Tiger Eye

Despite her psychic talents (an affinity for metal), the last thing Dela Reese expected when she opened a riddle box was a seven-foot-tall shapeshifter required to fulfill her every command. Full of hatred and distrust after having spent the past several centuries enduring every torment known to man, Hari finds Dela's determination to help him mystifying but welcome. Soon the two of them find themselves working together to thwart two separate sets of assassins out to kill Dela and to lift the curse on Hari.

I don't usually read urban fantasy/paranormal romances, but this series came pretty highly recommended, so I decided to give the whole shape-shifter thing a try. And I was definitely not disappointed by this book. I was (pleasantly) show more surprised that the entire 'slave'/command thing didn't happen at all. Dela absolutely refuses to command him to do anything which both demonstrates her strength of character and avoids the resentment and weird power relationship that would have happened otherwise - big points for the author there. As it was Hari was just alpha-male enough to be believable, and Dela was both insistent AND capable of taking care of her own self, thank you very much. There's nothing like a kick-ass heroine who DOESN'T collapse into damsel in distress mode for the hero to save her (even if she could kick the hero's ass in the early chapters). More points for keeping both of the characters strong.

We're also introduced to a whole host of secondary characters - members of the psychic/magical detective agency Dirk & Steele - in what is obviously set-up for the rest of the books in the series. But the other characters are thoroughly charming and necessary - somebody's got to help ward off different groups of assassins, so the world-building/series set-up wasn't so obtrusive as to be preposterous. I'm really looking forward to getting to know more of these guys. Not to mention Dela's friend Kit and the fantastic Dame Rose from the club. Yay!

While I liked that the hero and heroine didn't pull insta-lust/love, most of the focus was on the action - not the romance. Or maybe I was just dissatisfied with the way the sex was handled. I like mine a little smuttier than that at this point. Plus there was a bit where I was just a bit weirded out.

The pacing at the end went a little wonky, but all told, I thought this was great fun. Flying daggers, swords, telepaths and shapeshifters - on top of a believable slowly-growing romance. The dialogue between the main characters really made the love story work, and I really liked both of them - and the secondary characters. Liu won't go on my auto-buy list (I still don't think paranormals are really my thing), but I'm looking forward to reading the rest of this series.

Also posted on my blog. show less

Tiger Eye: The First Dirk & Steele Novel starts off with a bang and then fizzles. And fizzles. And fizzles. It's got a textbook saggy middle, full of downtime and non-events that completely killed my interest in the story.

So the story is that Dela opens this little box and conjures Hari, who will be her slave until the day she dies. That sounds like a great source of conflict, right? Hari doesn't want to be a slave, she doesn't want to own him, but she can't get rid of him without subjecting him to a worse fate. Well, the first thing Dela does is swear never, ever to use the command that will force him to obey her. Conflict resolved.

There's still the question of ending the curse entirely, so that Hari's next master can't control him, show more and getting back his tiger skin, so that he can change form, but that first encounter tells us everything we need to know about how Liu will approach those problems: she will get them out of the way as fast as possible.

Instead of actual problems, we get lots and lots of sappy stuff. Hari is so grateful that Dela is a good person! Dela is so sorry that she can't be more helpful! They wring their hands and hop in the sack and then wring their hands some more. Every now and again an assassin pops up, but Hari is an immortal warrior and Dela has a backup squad of devoted, special-forces-style sidekicks, so all the assassination attempts aren't scary at all. The good guys way outclass the bad guys.

These attacks only result in more hand-wringing: Dela is so sad when other people are hurt protecting her! Her friends want her to know that she's worth dying for! One of the bad guys is trying to kill her because she forged the knife used to murder his niece. This strikes me as wildly irrational; get mad at the murderer, sure, but the person who made the murder weapon? It's hard to swallow; I've never heard about vigilantes attacking gun manufacturers, for example. Even more bizarre is the fact that Dela makes knives for a living and feels really, really guilty when someone uses one of her knives to kill. I got so sick of the hand wringing -- Dela feels so bad that this girl died, even though she had nothing to do with it! Her friends want her to know that she doesn't need to feel guilty! Yada yada.

There are all sorts of other problems that could develop in the romance but...they don't. Are Dela and Hari ready to make a long term commitment? Instantly! Does Dela find tigers erotic, or freak out about the idea of having sex with one? Nope! What about kids, are they ready for that? Sure! Even if the kids turn out to be tiger babies? No worries! There is literally no conflict between Dela and Hari. Or in the book, in general.

