Patti O'SheaBesprekingen

Everybody remember the dark, brooding, and jerkish Creed from IN TWILIGHT’S SHADOW, the second book in the Light Warriors series? You may or may not remember that he mentioned being estranged from his family (for classified reasons)—well, meet his estranged little sister Shona. She’s been raised as normal as normal gets, become a glass artist (although currently she's hit a creative blockage) and doesn’t have a clue why sexy Logan Andrews suddenly wants to protect her.

Enemy? What enemy? Classified. But why? Classified. Who ARE you? Classified. That’s kind of how their talks go. Though nothing is ever easy—if it was, why bother reading?—and Logan goes from tight-lipped to ‘how fast can I get information out’, because it becomes clear that Shona is FAR from normal and can help him.

Shona is, in a word, strong. It’s not that she’s the toughest chick I’ve ever read about or that she could kick anyone who comes at her; it's more that she reacts proactively to what happens to her. She doesn’t sit down and shut up and hope it all goes well.

Logan isn’t so bad, at least not next to Creed (still haven’t read Deke’s book yet). He can be gruff, bossy, and overly cautious, but at the heart of things, he just wants to do a good job and keep it as uncomplicated as possible.

Overall, this book didn’t excite me as much as IN TWILIGHT’S SHADOW, but EDGE OF DAWN was still very interesting. The end of the book, when consequences are to be had for rash decisions and actions, is possibly the best part. Shona Vs. Creed—sounds kind of like a Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat fight, huh?

This was a 5 star read for me. It had lots of things that makes me happy in a book. Lots of gut wrenching pathos for example. Sometimes I just get into that stuff. I don't always enjoy a heroine who is unsure of herself but she was well written. She was the type that felt unlovable because of the way her family had treated her growing up and her insecurities just added to the angsty pathos. The hero wins the award for the most messed up super tortured hero I've read in years. But he still managed to fall in love with the heroine and be super protective of her. I enjoyed the way the magic was set up and the different dimensions the people came from etc.

There were obviously books that came before this in a series but I wasn't lost. There were enough references that I caught the gist of what was going on easily enough. No info dumping to catch me up which I appreciated since I'm not dumb. This story stood well on its own. It focused pretty closely on the hero and heroine and their relationship. These were two messed up people who found each other and were stronger together.

The mystery of why the heroine was being attacked was the outside conflict and there was plenty of trying to solve the riddle and plenty of action scenes where the hero was fighting to defend the heroine. She grew during the course of the book, both in confidence that she was worth loving and in how to use her weak magic powers to best effect. The hero desperately needed the heroine's love. You got the feeling that his sanity wouldn't have lasted much longer had he not met her.

Loved it.

3.5 stars - Liked the book, like the lead charactors.

Finding love after going through a worm hole in the future on another planet. Engaging

Demon and vamp separated, reunite to find a killer demon and rekindle their love. I liked this a lot. Would love to read more by her

This started well. Our viewpoint character is a strong, determined woman, focused on doing good.

But it rapidly devolved into a downright offensive story suggesting that a woman should be turned on by having her personal space invaded. After the first scene, the conflict is only there because the character's can't be arsed to actually talk to each other. ARG! I didn't read very far before giving it up.

Since the second he saw her, he knew she was his. The hero can tell she's the reincarnation of the woman he loved but lost so very long ago. Too bad the heroine becomes as skittish as a deer whenever he hints at wanting something deeper than friendship. She grew up in an unstable environment where her mother had a revolving door of lovers. As such she's terrified of what she'll lose if she gives in to the desire for her friend. While on the hunt for a stolen antiquity ring, she and the hero are imprisoned in the mysterious alien pyramid to die. They escape, barely, but now find themselves trap in a maze of unexplored levels with little water and no food. The hero's special ops training kick in and he leads her on a search for the exit while running from armed men looking to kill them. On top of all that, the pyramid has discovered the reincarnation of it's priestess and is trying to possess her as its own. The hero will do anything and everything to protect her and keep her safe but he can't battle trained men, an ancient pyramid and the heroine's skittishness. Luckily for him she possesses a level head and the ability to listen to instructions and help out in anyway she can. She also starts dreaming about their past lives and it's making it harder for her to stop herself from falling into the hero's arms. I liked this book to an extent but I found it to be rather boring considering they spend the whole book running through the maze, being chases by guys who want them dead. I can say however that I enjoyed the hero and heroine's characters and the fact that they weren't melodramatic or whiney, and the heroine was the perfect balance of vulnerability and strength. She's capable of taking care of herself but she's also smart enough and trusted the hero enough to protect her. She has a good reason for why she fights the attraction between them and honesty I don't know what I'd do in her shoes. You can understand why she wouldn't want to damage the closest friendship she has for sex when the men in life were all discarded by her mother the second she tired of them. I loved the hero with his patience and barely contained desire for the woman he'd fallen in love with at first sight. I won't say it was a bad book because it wasn't it just was lacking that certain spark.

