A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

Rating

Did Not Finish

The book's description from the author's website:

When historian Diana Bishop opens a bewitched alchemical manuscript in Oxford’s Bodleian Library it represents an unwelcome intrusion of magic into her carefully ordinary life. Though descended from a long line of witches, she is determined to remain untouched by her family’s legacy. She banishes the manuscript to the stacks, but Diana finds it impossible to hold the world of magic at bay any longer.

For witches are not the only otherworldly creatures living alongside humans. There are also creative, destructive daemons and long-lived vampires who become interested in the witch’s discovery. They believe that the manuscript contains important clues about the past and the future, and want to know how Diana Bishop has been able to get her hands on the elusive volume.

Chief among the creatures who gather around Diana is vampire Matthew Clairmont, a geneticist with a passion for Darwin. Together, Diana and Matthew embark on a journey to understand the manuscript’s secrets. But the relationship that develops between the ages-old vampire and the spellbound witch threatens to unravel the fragile peace that has long existed between creatures and humans—and will certainly transform Diana’s world as well.

I think I'm pretty much done with romances. Every single one I've read in the past couple of years seemed to be dumber than the one before. A Discovery of Witches takes the prize in the latest string of romance novels written exclusively for stupid people. Don't let the categorization as fantasy fool you. I thought I was going to read a fantasy book about a smart, independent woman who also happened to be a witch and who would, to be slightly brash, kick some ass. When you think that not only did she have ordinary humans and fellow witches to contend with, but also demons and vampires, then it's easy to get your hopes up, settling in to what promised to be a smart escapist adventure of a read. It's not smart, the only time 'escape' would enter my mind was when I wanted to run from the story, and sitting home with my three kids is more of an adventure than spending time with the stuck-up, boring witch Diana Bishop.

I am not a reader who discounts a novel because the main character is unlikable. Not always. There are unlikable characters that were assigned such a role by an author (whether as a straight-up anti-hero or as a way to display that world is not made up of people we only want to fall in love with but that there needs to be a balance, if only to have some fun) and I have found myself absolutely loathing a character but also loving a story. And then there are characters that we're supposed root for, like, adore, what have you but an author fails to deliver in the characterization department and unknowingly (due to the lack of writing skills) manages to base a whole novel on a person that will make me at best roll my eyes in exasperation and put the said book away in disgust at worst. Deborah Harkness' character, Diana Bishop fell somewhere in between exasperation and disgust. She was such a perfect specimen that I began to wonder if she might have been an alien creature. She had the best powers any witch could have, she was a genius with all kinds of doctoral degrees, her bookcases no doubt brimming with awards for her scholarly work (of course, she was also a very young genius, not even forty yet), she was beautiful, made a vampire famous for his disregard for women fall madly in love with her, and of course she would eat like a horse without gaining a pound. All this blinding package came complete with Diana's obliviousness to all those wonderful attributes she possessed. Did the author read a manual for romance writers on how to write a run-of-the-mill romance, checked each staple requirement as she kept writing about Diana the Prodigy and that completed her education on writing? That's certainly how I imagined the process. And that's what made me decide to not waste my time on this book any further, along with minor (in comparison to the main character) other ridiculous cliches such as stunningly beautiful yet attractively dangerous vampire or a no-nonsense aunt with a hot temper as befits...you guessed it, a redhead.

