Lia Davis

Read only if you are a middle-aged woman who lost the love of your life (but who also refers to your only son as the other love of your life) and want to imagine what it might be like to fall in love again with a magically handsome sheriff's deputy who has teal AND blue eyes:

"I found it hard to stare into his unusual teal and blue eyes. At the same time, it was impossible to look away. He didn't have two different color eyes. They were a mix of teal and dark blue. Teal being the dominant show more color. I'd never seen eyes like those before."

The writing sounds like something I would have tossed off for a hasty book review, minus my normal plethora of commas and semi-colons, and consists of moment-by-moment internal narration from someone totally unlike me:

"When I entered the kitchen and spotted the bottles of water, my hospitable side got the better of me. I put the bottles in a cooler and covered them in ice, then dragged them onto the porch. There. Now they had plenty to drink if they needed it...

I settled down at my desk to write, but my attention kept drifting out the window. I had the perfect view of their work truck and couldn't help but notice how young and fit several of the construction workers were. I spent more time watching them work and admiring the view. I really had to stop myself from ogling before I was caught being a creeper. Plus, none of them set my insides on fire like a certain cop I ran into at the grocery store three days ago.

And I will not think about Officer Walker.

After lunch, during which I nearly convinced myself to make sandwiches for the entire crew, I sat back down to work. Oh, I offered to make lunch, but they politely declined. It was the mother in me to make sure everyone was taken care of. Maybe I'd get a pet to care for since my son abandoned me for higher learning."

This is at 25% and the most magical thing that's happened is that the house made a sound like breaking glass and scared the construction guys away. Oh, and an undead cat has made two uninteresting appearances. I mean, it's a cat. It could have scratched someone and given it pestilent necrophages at the very least. You know what would be original? Ghouls as construction workers.

I tried to do my due diligence before buying, but was suckered anyway. There's a reason all the reviews say, "good job setting up the characters." At a quarter of the way through, I'm not even sure what our main conflict is. Selling a house that doesn't want to be sold, perhaps, except it's more on the line of Goosebumps than Poltergeist.

I'm not even going to get into the eighth-grade writing style. If this was in paper format, I'd fully expect 1.5" margins.

If there's anything that demonstrates the fallibility of Goodreads' rating system, it's the fact that this has managed to garner a 4.36 rating. I'm not saying those other profiles are fake, because they are surprisingly fleshed out for the normal sock puppet accounts. But I do question their taste: most of them have a 4.7 rating for over five hundred books. I need to go read about drug dealers to get this one out of my head.

Update: speaking of drug dealers, I have a book addiction. Because I had to know, am I selling this short? What's the deal with the five star ratings? So I moved into skim gear and finished. It was both better and worse than I expected. Literally, nothing happens until 50%. You read that right. The reviewer who said, "this is all exposition" wasn't exaggerating. The murder is kind of laughable. Relationships between the characters go from "hey, I just met you and I'm not sure I like you," to complete trust and (thematic spoiler) moving in in a chapter. Worse, the protagonist turns out to be (brace yourself) a Super-Speshul Snowflake Deluxe (as is her son. The good stuff: teamwork. A friendship with another woman who is as adventurous as our heroine is lame. A hilarious zombie butler.

I'm super bummed and irritated: why does the middle of women's lives in urban fantasy have to be so boring and full of uncomplicated emotions and experiences? I'd agree with the reviewer who thought the characters acted like they are twenty. If there's one thing life has emphasized, there's way more complexity than I've found in this sub-genre, and I'm kind of pissed that it's basically being sanitized. No kids no husband = bored and sad. Life goal is return to 'normal.' Someday I'm going to write one where a woman owns her anger, frustration and joy and embraces the shit out of the changes. show less

I'm a big fan of paranormal romances, and I love reading stories by new-to-me authors. Lia Davis, though, isn't quite a new-to-me author.....but she is. I've been following her for quite sometime now, and joined her street team long ago, but this is the first book by her that I have read. It's the first book in her Divinities series, and what a rockin' start it is! Ms. Davis' parnormal elements are stunning and her characters are complex and real-to-life. The plot line is breath taking and I show more was completely captivated from first page to last.

I really loved Kalissa's character. She was brilliantly created with a fierce independent nature. Her "third" eye, or visions, abilities were amazing! I would love to be able to have visions the way she does. Kalissa's parents died in an accident, but Kalissa saw who caused it after having a dream and rushing to the scene. Now she needs to find out why they did it and who,exactly, that person was. But, as she seeks the answers she needs after finding a mysterious letter from her mother, she nearly dies. Untder the watchful eye of the sexy new Maxville sheriff, her search just got more complicated. Something's intimately familiar about him, even though she's known him since childhood. There's more to the story, and she's determined to figure it all out. But,there's a problem. Demons don't want her to.

Ayden is one hot cop! I adored his character! He's fiercely protective of Kalissa when he realizes she's been in an accident. But there's just one tiny problem. She tore his heart out and stomped all over it when they were teenagers and she left him for someone else. He has a right to be upset at her....or does he? Determined to finish what their parents started in seeking out the Sinew and keeping away from the demons and the Dark Divine, he tries to keep his heart in tact. But, as he learns more of the story, both from Kalissa and his cousin Zach, something's not adding up. He may just get his second chance at love with his eternal mate...that is, if the demons don't prevail first.

Watching Ayden protect both Kalissa and his heart was awesome! The attraction between them was super hot and sizzling! There were so many times I wanted to trade places with Kalissa :-). These characters were absolutely perfect for their roles and really stole my heart.

