Michele Hauf

A sweet twist on the Grinch scenario. Gordon bottles up his anger and resentment along with loneliness and pain to the point where his bitterness overshadows everything that has importance in his life. Holly is the optimist that turns his life upside down and pulls him kicking and screaming into the magical season of hope, charity and faith. Maybe even love. I am not normally a fan of stories with Grinch or Scrooge like characters but there was something so compelling about Gordon that I show more couldn't look away. Deck the Hearts exposes what an open heart and open mind can do for the soul and the difference one action can make in the lives of others. show less

In this Beautiful Creatures series book, socialite Indigo DuCharme runs a successful business, but she’s not so lucky in love. After her boyfriend stands her up at a ball, she drinks way too much and runs off to a dangerous part of town. Though she’s drunk and crying, she knows the crazy things happening around her was real, not part of her imagination. After all, she believes in faeries, so other creatures couldn’t possibly be fiction.
Philanthropist Ryland James supports numerous show more charities by day and fights monsters at night. He’s an outcast half werewolf/half faery, but he only claims his wolf side. For the last few weeks, evil faeries have been trying to kidnap babies from the mortal realm, and he’s been stopping them. The last thing he expected was a drunken human woman to stubble upon the fight and get hurt.
Ry and Indi are strong, smart characters. It was great reading a story in which the main couple didn’t hate each other or was trying to kill one another, which was a common theme in some of Ms. Hauf’s other books. This couple got along great and worked together to solve their problems.
The side characters were awesome, especially Kristine and Never. I would love to read more about Never, Ry’s half brother (half-vampire/faery).
Several human babies were kidnapped with no faery changeling replacements, but I don’t understand why none of the good guys seemed to care about the poor parents who were losing their children. That seemed coldhearted, even though they were trying to save the babies.
I haven’t read many books in this on-going series, but Moon Kissed (which came out about nine years before this one) is one of my favorites. So when I read that the hero Severo from that book is dead in this one, needless to say I was shocked and upset. The HEA from Moon Kissed has been totally destroyed, so I can never read that book again.
Other than that shock, I actually liked this book. I don’t believe I noticed any typos, which is always nice, and the pacing flowed well. The sex scenes were hot and a little kinky (glittery male ejaculate, anyone?), so if that’s your thing, you’ll like this book.
4 Stars show less

And while the plot moppet does provide some of the funniest scenes (well he doesn't really have a name and the heroine, Mireo Malory, spends some time suggesting names while our hero, Lars Gunderson, rejects them.This is book 3 in the Decadent Dames collection and while it probably would make more sense of some of the character interactions, it does stand well alone.

The plot moppet is pretty superflous with the rest of what's going on in these characters lives. Lars is ill. It looks like show more he's going to suffer from the same thing his father did (now I know a lot of doctors who would want to study him extensively! I mean, werewolves are supposed to be healing machines! This sounds like a nasty, short span, werewolf version of MS. Her healing powers can help the symptoms but it's progressing and now that she's found him she doesn't want to let him go that quickly.

She wants more life and in order to do so has to eat a Vampire's heart, she wants to find a vampire who deserves death, preferably the one who killed her mother, after all she has more beer to brew!

The degenerative disease sub-plot is interesting and I'd like to see more disability with supernatural. Sneaks off to write some possible plot bunnies in the old plot bunny ranch. I did like how it resolved though and I want to see Lars build Mireo a comparable bathroom to the one she started with. show less

In book 2 in the Wicked Games trilogy (which is set in the Beautiful Creatures series), Bella Reynolds is running for her life from a group of vampires. A seductive man protects her in an abandoned building, but he wants the same thing that the vampires wanted from her—sex. Her fear arouses him, but he lets her go, vowing to find her again.
Former pack master, now lone wolf, Severo knows he’s found his mate in Bella. The vampires are targeting her for a reason, and though he does his best show more to protect her, will it be enough?
I loved Bella! She was smart, focused, and accepting of the fact that paranormal creatures exist. Severo was harder to like because he was sometimes cold to Bella and because of his intense jealousy when she was around other men, but I understood why he acted the way he did, so he gets a pass.
The sex scenes were super fun and hot. More description would’ve been nice in a few places, but I wasn’t too confused as to what was happening. My only real complaint is that Severo didn’t kill his archenemy. This didn’t make sense at all, but that’s just my humble opinion.
Anyway, I really enjoyed all the scenes with Ivan. I haven’t read his story (I did read his parents’ story, though), and I’m interested in knowing more about him and his witch wife.
I have the next book in the trilogy and will read it soon.
4 Stars show less