One question remains: Why the hell are so many readers loving this book?! I'm not going to offend individual readers, but that A Discovery of Witches has such a following and such high ratings is yet another sign of our society's declining intelligence.

~~~~~~~~~

FTC: I wasted my hard-earned money on this book.

The Reckoning by Alma Katsu - The Taker Trilogy Book 2

Rating

* * * * 1/2

The book's synopsis from the author's website:

Lanore McIlvrae is the kind of woman who will to do anything for love. Including imprisoning the man who loves her behind a wall of brick and stone.
She had no choice but to entomb Adair, her nemesis, to save Jonathan, the boy she grew up with in a remote Maine town in the early 1800s and the man she thought she would be with forever. But Adair had other plans for her. He used his mysterious, otherworldly powers to give her eternal life, but Lanore learned too late that there was a price for this gift: to spend eternity with him. And, though he is handsome and charming, behind Adair's seductive facade is the stuff of nightmares. He is a monster in the flesh, and he wants Lanore to love him for all time.
Now, two hundred years after imprisoning Adair, Lanore is trying to atone for her sins. She has given away the treasures she's collected over her many lifetimes in order to purge her past and clear the way for a future with her new lover, Luke Findley. But, while viewing these items at an exhibit at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Lanore suddenly is aware that the thing she's been dreading for two hundred years has caught up to her: Adair has escaped from his prison. He's free—and he will come looking for her. And she has no idea how she will save herself. 


As The Reckoning is a part of the trilogy, I'm advising everyone who hasn't read part one, The Taker, to hurry up, get it and read it. The sooner, the better. This way you'll get to enjoy The Reckoning as soon as possible. And trust me, your time will not be wasted. Alma Katsu wrote a fantastic book. Even better, in my opinion, than her debut, The Taker. Which must have been a difficult task, considering that usually the middle books in trilogies are the weakest (that has been my experience).

Ms. Katsu wrote the continuation of  Lanore's and Adair's  stories with so much refinement that I was actually humbled in my light (sometimes possibly patronizing) treatment of the paranormal romance genre, although The Reckoning definitely belongs to the dark group of paranormal romances. It really is an intelligent novel, with writing and characters and the plot that stand out from the crowd that floods today's book market. This second part of The Taker Trilogy is better than the first (don't get discouraged, because The Taker is certainly a great beginning and you will want to read the whole trilogy based on it) in one, very important aspect. While The Taker was a fairy tale for adults, with very strong and mostly very brutal sexual elements, The Reckoning is no longer that. It deals with serious issues, such as a possibility of redemption, an opportunity to change and why it's not always fulfilled. It shows us the strength of love that endures centuries but that also can be very dangerous and may make us vulnerable to others and open to be fully exploited, helpless and yearning for the end of our lives. The Reckoning serves us the painting of how tragically potent and destructive human emotions can be in their extremes. All that makes Alma Katsu's second book a notch above the clear-cut fairy tales, even the ones in the spirit of Grimm Brothers.

And here, I must break my rule of never comparing one work with another. In general, such comparisons may very well turn detrimental to the novel discussed. However, in the case of The Taker Trilogy, such doubts must be dispelled. It will indeed appeal to readers who are 'seeking a less erotic, more literary Fifty Shades of Grey. But it will also satisfy those of us who run away from any book mentioned in the same sentence with The Fifty Shades Trilogy. Trust me, Alma Katsu is a class writer of her own, galaxies above what E. L. James could ever produce.

A word on the historical aspect
The Reckoning's story switches between the past and the present. Especially interesting is the part involving Lord Byron after he had been banished from England and during his stay in Spain. However, as it spans centuries, each time we go back to the past, it's a different era and a different country. Some may say that it could be too much and therefore too confusing. However, Alma Katsu managed to maneuver between the eras expertly and I don't think there's any risk of a reader getting confounded.

~~~~~~~~

FTC: I received a copy of The Reckoning for review from the publicist, Wunderkind PR.

The Reckoning by Alma Katsu has been released today, June 19th, 2012 by Gallery Books.

Soulless by Gail Carriger, narrated by Emily Gray

Rating

* * *

The book's description from the publisher's website:

Alexia Tarabotti is laboring under a great many social tribulations. First, she has no soul. Second, she's a spinster whose father is both Italian and dead. Third, she was rudely attacked by a vampire, breaking all standards of social etiquette.

Where to go from there? From bad to worse apparently, for Alexia accidentally kills the vampire -- and then the appalling Lord Maccon (loud, messy, gorgeous, and werewolf) is sent by Queen Victoria to investigate.

With unexpected vampires appearing and expected vampires disappearing, everyone seems to believe Alexia responsible. Can she figure out what is actually happening to London's high society? Will her soulless ability to negate supernatural powers prove useful or just plain embarrassing? Finally, who is the real enemy, and do they have treacle tart?

SOULLESS is a comedy of manners set in Victorian London: full of werewolves, vampires, dirigibles, and tea-drinking.

This book was fun. Pure entertainment to while away boring and/or dull hours we all have here and there.

I'll admit I have some mixed reactions to it and I was having a hard time deciding how to rate this novel. Some things just don't make sense. For example, Alexia's soullessness. It does give her that one supernatural (or rather, preternatural) power of taking away other supernaturals' powers by a single touch (sadly, no shape shifting or immortality involved) which is an interesting introduction to the paranormal genre. However, character-wise, Alexia couldn't be farther away from my idea of a soulless person (a psychopath comes to mind). I understand that to match the light and amusing tone of Soulless, Ms. Carriger couldn't make Alexia a completely evil woman, with no moral compass. But not a single, teeny tiny sinister trait? That's a little bit of a letdown. Sure, Ms. Tarabotti is stubborn, with an independent and untamed spirit, and with an alpha (of course, duh!!!) personality, but it is kind of mundane, if you ask me. For that alone, I wanted to give Soulless two stars.

