First of all, let me point out that I went into this novel, the fourth in a series, without having read the first three books. While it is possible to read this book as a standalone, there are a lot of allusions to events in the previous books in the first few chapters that did leave me feeling a bit left out.

At first glance, this book seems to have all the right ingredients to be one that really tickles my fancy: various flavours of mythical beings all living among us humans and protecting us from various other flavours of mythical beings, magic and mayhem, and romance to boot. So it sounds like it’d by just my thing… but unfortunately it wasn’t.

For starters, Des and Lana both secretly desire each other as soon as the book opens. While I can accept that there will have been things passing between them in previous books, I would have liked at least some work up to their relationship, alas this was not to be. They soon (and we’re talking before the 10% mark here) get physical, which is much too early in a book for my tastes. For me, it’s the lead up to the sex that’s interesting and the sex itself is just the icing on the cake. Here I only got the icing and, as anyone who eats only the icing will know, it’s not as nice without the cake (and is, in fact, liable to make you feel ill).

By the time chapter two is over and done with, they’ve just slid right into this sexual relationship, no fretting, no awkwardness, no questions asked. I felt like I’d missed out on the whole of their courtship, and if I’m honest with myself, the courtship is the whole reason why I read romance novels in the first place.

What’s more, I’m not particularly fond of romances where events are just there to string together the sex scenes. I did occasionally feel that this was the case in this novel. Indeed, there are what I consider to be a large number of sex scenes present for a novel of this length and some – not all, but some – just really didn’t work for me. The language use in these “some” felt clunky with expressions like “she milked his cock”. Sometimes it felt like the author herself wasn’t quite at ease with what she was describing and as such these scenes came across as awkward.

Basically, the sex started too soon, happened too often and felt too central to the plot for my particular tastes.

Beyond this, in certain scenes there were just far too many characters present, all doing different things but without sufficiently distinct voices for me to be able to differentiate between them. This led to moments of frustration for me as I couldn’t remember who exactly X was, where Y came into it all, or what the relationship with Z happened to be.

In contrast, the scenes where only two to four characters were present worked well and I especially liked the scenes where Des and Lana were being held captive in a prison cell. Another was when they were travelling across a very cold planet and they come across an alien who offers them a ride in his cart. Scenes like these really shone.

As for the plot itself, certain things just felt like they were handed to the characters far too easily, such as Vin’s involvement with him immediately reaching out to them, or Des’s boss’s downfall at the end of the novel. Vin taking Des and Lana into the demons’ drug operation led to one particularly clunky fight scene too, which leads me to think that those sorts of scenes are not this author’s forte. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing as every author has something they find harder to describe in a way that transports the reader. That was the only fight scene that left me cringing, though.

Another thing that I really enjoyed was Des and Lana’s trek through the other dimensions that they have to travel through in their attempt to return home to Earth. The author’s vivid imagination really brought these places to life for me. Now I want an ele-cow too! They sound so adorable.

Had the book been focused on these travels more than the sex, then I can quite see that I would have found this a very entertaining story. As it is, this just wasn’t the book for me. I think that it would appeal to other readers who do prefer more sex in their stories. ( )

MOTOR CITY MAGE is actually the fourth book in the Urban Arcana series and the second one that I have had the pleasure of reading. And it was a pleasure even though I haven’t read them all. Each book is complete within itself so I didn’t feel as though I was missing anything. And since it is one of my pet peeves that so many series books that coming out lately really rely on reading the entire series, I am always ecstatic when I find books that are able to stand all on their own.

Another thing that I really appreciated about this book and this series is the fact that all of the magical species are well balanced. Not one all powerful which really does lead to the races working together to solve issues. Oh and let’s not forget the characters. Ms. Pape does a wonderful job with the characters and the dialogue is very crisp and snappy.

I do recommend this book and this series to lovers of paranormal romantic suspense. I rate it a 4.3.

***I received this book at no charge from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. No monies has or will exchange hands. ( )

Thursday, February 23, 2012Motor city Mage by Cindy Spencer Pape
4 Stars
I enjoyed it. But would like better if I had read other books before. It does stand alone. Also was lot of sex scenes in it.
Motor City might be the start and the end of this book but in between goes to many worlds or dimensions each different.
Desmond Sutton is a mage and belongs to the Wyndewin League. The league fight the supernatauls that harm humans.
He has been trying to stop demon drug that harms humans. His boss James Brewer told him to stop associating with the other species. That now would even be his sister who is marrying into them.
In other cases he has worked with elves and werewolfs and got the job done.
Lana Novak a were wolf that is part of the pack he worked with before. Lana is a part of a band and helps runs her family bar, also is finshing her masters. Lana just invited him to his sister's wedding shower and tomorrows Thanksgiving dinner. They end up sleeping together at the start. she is with him and a demon named Vin go down to Salt mine under detroit to blow the gate to other dimensions when thinks go wrong and they get trapped on the wrong side.
They meet a lot of different species on thier way to finding home. One of the messages of the book is working together can make things easier for all. No matter what color or race.
I was given this ebook to read in exchange of honest review from Netgalley.
03/12/2012 PUB Carina Press ( )