The heroine is burning the wick at both ends. Not only has she to deal with the abusive childhood and outcast from her people, but she's horrible scarred AND now she's being targets but unknown but power beings. In her desperation, she seeks out the help of a woman who was once her friend but she instead finds the hero. He is beyond traumatized by his imprisonment and torture and racked with bone deep chilling guilt over what he did. He doesn't rust anyone, certainly not a woman who's supposed to be his enemy. But he's her only hope for survival and the fact that when she's around he feels something other than pain makes him take on the job as bodyguard. But they're battling an enemy he knows nothing about and she's weak-a burden to him when it comes to battle. But he feels such a possessive need to keep her safe that he'll do anything to battle the demon and shadow walkers determined to destroy her. The hero and heroine were the perfect match for each other because they trying were just as damaged and fucked up by life as the other. It was hard to choose the more tortured soul between the two but it had to be the hero. The vivid and gruesome flashbacks of his ordeal were slowly driving him crazy. He couldn't sleep, he was terrified of the dark so he kept every single light on in his house. And worse of all, he couldn't talk about it to anyone. It took a lot to make him finally open up to the heroine and it took such trust in her to speak about his guilt. They found a kinship with each other that was life saving-for both of them. Sure the hero was the hammer-the warrior. But the heroine soothed him. I really enjoyed this book but I did have a few issues. First off was the very simple plot line. It got stuck in this repetitive routine of going to the cabin-talking. Going to the library-talking. Getting attacked outside the library and going back to the cabin again. It went on and on in this same fashion for the entire book and I got a little bored. BUT, the characters really saved it for me. You could truly relate with them and feel their pain. Plus the sex scenes were hot. Over all this wasn't the home run I remembered it being but it was still very worthy of the 4 star.

The heroine takes the mission to find a spell that holds her people prisoner only because the man who has said spell is her mate. She knows instantly from the photo and though she knows that she's betraying him in doing so, she's bargained to save his life so she's willing to risk it. Both characters are half demon but only the female accepts it. She's learns to love both sides of her though she longs to become a full demon. The male is the completely opposite. He loathes the demon part of him as he knows his demon father raped his human mother on conceive him. They are also polar opposites in personality. The hero is stern, series and reclusive. The heroine is funny loving, outgoing and knows she can charm the pants off her somber mate. He provides her with quite the challenge however. She aggravated him to no end and you have to laugh at the utter frustration the hero feelings through the majority of the book because of his extremely hot but annoying client. From the jump though its clear that though he acts like he can't stand her, he's absolutely entranced by her. She's defiantly the aggressor in the relationship but she's only the dominate until she finally gets under his skin and then allows him to take control. I loved both these characters and though they are nothing alike, I felt they were made for each other. Throughout the book I felt like I was watch a buddy film. It was very entertaining to read about the heroine pushing all the heroes buttons and pushing him over the edge with her little quirks. I liked this book a lot.

The hero shows up injured to the heroines house and though she's been stripped o her powers and no longer a troubleshooter, she's obliged to help him. He's slowly loosing himself to the dark side and this manifests in the number of times he's had the overwhelming urge to kill her sister. His no nonsense attitude and absolute zero tolerance for the heroine pity act was refreshing and it was charming how he took to calling her angel. Other than that, however, I didn't feel the chemistry between the characters either in lust or love. It's hinted throughout the story that the heroine is absolutely stunning and has a history of being a party girl but she was boring. It's more than half way through the book before they even kiss. Disappointing considering it's a paranormal romance novel.