On the other hand, I truly enjoyed the light tone of the whole story. I liked the humor, I liked Alexia's and Lord Maccon's 'dance' around admitting their feelings and desire for each other (don't worry, I'm not really spoiling anything, as it's obvious from the beginning where their relationship is going). I also had fun with other characters, especially with Ms. Tarabotti's mother and half-sisters. You put them all in one room and you truly have a comedy of manners. Consequently, I did chuckle a few times and smiled almost all the time, while listening to Soulless. And the writing itself wasn't half bad either. It had a kind of a spring-in-its-step quality. For these reasons, I was ready to bump the rating up to four.

In the end, after hoping that Alexia would suddenly do something deliciously evil and not getting it, I got stuck in the middle. I did like it enough to not consider it a waste of time but not enough, I'm afraid, to read the rest of Parasol Protectorate books (well, maybe if I find them during one of my frequent library sales excursions).

P.S.

The label attached to this book the most is 'steampunk'. Personally, I didn't notice many steampunk elements in Soulless. There was maybe one appearance of a dirigible delivering the queen of vampires' drone to Alexia. Not much that I can think of besides. Maybe because it's set in an alternate Victorian England? Definitely more fantasy than science-fiction, with werewolves and vampires taking the center stage.

Narration

I chose the audible version of Soulless and I'm glad of it. The narrator, Emily Gray, does a fantastic job conveying the sarcastic spark in Alexia and an overall humor of the story. She switches between characters and accents seamlessly. I never was confused as to which character was talking. Above all, Ms. Gray has a pleasant voice, breathes life into the novel and makes the listening experience worthwhile.

~~~~~~~~

FTC: I bought a copy of Soulless by Gail Carriger.

Heart of Perdition by Selah March

Rating:

***

The book's description from the publisher:

As the nineteenth century draws to a close, James Weston, Earl of Falmouth, is dying along with it. Despite living in an age of airships and automatons, even London's finest physicians cannot cure the young man's ailing heart. His last hope lies in retrieving a powerful artifact from the remote island home of an eccentric scientist's daughter.

Elspeth Shaw prefers her solitary life to the tragic results that come from mixing in society. Elspeth is cursed: every mortal being who forms an attachment to her dies a horrible death. Yet when the doomed Lord Falmouth arrives in search of the very artifact that blights her, she hasn't the will to refuse. But the price for cheating death may be more than any human can pay...

Despite my slight misgivings about Heart of Perdition being a novella (which I didn't know at the time of requesting this title), I was surprised to actually like this story. Thankfully, there aren't many characters introduced in here and therefore, it's easier to for a reader to fully acquaint her/himself with the ones that are. Also there is only one plotline, which works nicely in the format Ms. March chose to write her first piece. Since I'm not an expert on novellas and short fiction, I can't fully judge how well or not was Heart of Perdition written to fit this format. From a personal standpoint, it worked for me to like it but it's also the reason why I gave it three stars, instead of four. I prefer to read rather longish novels in which I can truly lose myself for days on end and it wasn't really possible with this story where things ended before they truly even begun. Not that there wasn't any action happening.

Heart of Perdition is a combination of genres: steampunk, romance and horror. I enjoyed it the most of all the sides to this novella. Steampunk is a fairly new genre for me but I appreciated how it made the background of the world James and Elspeth lived in that much more fun. I suppose it's given an old Gothic tale a new twist. Heart of Perdition did seem to me to be an atmospheric, strange tale reminiscent of the Gothic tradition and especially of The Picture of Dorian Gray. And before anyone cries 'foul!', I am in no way comparing the two or putting them in the same category. I'm merely saying that Ms. March's debut has some elements (including the effects of the artifact) that can be traced back to the Oscar Wilde's classic.

If you're up for some fun read that's quick, with a dose of chill and a pinch of romance, I think Heart of Perdition is something you should look into. It's not badly written at all and the tale doesn't end here either because the author is already working on part two. As a matter of fact, the story is intriguing enough and the writing is promising enough for me, that I wish it were a full length novel and I hope that Selah March will one day make a transition into the novel category. 

FTC: I received this ebook galley from the publisher, Carina Press via NetGalley.

It Happened One Bite by Lydia Dare

The book's description from the publisher's website:

He’s lost, trapped, doomed for all eternity…