This 5 Book worthy start to Ms. Davis' new series is deserving of more than just a rating. It's deserving of hats-off praises, highest recommendations, being read again and again. It's filled with suspenseful twists, fantastic passion, magic that will captivate you and an ending that will drop your jaw and leave you ready for book 2 instantly! I can't wait until Kalissa's twin's story is told in Death's Storm, releasing in November 2012!

*This review is based on a complimentary copy received in exchange for honest opinion* show less

War’s Passion by Lia Davis
Book #1: Sons of War Series
Source: Purchase
My Rating: 4½/5 stars
My Review:

I think you all know I have a deep, deep love of all things dragon so coming across Lia Davis’s Sons of War series was sort of an embarrassing squeak moment. I’ve now read each of the books twice and can’t say I’m done with them. Here’s the lay of the land:

Gwen: Fifteen years ago, her parents were killed in an unprovoked attack by three men, one of which was able to shift into a show more large, black dragon. With high hopes for starting over, Gwen and her adopted sister, Elle move into a fixer-upper on the coast of Maine. Within just a few days, Gwen finds herself right back in the middle of her worst nightmare, surrounded by dragons. Unlike last time however, these dragons seem to be friendly.

Markus: ggggrrrrr!!! As the son of Ares, Markus and his brothers were literally born into violence. In the centuries since their birth, Markus and his brothers have been tasked by Zeus to watch over the Descendants, those half-mortal children whose other parent just happens to be a god or goddess. Meeting Gwen is the first time in centuries Markus has been glad of his assignment and if he is going to make her his mate, he’s going to have to get her to trust him.

Garrick: aka Gary to those who want to piss him off. Garrick is 100% batsh&t crazy and is hell bent on bringing down the Olympian deities and his brothers. Oh, yes, Markus and crew are Garrick’s brothers and Garrick will stop at nothing to see them all fall. Garrick’s crazy sort of happened over night when his mate, Sophia was taken from him. In that moment, Garrick became convinced of his brother’s betrayal and hatched a plan to kill them all. In order to do that, Garrick has to collect as many of the Descendants as he can, unlock their bound powers, and get them to do his evil bidding.

The Descendants: Across the world are children and adults just like Gwen, half-mortals with gifts that were bestowed upon them by their other, Olympian parent. The gift(s) each Descendant has is dependent upon the identity of their Olympian parent. In the last great war, the Olympian deities discovered their descendants with unbound powers posed a serious threat to their existence and so, the Descendants had their powers bound and Zeus forbid the deities from having any direct contact with their offspring. Most of the Descendants, Gwen included, know there is something different about them but don’t quite know the entire story. Garrick, being a Son of War does know the full story and desperately needs people like Gwen in order to pull off his ridiculously crazy plan.

The Bottom Line: Yeah, I love dragons to a disturbing degree and Lia Davis is only encouraging my obsession with her Sons of War series. Gwen is an interesting character and she becomes more so as she gains her powers but the real interest lies in the actual Sons of War. Markus and his brothers are all kinds of varied and angry, and hot. Though they are stick on Earth they have made the most of their time and become successful business men and protectors of their town. They have also spent their years on Earth looking for Garrick in order to stop his madness. As Gwen and Elle (and others) come into the Sons’ lives, and the Olympians are once again able to have direct contact with their descendants, the need to stop Garrick becomes critical. War’s Passion has loads of backstory, just the right amount of action and mayhem, some steamy naughty bits, and the promise of more awesomeness to come. For all intents and purposes, War’s Passion comes to a full and complete end but as you will see, the Sons of War story is far, far from over. show less

Artemis’s Hunt by Lia Davis
Book #2½: Sons of War Series
Source: Purchase
My Rating: 4½/5 stars
My Mini-Review:

For the last 1,500 years, Artemis, goddess of the hunt has mourned the loss of her one true mate, Evangelos. With no explanation other than, “he is no longer with us,” from her father, Zeus, Artemis was left alone to raise their daughter. That would be the daughter Evangelos had no knowledge of prior to his leaving Olympus.

Turns out, when Zeus said, “he is no longer with show more us,” he didn’t mean dead just literally no longer in Olympus. Now, imagine you just spent 1,500 years mourning the loss of your true mate, raising your daughter solo only to find out your dad lied. Pissed off doesn’t even come close to what Artemis is following that big reveal. The hits just keep on coming when Zeus tells Artemis her beloved will be allowed to return to Olympus once Artemis delivers a message to her step-mother, Hera. Hera dislikes Artemis just about as much as Artemis dislikes Zeus so delivering a message to Hera should be loads of fun.

Hera is a queen b&tch and she isn’t going to make the delivery of her husband’s message easy. In fact, Hera enjoys making things difficult so Artemis isn’t going at it alone. After some very awkward explanations, some very emotional welcome backs, and some really good naughty bits, Artemis and Evangelos set out through a series of ugly traps to find Hera. Along the way, they encounter poison, a really nasty and totally crazy vampire, and friendlies who have no problem stepping into the fray to help their friends and loved ones.

The Bottom Line: This mid-series novella is such a great addition to the Sons of War series. Artemis made a brief appearance in book two, Ashes of War when she was not only introduced as Ash’s mother but the groundwork for her own story was laid. Artemis’s story is 1,500 years in the making and it is such a sweet and sexy reunion with her mate. What I enjoyed most about this read - and the appearance of the deities in the other books – is how truly human they behave. Oh, sure, Artemis and the other deities have some super-awesome abilities and they are immortal but their actions and reactions in this series are often very human which makes them far more relatable. In sincerely hope, as the Sons of War series continues to grow that there will be more of these deity stories thrown into the mix. show less