Recruited as a teenagers by the government for her genius level intelligence and compatibility to the hero, the heroine is given a Nano chip in her brain which essentially acts like a super computer, giving her interweb capabilities as well as linking her both mentally and emotionally to her partner. They act as one, they know each others minds and thoughts and carry a bond deeper than any other partnership could ever hope to achieve. He's her best friend- her only friend and she's the only one he ever always close enough to his heart. Too bad he thinks she's a computer. Even knowing the discovery she's lied to him by omission will infuriate him and in a way betray his trust, she has no choice but to make face to face contact for the first time. She finally has a hint to the whereabouts of her missing parents and she needs his help in finding them. As expected he's angry and horrified to discover the A.I. who knows all his darkest secrets isn't a machine at all but rather a stunningly beautiful woman-young as she is. But regardless of hurt feelings, the trust and bond between them can't be severed because of something so small, so when he learns that she's in danger and needs his help, he doesn't hesitate for a second to bring her on his mission. She's being targeted by another woman with part of the Nano chip experiment and as it happens this mysterious woman, the heroine's parents and the two rebels he's been assigned to bring in dead or alive have all gathered into one run down disgusting city. Despite their best attempts to avoid it however, they soon finds themselves kidnapped and imprisoned by the enemy who wants to use the heroine's abilities for 'world domination'. That's the least of their worried, though. Mainly the ever growing sexual tension between friends is becoming harder and harder to ignore and is threatening to change the dynamic of their friendship forever. But maybe change is good, maybe they are finally becoming what they have always meant to be but were too afraid to allow? Awesome book with passionate , loyal and incredibly connected characters. They were soo in tune with one another. Though they fought and disagreed at times, the hero respected and protected the heroine while allowing her to prove herself on her first mission. He promised to help her find her parents, kept her realistic and level headed when her emotions threatened to make her blind to the facts and above all, he loved her as both a friend and as 'his woman'. The heroine really stole the show though for me because she was so cool. She was passionate, yes. And a hell of a soldier despite her youth and sex, but she was quick on the draw and a perfect balance to her male partner. And the most likeable quality about her character was her total void of feminine stubbornness. She respected the hero's leadership, trusted him 100% and believed him when he tells her that he'll do what he can to find her parents as long as it doesn't interfere with their mission. And she acknowledge that the mission came first! I loved her and I loved him and I loved them together. So great. Oh and the part when the hero finally opens up about the subject of his repeating nightmares broke my heart. His guilt and remorse really resonated through the pages and just solidified my opinion of his character. Awesome book.

Ryne is in the midst of an undercover magical war when she accidentally uncurses Deke Summers. Artificial, contrived and completely unimaginative.
Can be read online here: http://hbpub.vo.llnwd.net/o16/video/olmk/tor.com/OSheaITMHHTML/OShea, Patti - In the Midnight Hour.html

The Power Of Two - 2176, Bk 4 by Patti O'Shea

Cai Randolph is in the Army Special Forces of the United Colonies of Earth. She is the tech half "anchor" of a Quandem. She can communicate with her partner in the field with neural implants. They have never meet face to face, he even thinks shes a computer, he's in for a surprise:)

Jacob Tucker is the receptor, he takes the information that she send through the implants to complete his missions in the field. Their new assignment has them going to the Raft cities, to find and capture Banzai Maguire.

This anthology was a 50/50 shot for me. Nothing I will come back and read again, but enough to pique my interest in more from these authors in the future.

Meh

Meh

Review courtesy of All Things Urban Fantasy:
www.allthingsurbanfantasy.blogspot.com

CRAVE THE NIGHT gives us four stories of star-crossed lovers kept apart by politics, physiology, or just plain stubbornness. A short, sweet anthology that I devoured in one sitting; though none of the stories were good enough to prompt re-reading, I felt like I got a favorable introduction to all of the authors in general and will seek out two of them in the future.