Rich, titled, and undead, gentleman vampyre James Maitland, Lord Kettering, fears himself doomed to a cold and lonely existence—trapped for decades in an abandoned castle. Then, beautiful Scottish witch Blaire Lindsay arrives, and things begin to heat up considerably…
Unless he can persuade her to set him free…
Feisty Blaire Lindsay laughs off the local gossip surrounding her mother’s ancestral home—stories of haunting cannot scare off this battle-born witch. But when she discovers the handsome prisoner in the bowels of the castle, Blaire has no idea that she has unleashed anything more than a man who sets her heart on fire…

Surprisingly, I enjoyed this paranormal historical romance a lot. Those of you who visit often probably know that I am not particularly crazed about this genre. But I also do give it a try from time to time because I believe that in literature you can find all kinds of gems and reading is one activity, hobby, passion (put your own here), that should be limitless. Anyway, It Happened One Bite turned out to be such a little, unexpected gem and I was very happy to lose myself in the story Blaire, her coven of witches and handsome Lord Kettering.

I am not exactly sure what it was that separated this particular romance from others this type, but I know that the writing was catchy and allowed me to get involved in the story enough to want to keep reading the book until the last page was turned. I was even glad to find out that there are more books by the author featuring the young and feisty witches. It Happened One Bite is simply a very fun, entertaining read. It doesn't have over-the-top sex scenes which I appreciated (there are enough of them there but just the right amount), the characters of Blaire and her older brother are extremely likable and most importantly, there were quite a few humorous scenes there which was an icing on the cake. If you're looking for a light and interesting story to get lost in for an evening or two, this book is definitely it.

2-in-1: Nefertiti & Dark Desire

Both books today are audio books. Both narrators are ones that I will listen to with enjoyment any day. However, the books differ on every other level, the genre, plot, character development and writing quality.

1. Nefertiti by Michelle Moran

Nefertiti is my first Moran’s book and also one of the very few books about ancient Egypt I have read so far. It tells the story of fifteen-year-old Nefertiti and her younger sister, Mutnodjmet as they are entering the scene of the court of Egypt. Nefertiti is married off to Amunhotep, the next pharaoh who is thought unstable and a danger to Egypt’s future. The sisters’ lives will be forever changed as they both have to find their ways amidst the treachery, the lies and the danger of Egypt’s court. Nefertiti is becoming loved by the people but also seems to share her husband’s mad vision to get rid of Amun, Egypt worshipped god and to instead worship Aten, until now a minor deity that Amunhotep wants to elevate to the position of the one and only god of Egypt. As Nefertiti’s life changes seemingly for the better, her sister’s life brings her unhappiness and misery because Mutnodjmet does not yearn for the power and wants to spend her days away from court and its machinations.

As I said, despite loving historical fiction, I don’t actually know a lot about that period in history of Egypt. For that reason, I cannot speak on Ms Moran’s historical accuracy or lack thereof. However, I did enjoy the novel for its plot which was very captivating from the very beginning. As with many HF books, there are a lot of characters present. While the main ones, Nefertiti, her husband, Mutnodjmet, Vezir Ay (Nefertiti’s father) and couple of others, do develop pretty nicely and we get insight into their personalities, there is also a score of people (such as Mutnodjmet’s body servant or her mother) that I would have liked to see have more depth. I chose to read this book in an audio format and this is one thing I am glad about. Cassandra Campbell, the narrator, does a great job performing. As a matter of fact, her voice had captured my attention even before the story did. All and all, it was a very entertaining read and I will definitely be reading the other two books by Michelle Moran, The Heretic’s Queen and Cleopatra’s Daughter.

2. Dark Desire by Christine "White Hot Heat" Feehan

There isn’t a lot in a way of plot in this book. It is part two in the Carpathians’ series. This time it’s about Jacques, the brother of the prince of Carpathians Mikhail. Jacques is captured, tortured and buried alive in a wall by cruel vampire hunters who seem more bloodthirsty than a vampire would. Jacques refuses to die and his will to live is fueled by the need of revenge and a psychic contact he accidentally establishes with Shea, a miracle-performing young doctor. Shea has been living with a strange blood disease her whole life and her decision to become a doctor came from her desire to find a cure before it’s too late for her and people like her. Until one day she has to give up her career and run from the same vampire hunters that tortured Jacques. For some strange reason (really not that strange because Jacques is calling her to him), she ends up in the Carpathian Mountains and rescues Jacques from certain death. Now they have a lot to learn and overcome together as it turns out they are life mates (meaning one cannot live without the other) as mortal danger is lurking in the woods.

