin is being Pritkin and for him its better to die in service to Cassie than to take a chance with emotions and feelings. Far easier to die than to live.
As for how he restrains himself and that Cassie isn’t letting him go without a fight, well they are both playing to their strengths. Would Cassie’s life be easier if one war mage was interchangeable with another-sure. But Cassie has never taken the easy road. Of course the craziness has gone to another level, but really even the body swap was going above the previous level of craziness!
All right so there’s my opinion, take it leave it argue about it -thats the point of the reread right!
I am a huge fan of Shiloh Walker. I have been for a very long time, so when I
heard about Pieces of Me I got excited.
I love all of Shiloh’s series and had read a good number of her other
works. The great thing about Shiloh’s
work is that even within the same genre each story is unique. Shiloh is able to really encapsulate the
feelings of her characters and this book did not disappoint. If you like romantic suspense novels, this is
definitely a great read. This book has
graphic sex and violence against women.
While the heroine does a great job being a survivor, it could be
upsetting to those who have experienced abuse.
You have the main
heroine, Shadow Grace-A woman who has been broken so completely she doesn’t
know how to survive. She struggles to
make a life for herself while recovering from a traumatic experience that makes
Russian prison camps look nice. Yet, as
broken as she may be, she clings to her art and has the talent to bring beauty
into an unforgiving world. Shadow isn’t fully
healed but every day she is getting stronger and she dares to reach by starting
to fantasize about a guy she sees on the beach regularly. Shadow barely dares to dream about a man, but
for some reason, this one-well he sticks in her brain. And he doesn’t come out easy, even when
fantasy starts to merge with reality and they meet.
The hero of our story seems perfect in so many ways. Strong, supportive and a little bit dark with
a body that doesn’t quit, Jenks seems like the perfect man. As they start to build something together, he
doesn’t fall apart when Shadow starts the revelation process, in fact he seems
to stick a little harder. But he has a
secret and once it is revealed-well things are not quite as simple as they
first seem.
Of course, the past comes back to haunt Shadow and not only
Jenks but some of the other friends she has made find themselves in
danger. While Shadow know just how sick
and depraved people can be, others doubt that it could have really been that
bad. When the past swallows all of them
whole, only a few will have the chance to survive. And after that—life will never be the same.
Shadow manages to rebuild herself and truly become strong,
facing not only her past but her present and deciding that she deserves more
than what Jenks can give. But when her
past still threatens her, she finds that safety can be found in a strong
partner and Shadow has to decide whether to stand on her own or chance being
hurt again.
Pieces of Me
Shiloh Walker
July 25, 2017
Obsession can be deadly... Nobody knows that better than Shadow Harper. It seemed like a dream come true when a rich, suave older man noticed her during her second year of college. Stefan Stockman seemed to love her obsessively. He came into her life and swept her off her feet, seduced her, married her...and then slowly, eventually, that dream come true became a living nightmare. Now, three years after she finally escaped him, she's trying to put her life back together. Haunted by memories, struggling with post-traumatic stress, she spends most of her time locked away in her home on Pawley's Island, a small town on the South Carolina coast. Her rare moments of joy come from her trips to the nearby beach. She compulsively checks the locks on her doors, makes sure she has her cell phones--five of them--and if she misses something on her schedule, it throws her into a panic. When she accidentally leaves a sketchbook on the beach, an anxiety attack seems imminent. Her art has become her salvation, her sanity, and losing even one sketch is like losing a piece of her soul. When she returns to hunt for the sketchbook, already fearing it's gone for good, she's surprised to find it still sitting there, saved by a sexy fellow beach lover--the mysterious Dillian Jenkins. He's brash, bold, brutally handsome...and gentle. He's the exact opposite of the man who'd tormented her for years, and Shadow finds herself slowly, almost reluctantly, falling for him. Even obsessing over him. When her ex-husband once again intrudes on the happiness she's finally discovering, Shadow turns to Dillian. But will she find shelter there...or another betrayal?