The two stories that fell below my “active interest” threshold were Sharon Ashwood’s Hidden and Michele Hauf’s Cruel Enchantment. Ashwood’s story had some high points in terms of dialog, but neither the relationship nor the plot ever managed to come together for me. Lila was just too “everyone will hate me once they find out the truth” to win me over as a heroine and the mechanics of Fay oath vacillated too much between “iron clad” and “completely situational” to be an effective plot fulcrum for me. Hauf’s Cruel Enchantment did much better in the relationship front, if only from a pure interest standpoint. As any fan of Chess and Terrible can attest, reading a love story where one half is an addict can be an emotional roller-coaster and Hauf handled much of the relationship between Bree and Rev perfectly. I loved that “love doesn’t conquer all” initially and that an actual physical antidote to Rev’s addiction is needed for them to finally come together, though ultimately, well... love conquers all. As much as I liked Bree and Rev, however, they couldn’t entirely compensate from a plot that was difficult to follow and two end scenes that sucked all of the climactic drama right out of the story.

While those two offerings were more in the Two/Three Bat range for me, Lori Devoti’s One Soul to Share and Patti O’Shea’s Enemy Embrace raise the anthology’s average over all. Devoti’s heroine starts off in much the same boat as Ashwood’s (both women became villains for the sake of their family) and despite the fact that Sarina actually killed several men in her quest (where as Lila only roofied a few), I still liked Sarina better in the end. One Soul to Share was a sexy, modern take on mermaid mythology, and everyone down to the villain was a character I’d like to read more about. And if One Soul to Share breaths new life into a familiar myth, O’Shea’s Enemy Embrace revives a familiar trope, “paranormal soul mates”. Rather than spending too much time fighting their attraction, Nicole and Dak managed to shift the focus to the much more relatable business of being a part of a new couple. To spice things up, this new couple has more exotic concerns than picking restaurants or meeting mutual friends, they’re out to kill an ancient vampire before she kills them. Enemy Embrace feels like a perfect fit for the story length while still piquing my interest in the rest of O’Shea’s catalog.

I ultimately gave this anthology Three Bats, though both Devoti and O’Shea have been added to my author watch list as a result of their contribution. Even better, all four stories managed to introduce new and interesting mythologies for the universe of fae, werewolves, vampires, demons and mermaids, by no means an easy feat, which makes CRAVE THE NIGHT worth picking up.

Sexual Content: Explicit sex scenes.

A slow read but it was very good at the end. I am not sure if I will read the rest of the series. It did not really pull me in to the characters. I wanted more development and not this feeling that I should have read the previous book. the author kept referring to previous incidents without giving enough info for people who had not read the prior book.½

O'Shea's fourth Light Warriors romance is a riveting thrill ride that will keep her readers enthralled. The story picks up where 2009's Edge of Dawn left off, with novice mage Farran hiding in Seattle from her Tàireil kin and the Gineal who hunt them. After Seth, a demon, nearly destroys her, Farran decides she's desperate enough to ask Kel, an estranged Gineal for protection. Kel is battling PTSD after being tortured as a hostage, and he sees a kindred spirit in Farran, whose abusive father left her with her own set of emotional scars. Soon Kel and Farran are caught up in a whirlwind of battles, lovemaking, pop culture references, and terrifying flashbacks and nightmares. The fast-paced story stands alone and will easily draw new fans to the series. (Apr.) --Staff (Reviewed February 15, 2010) (Publishers Weekly, vol 257, issue 7, p120)

Not extremely well written, but good for a quick romance fix. Have re-read it a few times already. I like the characters :-)

I would have enjoyed this book much more had the overt and vulgar sexual content been omitted. I'm not a prude by any stretch of the imagination, but the all too frequent pawings were not attractive, seductive, or relevant to the story. I'm not really predisposed to buying Book 2 of this series.

I loved the CRIMSON CITY series, but this book of four short stories really didn't appeal to me. Although they're romantic and steamy, and bring back familiar characters, they didn't feel finished. I usually enjoy anthologies of short stories, but it seems that when it deals with the vampires, werewolves, demons, and other assorted lot who inhabit Crimson City, longer is definitely better.

I have to say that I enjoyed this book. I read the first book in the series last year -- discovering it when TOR was giving away a book every week -- and was very glad to see that this sequel was available for the Kindle. This is one of six books I read while I was traveling from May 5th through 12th.

Yeah, it's a romance. But it did not suck outright and the characters had a little quality verbal sparring and are kind of real people.

This is another romance/sex book with urban fantasy wrapped around it. Not really anything I am interested in.

With that said, the writing is pretty good. The subject matter is just not what I want to read.

I cannot recommend it, but others may like it.