Okay, if you read my review of part one to this series, you know I didn’t like it one bit. However, I was willing to give it another chance because I liked the whole premise about those powerful Carpathians who are vampires but claim to be just a completely separate species. Anyway, Dark Desire does get a little bit better, not so many over-the-top sex scenes and even the female character, Shea is a lot more likeable and believable than Raven from Dark Prince. However, as you maybe noticed from the alias I gave Ms Feehan, the language still remains pretty horrendous, with tons of repetitions and the ever present absurd phrases in the nature of ‘white hot heat’. I was entertained by the book but not for the reasons that were intended by the author. I simply had to laugh at the bad use of language and a very one-dimensional story. It was either that or cry because Ms. Feehan is a bestselling writer with millions of fans all over the world and still don’t see why. It was again an audio version and once again I did enjoy the narrator, Juanita Parker who did breathe a lot of life into this story and made it interesting enough for me to listen to the end.

BTT: Recently Worst

Booking Through Thursday's question for this week is:

What’s the worst book you’ve read recently? (I figure it’s easier than asking your all-time worst, because, well, it’s recent!)

Well, if I thought last week's question was difficult to answer, I certainly did not see this one coming. The one thing I always try to stay away from is putting books in the "worst" category. Even when I dislike the book, even when I write a negative review, I still find it awfully uneasy to point to a book and say, 'Here's the one, it is the worst book I've read'. I think that it's just such a final step and I have a tremendous respect for a written word that I just say that I dislike a book the most.
Without further ado, I'll now talk about that recent book I disliked the most.

It's Dark Prince by Christine Feehan, the first in the series featuring Carpathians, a race of vampires who are not quite vampires as long as they find their life mates. In Dark Prince, Mikhail is the prince of Carpathians, who after centuries of living alone is on the verge of giving up hope for finding his mate. If this indeed doesn't happen, he will face either turning into a full-fledged evil beast, a vampire seeking only to inflict pain and suffering on the human race or ending his life instead. And suddenly things change when a psychic American girl, visiting the Carpathian mountains, connects with Mikhail via her psychic powers. Before Raven, the mysterious girl, realizes what hit her, she is claimed by Mikhail as his life mate and there is no turning back.

I actually found the premise of this book and the whole series quite interesting, if a little silly. But silly doesn't mean bad and we all need all kinds of books to feed our souls and intellects.
The reason why I would not call it the worst book is because I know that there are readers/bloggers who enjoyed it thoroughly and I have too much respect for their other reading choices to discard this one so drastically.

I still however disliked Dark Prince and was quite frankly annoyed with it. The main reason for it wasn't the plot but the writing. First of all, I am not a prude but there really was a sex scenes' overload. Every thirty pages or so, I felt I was experiencing deja vu, reading pretty much the same description of Mikhail and Raven copulating, as if they just never stopped the first time they had sex and everything else happening in between was just a form of daydreaming (or nightdreaming in this case). The repetition trend Ms. Feehan displayed was unfortunately not only in regards to sex. There was an awful lot of 'retribution', 'retaliation' and 'lethal' in there. So much so, that I still get a nervous tick when I see these words mentioned anywhere else. I'm sure there are plenty of words that could replace the three used if only either the editor or the author had a thesaurus handy. Another example was the phrase 'white, hot heat'. When I saw it for the first time I figured it's bad editing, everyone can make a blunder like that and I forgot about it. But then, there it was mentioned for the second time and by the third time I was certain that Ms. Feehan particularly liked this horrid phrase and saw nothing wrong with it. Add to it not a sprinkle but a shower of how Mikhail's hair was coffee colored and how Raven's eyes were violet blue and you feel like you're attending a brainwashing session.

Okay, enough about the bad writing, because I am actually going for part two now, Dark Desire, because I am willing to give it another chance. I realize that the first tries are not always the best and it takes practice to get better, and because the idea of Carpathian males is compelling to me, I am hoping that the series gets better with each book.