When I first started the book, I was confused. It started out very similarly to some of the
other books and was so close that I actually checked that I had the right e-book. But, it quickly moves on to original content
and boy, is it a revelation-almost as big as when Eira was shown to be a member
of the Circle. For those of you who have
not gotten that far in the series, please stop reading here! Snared is a great addition to the Elemental
Assassin series. It has all the great
writing that I have come to expect from Jennifer Estep and moves the story
along. I love this series, and I love
that Estep’s writing always exceeds my expectations. There is never any editorial missteps or any
plot sinkholes. In fact, I expect so
much from Estep’s writing that I keep expecting to be disappointed-but I never
am. This deserves accolades and awards
as there are few authors who can live up to my insane expectations.
Snared has the usual intricate plot that seamlessly integrates
the stand-alone story with the overall story arc. We discover that Eira’s relationship to the
circle was closer then previously thought.
We have a deepening understanding of Hugh Tucker and we get to see Gin
in her element, helping friends and kicking butt! In the process, Gin cements more alliances
and as her circle of friends, allies and family continues to grow so does she. My personal opinion is that Gin’s world is
growing grayer. Not all villains are 100%
bad and Gin herself recognizes that she is the villain of some criminal’s
tales.
It is a great read and a wonderful addition to the
series. A true five stars for this great
book!
OK, So I finally pulled my head out of the Chanceverse and looked around only to realize a whole slew of Book Birthdays were yesterday (for those of us not gifted with huge netgalley accounts, grumble grumble)! But now I have a problem-which do I read first? So I thought I would lay out my deliberations here, and maybe give some suggestions in the process…
Book One is Wicked Abyss by Kresley Cole. This is our yearly installment in the Immortals After Dark series. We got a spin-off novel a little while ago with Shadow’s Seduction which was a long awaited book with two very familiar characters. I am excited to see where we are going with Nix’s jump into the insanity pool (if you don’t read the series, this will make no sense at all) but I don’t know these characters yet. Hopefully they will end up as lovable as Jo and Rune but I really don’t know if I am following where Nix’s train is heading…it seemed to jump the tracks a bit…
Book two is Snared by Jennifer Estep This is book 16 in the Elemental Assassin series and promises to be an interesting read. Gin Blanco the assassin we all love so very much is trying to unravel the conspiracy that revolves around her Mother and the mysterious Circle. Estep always delivers a great story and I never have to worry about where it’s going because we all know there will be heartbreak and our Assassin with a Heart will save the day or extract vengeance…
Book 3 is Blade Bound by Chloe Neill- This one promises to be a heartbreaker as it’s the last of the Chicagoland Vampires series…I can’t imagine how this series can end- I mean Ethan already died and came back to undeadness…And there’s all the subplots that just can’t be ending SOB SOB …
So I know for a lot of people, the “big deal” of Quickening’s release is sort of lost.
Amy writes lots of books. Lots of big books. So?
And let’s face it—this one’s got a girl on the cover, and, yes, well, girls on the cover of an author known for her gay male romance work does not inspire a lot of “HUZZAH!”
But, like with everything, there is a story…
So, once upon a time there was an English teacher who felt compelled to go back to school to get her master’s degree. Why? Well, it was unclear even then. All of her peers were doing it, and it appeared to be the only way to get any income mobility and…
Whatever.
Everybody else was getting their MA in education, the better to become administration, but this particular English teacher wouldn’t touch administration with a barge pole. Ugh. Gross. No.
But learn more about her subject matter? Holy Goddess YES!
So she took a bunch of different classes—an entire semester on Hamlet, anyone? And finally decided that creative writing was where she wanted to be.
And she was in this class, loving it, when some asshole dropped a couple of planes on some buildings in New York, and she had a big epiphany: She’d left her two young children at home during her school time, and they were only six and eight at the time, and she didn’t want to spend her precious moments taking classes to make a quota, she wanted to spend her time with them.
So she dropped out of the master’s program—but she kept writing.
Three and a half years later she self-published the book she’d started during that time in the master’s class. It felt like self-aggrandizement mostly—the master’s project was a finished novel, and hey, she’d done that, so even if she didn’t have the piece of paper to prove it, she had Vulnerable.
