Susan Krinard

Tensions between human and vampire factions are escalating. Peace hangs in the balance. Like two ill-fated stars, Alexia Fox and Damon are destined to collide. She's a seductive human operative on a mission to infiltrate an illegal vampire colony. He's a vampire and represents everything she loathes, and all that she desires. Their attraction is scorching, immediate...and could explode like the fragile truce they've both been fighting independently to preserve. Now the world's last hope show more hinges on their ability to work together. As enemies they are doomed, but as allies they just might save the world

Received in ebook format from the publisher via www.netgalley.com
Expansionists want to extend vampire territory into human space since they are running out of space. The two are sent by their own sides to investigate illegal building and find an instant mutual attraction, despite the opposing sides.

The appearance of Lysander, a daysider like Damon throws the collaboration into turmoil as no one knows who to trust. A battle ensues, Damon wins and finally Alexia and Damon get to the new colony, where, by sheer coincidence it appears that Damon is an old friend of the leader, so is allowed access. Here humans and all breeds of vampires can survive without enslaving anyone.

Damon keeps having these dark spells, where he becomes over emotional for a sub vampire and reaches unexpected strength, making him stronger than even a full blood vampire. Alexia believes she can save him and pull him back from these dark moments and she goes some way to achieve this (bleugh woman thinks she can save a man by changing his violent temper)

The enclave gets attacked, friends become enemies, enemies friends, and rescue comes from an unexpected source.

There is an awful lot of talking and only occasional bouts of action as Alexia and Damon try to work through their mission. Despite all the theories being expounded between the two, in the end I found it all rather tiring, and I lost interest. I like two things from my vampires: plenty of fighting and plenty of sex. The fights scenes, when they arrived were good, and the rare sex scenes sexy. Unfortunately neither happened that frequently

An awful lot of information was parted over to the reader by people standing around talking. Damon’s mission was too full of "oh did i not tell you about that? Whoops!" It's rare that I suggest that a book could do with being longer, but if more of the back story/world could have been built up, then there would be less of the brain dump by conversation. I understand the reasons behind much of the talking (it was a means to an end) but there were bits of the back story that could have been handled differently show less

In the second Roaring Twenties novel, newspaper reporter Gwen Murphy is investigating the mysterious death of three men at the New York City docks. A strange man saves her from nearly drowning and takes her home with him. She thinks he’s a vagrant since he’s a little dirty and living at the waterfront in an abandoned warehouse, but he’s different from most homeless men she’s met.
Former mob enforcer Dorian Black survived the gunfight in the previous book and has been living in show more self-imposed isolation for a few months. He’s severed all ties with the vampires in the city and suffers from bouts of uncontrollable madness for a few days of each month. After he saves Gwen, he tries to push her away, fearing he could hurt her, but she’s tenacious in wanting to help him.
I absolutely loved this story.
Gwen and Dorian have a strong connection despite their blood bond. She’s strong-willed, open-minded, and giving to a fault. She works in a male-dominated profession and is determined to be seen as an equal, and she goes about it with sophistication and intelligence.
Dorian is protective over his few loved ones, but he’s wracked with guilt. He’d blindly followed and obeyed Raoul, his patron and the vampire who’d converted him, for decades and each act of violence chipped away at his soul. Gwen shouldered his pain and hopelessness, and gave him something to fight for.
Their friendship bloomed quickly. Though they desired one another, neither really acted on it. I mean, the first and only sex scene is in the Epilogue, but waiting for this union made sense because he needed to work through his problems first and they needed the extra time to really understand one another. Despite the lack of actual sex scenes, there was a lot of sexual tension and I could really feel their growing love and acceptance for one another.
There weren’t as many secondary characters/side plots in this story as there were in the previous book, which made this story tighter and faster paced. Vampires, not werewolves and human gangs, were the primary focus.
One thing I just don’t understand after reading the first two books of this trilogy is why vampires need permission from older, more powerful vampires to create new vampires, called protégés. I understand too many vampires in one area would alert the humans and cause problems, but why must vampires earn the privilege to create protégés when it’s a natural need for them to procreate?
Anyway, I really enjoyed this story.
4.5 Stars show less

I did expect more from this cos it had such a cool premise with Norse Mythology. The myths of my genes (my soul is another business). But I just never connected with Mist. For someone that old she was not very smart.

I know I read an ARC but I just came across such an unforgivable thing. "The Border of Norway and Switzerland", oh I did not now that. And do not give me the they both begin with Sw. I expect more from an ARC that deals with Norse mythology. I wondered how other would feel about show more this book, strange words and things are scattered through out it I know Norwegian, I know my myths so that was not a problem, but did others feel the same? Or was it confusing?

Still it had its good moments. Action with frost giants, a strange Elf, and of course the great trickster Loki causing havoc. And I know he is a lusty devil, but enough is enough. And there is a good cliffie ending that promising bad things to happen. How on earth Mist will get out of this one I do not know. Maybe Ragnarök will finally happen.

But for me connection is important and sadly it did not happen for me this time. But the story is good and promising. show less

Una delle storie d'amore più belle e "reali", benché fantastiche, che io abbia mai letto. Una storia che coinvolgerà anche le lettrice più ciniche con i suoi paesaggi straordinari, la cura dei particolari e i personaggi indimenticabili.

Non c'è possibilità d'errore: una storia che verrà amata in tutte le sue cupe, fresche e "umane" sfaccettature. Una storia che rimane dentro e accarezzi i cuori riuscendo a toccare le corde della realtà di "coppia" quando spesso un romance si limita a show more narrarne l'innamoramento fulmineo dettato dal colpo di fulmine.

Non c'è colpo di fulmine fra Joelle, americana alla disperata ricerca del punto in cui anni prima morirono i suoi genitori in un incidente aereo, e Luke, solitario e ricco don giovanni dall'aria misteriosa e dal presente ancor più complesso.

Entrambi giocheranno una partita senza via di uscita, si sfideranno e si aggireranno come bestie pronte a saltarsi alla gola inconsapevoli che la resa è, per entrambi, vicina.

Joelle, bella ma tosta, con la sua aria solare e disponibile verso tutti che nasconde, però, la sua anima dietro uno spesso scudo che la proteggerà fino alla fine dietro alla sua incrollabile logica e pratiocità.

Luke, ricco proprietario terriero, che designa la nuova arrivata come sua prossima "preda". Un gioco veloce ma soddisfacente che però lo sbalordisce non appena vede che Joey non è per niente interessata a cedergli. La caccia, senza pietà, facendo leva sul suo indiscusso fascino fino a quasi piegarla. Poi, inspiegabilmente, ci ripensa e la evita, scomparendo.

Peccato che Joey non sia un tipo da darsi per vinta e si addentra nella vita di Luke con la forza, ignorando quando in realtà lui la stesse evitando per il suo stesso bene. Lei non ci sta e si insinua senza preavviso nel mondo e nel cuore di Luke... Fino a quando non scoprirà una verità che ha sempre avuto sotto gli occhi, non riuscendo veramente a comprenderla.

La trama in sé non è assolutamente originale, fin dall'inizio si sa dove andrà a parare. E' lo sviluppo di questa e la crescita del rapporto dei personaggi che rende il tutto assolutamente unico e magico. E' "umano" e "reale" come lo sono gli errori e le ferite che entrambi si infliggono, senza pietà.

Assolutamente consigliato a chi cerca un romanzo molto curato fin nel minimi dettagli e con un'attenzione particolare all'evoluzione del rapporto fra i due protagonisti. show less