'Stakes & Stilettos' by Michelle Rowen

Since I started reading romance fiction I have realized that there truly is an abundance of different sub-genres within the romance category. And I have also been lucky to read romances that I really like. Every time I read one, I exclaim at the end, “That’s my favorite!”. I indulge myself in the hot, steamy ones and I love them but then I read a book like Stakes & Stilettos by Michelle Rowen which is the opposite of hot and steamy, and I love it too! Go figure.

Stakes & Stilettos is a paranormal romance. The heroine, Sarah Dearly, is a new vamp on the block with an honor of having drunk the blood of not one but two master vampires. She really wants to be a normal vampire girl, lead a love-filled life with her 600-year-old boyfriend Thierry, find a job that’ll allow her to be financially independent, and besides the fact that she is now immortal, be the cute, happy-go-lucky girl she’s always been. You know, it’s pretty much the regular, realistic dreams we girls have at some point in our lives. Unfortunately, all these plans will have to be put on hold when it turns out Sarah inadvertently made an enemy in high-school. This enemy is now an evil witch with a vengeance. And she is really bent on hurting Sarah, so much so that she turns her into a nightwalker, the most evil of the evil vampires that used to be blood-thirsty (pun intended), cold and ruthless killers. Oh, and there’s also the mysterious, Zorro-like vampire, who calls himself Red Devil, is a legend among vampires and seems to be saving Sarah’s life time and again. We soon find out that there’s a catch to it as well.

I absolutely adored Sarah Dearly. As her name implies, she really is a darling. She is very funny, sometimes quirky, a girl I would want to be my friend. All and all, Sarah is a vampire-next-door type of girl. She is also devoted to Thierry, despite the fact that others find him detached, cold and over-protective. The romance between the two is actually very tasteful (oh, those vampire puns), no overly hot sex scenes here, but that makes the book so much more relatable and just right. Ms. Rowen really knows how to balance the romance, the paranormal and the mystery elements. Not to mention, she is quite skilled at making readers laugh. Stakes & Stilettos is, in my opinion, a perfect romance book to entertain a reader at any time of the day. It’s light, funny, with endearing characters and a just-right touch of mystery.

******

Special Thanks to Hachette Book Group for providing me with a copy of this book.

Makes sure you visit Michelle Rowen's website for more paranormal fun.

CHALLENGES: 100+ Reading Challenge

'Passion Unleashed' by Larissa Ione

First of all, Passion Unleashed by Larissa Ione was my first ever paranormal romance, and a Demonica novel, I might add. I was always wary of reading these types of books and now I am just kicking myself and asking, “Why?”. All I have to say, I have a lot of catching up to do and Passion Unleashed was just the perfect novel to introduce me to this genre.
The heroine, Serena Kelley, is an archaeologist and a woman with a powerful secret. When she was a child, she was granted immortality which would only be in effect if Serena stayed a virgin. It is all nice and dandy until she meets Wraith, a cruel and devoid of any morals Seminus demon. Wraith just found out that he is going to die and the only way he can stay alive is by seducing Serena, taking her virginity and ultimately causing her death. When things could not possibly get any more complicated, this heartless demon realizes that he is falling in love with the woman he has to kill to save himself.
Okay, here it goes: this book is hot, hot, hot! And I mean it. As I mentioned at the beginning, Passion Unleashed made me a romance convert and this is coming from a person who all her life had been wholeheartedly opposed to reading anything with "romance" stamped on it. I literally could not tear myself away from this book until it was finished. I spent a whole day reading it, while ignoring a sink full of dirty dishes, a laundry basket full of clothes to be washed and a grumbling stomach. There is, of course, a lot of sex scenes, which strangely (or maybe not so strangely, hhmm?) did not bother me one bit. Most importantly, Larissa is one heck of a paranormal romance writer. She has a skill for creating the most twisted demonic characters and for writing a book that is actually very touching because amidst all heaven breaking loose, the whole evil world going at it, there is still enough space for a very human feeling called love. I know that it sounds a little tacky, but I can’t help it. I have to give credit where credit’s due and Passion Unleashed is a perfect book to get completely lost in and forget about the world outside, if only for a few hours.

*****

Special Thanks to Hachette Book Group for providing me with a copy of this book.

And don't forget to visit Larissa Ione's website for more Demonica fun and beyond.

CHALLENGES: 100+ Reading Challenge, 999 Reading Challenge