This was back when self-publishing was in its infancy, and our English teacher made a LOT of mistakes—a lot of them surprisingly enough, in English.
This was back during a DARK period in language instruction. A time called “whole language” learning—when it was considered unprofessional for an English teacher to so much as request a grammar textbook to teach her students how to write English with any sort of proficiency. They were supposed to just “absorb” that knowledge from the books they read.
For the record—it didn’t work.
Also?
It destroyed this particular English teacher’s basic knowledge of grammar and punctuation—all she was reading at the time was student papers.
Which meant when her masterpiece came out, there were some really fucking embarrassing errors all over the goddamned manuscript.
But she didn’t care. Because seriously. How many people were going to read something she wrote? She worked in an extremely misogynistic environment—none of the people in her staff room would so much as let her finish a sentence. She grew up with people who thought she was too stupid to finish college in the first place—and were really confused as to why she’d take master’s classes in something that wouldn’t get her more money just because she hated the job. Her students thought she was okay—but it was an inner-city school, and the ones who didn’t think she was okay told her she was a dumbfuck twat on a daily basis, and her administration didn’t really think that was too bad on the whole.
Her children—whom she adored—both had their own difficulties in school. Obviously her fault, because what did she do wrong to produce a kid with a communication handicap and one with a skewed, Eyeore view of life, even at six?
Nobody would read this book. (Except her outstanding and wonderful Mate.) Nobody would care. It was her accomplishment, and hers alone, and she was really proud of it.
And she was proud of the next one, and the next one, and the one after that. For six years, her Christmas gift from her husband was a chance to self-publish the book she’d written that year between kids and school and soccer and dance and karate and, oh, hey, giving birth to two more children for a total of four.
And then, one day, someone on Twitter asked for a short fic—just a short fic—based on a video of some really hot guys and a dirty guitar riff, and she wrote it, just for fun…
And these people—this publishing company—loved it.
In fact, they had read her books. They loved her stories. They thought she was worthwhile—they wanted to see what else she could write.
And her love affair with writing purely gay romance began.
Now, the last thing she’d written on her own had been the fourth book in her first series—Rampant.
And she’d dropped a helluva bomb at the end of that book. A sort of, uh, BIG cliffhanger. Or two.
And just when her writing career in gay romance took off, her teaching career took a HUGE, devastating, killing hit—and yes, the two things were very closely connected. So suddenly, writing gay romance became the thing she absolutely had to do.
It became her livelihood.
And finishing that series—ending that cliffhanger—that became the last thing on her list.
So… what does this have to do with Quickening?
Seven years ago I wrote a book that ended with a teeny-tiny-itty-bitty sorceress being told some VERY BIG GINORMOUS LIFE CHANGING NEWS.
And people have been waiting to see how that comes out. For seven years.
So I’m going to be writing some blog posts about this book in the next week—and I’m going to be WAY more excited about its release than I think my community is going to be.
But that’s okay—because the first book was something I wanted to do for myself. And this book was a promise I kept to all the people who thought that first book was something special, something that resonated with them, and took the time to tell me that my voice—the one that seemed to be raised desperately unheard for so long—was really important to them.
So it’s possible Quickening isn’t going to take the gay romance world by storm.
But I’m so happy that it’s out, I’m could actually cry.
If you’re interested in the books that started it all, start with Vulnerable—it’s been re-edited and recovered, as have all of the original books in the series.
If you’re a fan of the series already, and you’ve been waiting for the last seven years—you’re the best. Period. I couldn’t have done the last twelve years without you.
Quickening, volume 1
Little Goddess (Book 5)
Amy Lane
DSP Publications
(May 2, 2017)
316 pages
Little Goddess: Book Five
Volume One
Cory thought she’d found balance on Green's Hill—sorceress, student, queen of the vampires, wife to three men—she had it down! But establishing her right to risk herself with Green and Bracken had more than one consequence, and now she’s facing the world's scariest job title: mother.
But getting the news that she’s knocked up takes a back seat when a half-elf hunts them down for help. Her arrival brings news that the werewolf threat, which has been haunting them for over a year, has finally arrived on their doorstep—and it’s bigger and more frightening than they’d ever imagined.
Cory throws herself into this new battle with everything she’s got—and her men let her do it. Because they all know that whether they defeat this enemy now or later, the thing she's most afraid of is arriving on a set schedule, and not even Cory can avoid it. The trick is getting her to acknowledge she's pregnant before she gives birth—or kills herself in denial.
I made the mistake of thinking I could savor this book – that I could treat myself to one or two chapters a night. I was so wrong. I had to DEVOUR it.
It went by so fast and it pulled me in every direction. I feel like that’s hard to do with a book series that’s basically a sci-fi/ fantasy Lord of the Rings, but the style of writing makes it impossible for me to stop wanting more. Plus, hey I don’t know if it was intentional, but “Get off the road!”
It felt like a massive shake-up for the series re: the war, the characters, the alliances, etc. I had to take a break at one point and refuel on ch.1-2 of Reap the Wind. Side note/spoiler kinda: Caedmon makes another appearance and I am just such a fan of this guy. In the future, I want more and more of his cat-and-mouse play/badassery (for that is his true element)!
The book seemed the darkest one yet. For instance, one part has me I’m-seriously-listening-to-Susan-Boyle’s-cover-of-“Wild-Horses”-on-repeat sad. On the other hand I’m also super happy because I get to read about Pritkin again!
The darker tone could be for any number of reasons, but it’s most likely just because the war is higher stakes, it’s grander, and things just couldn’t stay the way they were. Not like there isn’t humor because there’s definitely still that (Glob!Rosier’s da real MVP), but like I said, gut punching in other respects. And unexpected (at least, I wasn’t expecting things to happen the way they happened). Where do we go from here? As a reader I’m being kept on my toes. I love it.
And I am already desperate for more.
—4.88 stars (that .12 is the broken part of my heart, which the other parts of my heart are mocking. Poor .12). Will be posting to Goodreads as soon as I make an account and figure it out.
Great review! I think you’re right, the tone is definitely darker – I think there were just less of those sidesplitting comic sequences usually peppered throughout the series (think Dory on the run with a headless mostly naked Ray). And that ‘fucking Merlin’ tag = ACCURATE lol.
another arc review!!!
Ride the Storm
Cassandra Palmer
Karen Chance
Signet
August 1, 2017
432
The New York Times bestselling author of Reap the Wind returns to the “fascinating world”* of Cassie Palmer. Ever since being stuck with the job of pythia, the chief seer of the supernatural world, Cassie Palmer has been playing catch up. Catch up to the lifetime's worth of training she missed being raised by a psychotic vampire instead of at the fabled pythian court. Catch up to the powerful, and sometimes seductive, forces trying to mold her to their will. It's been a trial by fire that has left her more than a little burned. But now she realizes that all that was the just the warm up for the real race. Ancient forces that once terrorized the world are trying to return, and Cassie is the only one who can stop them...
So, I think that absolutely everyone knows I am a Karen Chance fan. I am a reader, so for me finding a great series is like finding a lost present the day after your birthday. Some of the series are one off’s-I will read them once and they will forever live in my head and one day a friend will say something about a series in which Mab owns a circus and I’ll be able to pull the title out of nowhere. Some, Like Karen Chance become a large part of my life as I try to drum up support for their releases. Some I support on Patreon, because the thought of a world without the next Kit Colbana book makes me want to cry!
There are lots of authors I connect with as a reader and I ask questions of lots of them. Some like Karen answer me themselves, others have Media Minions who answer for them. I treasure each of these interactions and can live off the excitement for days. But there are a few who become my friends. There is no one I respect more than Amy Lane. I have been a fan of her works for what feels like forever. I love her Little Goddess Series which she self published. I warn you there is explicit sex with multiple partners. Amy also writes m/m romance novels and she shys away from nothing. Her books are real and there is lots of emotional reality. There are lots of situations that will break your heart. The characters are easily related to.
Quickening, volume 1