Tiger Eye: The First Dirk & Steele Novel is well written, and I've liked Liu books before, but this one is a dud. show less

Read because of a strong recommendation of the author. Personally, I wasn't impressed. I know this title is in a more romance-centric series, which doesn't bode well for quality, and maybe I have some confirmation bias going because of that, but while I found this book fluffy and easily devoured (and I did finish it, so there's that), it has a lot of problems.

1. The plot. Also, closely related, the pacing. A middle 30% of the book doesn't have much going on, really, after a strong start. (I think the characters should have stayed in China, personally.) One antagonist solves that mystery for them, and they do nothing about the other antagonist until he makes another move.

Flimsy intro: mysterious shopkeeper sells mysterious object, only show more to disappear the next day. Why Dela again? Oh, and pops in to save the characters' asses periodically, so they don't have to try too hard.

Climax: rape threats! Rape threats for everyone! For not especially logical reasons on the part of the villain, who is just evil and power-hungry.

2. The characters. Everyone is a shallow caricature. Dela's friends are a pack of badasses with hearts of gold, but there's no sense of danger to them, even when they're dispatching intruders or talking about Those Mysterious Places they know they can get rid of bodies at. Black Best Friend only really serves as a vehicle to make them meet another shifter (but I see she gets her own book later).

2a. Hari himself is a shallow angst puppet. Forced to do bad things! But only killing and having sex with women. Never raping women or children, no. Just so much death and punishing abuse. Which, yeah right-- he could fight that one kind of command? Also, he was never forced to "service" men? Uh-huh. Okay, so damaged goods...who magically trusts the special new master within an hour of being awakened by her. No PTSD. No trust/commitment issues beyond the flimsy desire to have total privacy when he and Dela first have PIV sex (but handjobs are totes different). So basically typical Romantic Lead: angsty background, inexplicably drawn to the heroine, overly protective to the point of physically stopping the heroine from doing something--including locking her in her room until she starts screaming (though otoh the heroine has typical Put Myself In Danger inclinations). For some reason he repeatedly mentions his masters (and everyone else) fearing him, which...really? There weren't any dismissive, cocky bastards in your list of owners? People who implicitly trusted the binding enchantment? Also adjusted very quickly to the modern world despite last being exposed in the 15th century. And stupid multi-color hair. Shouldn't he, and couldn't he, have looked more like an actual Indian man instead of rainbow hair and a tan? India is never named explicitly but that's gotta be his area of origin.

2b. Dela herself is dropping Canon Sue flags all over. She's a metalsmith but no mention of her being buff or having rough hands? But she's not a girly-girl like those other useless women, naturally. She's just a homely jeans-and-flannel kind of girl (though the only times her clothing is mentioned, that's certainly not what she's in). She swoons when Hari dismisses some other women (feminine, giggly, openly checking him out) as not real women like HER. She is, of course, the first and only woman in 2 millennia who is brave and forthright with him. All the characters have to comment on how brave she is! How kind! Soft but fierce! Legit artist but besties with tough men who love her like a kid sister. So sensitive that she makes knives to sell but is heartbroken that one was actually used to kill. Also, filthy stinking rich (a trust fund that would make Donald Trump weep, as she puts it). She's a loner but with a decent network of friends and family, and even restaurant owners who know and adore her.

3. The interactions and reactions are not really realistic. Re: that knife, everyone (hard men included) are just so shocked and appalled about the murder of a teenager. So unforgivable, killing a child! The ultimate moral event horizon-- except for rape. You know, be pissed that the girl was probably innocent of perpetrating the deeds that drove the murderer to it. And have some sympathy for that murderer, because he did it in revenge for some horrible shit done to him, and none of this calling him a coward, or overwrought accusations--Dela--that he used you to commit murder. No. Maybe if you were a caterer and he deliberately didn't tell you about someone's peanut allergy or something...

So he kills himself and some of the immediate reaction, no joke, is how selfish he was to do it in front of Dela. Not that killing yourself in front of someone is a kind thing, but really? Yes, someone felt pushed to suicide, but let's only talk about how much it hurt our cute blonde heroine. Minor antagonist basically put himself in the fridge. At least Hari had some sympathy, and Dean chimed in as the voice of reason for the second time to point out that things must have sucked for the murder, too.

Also, throughout the story, more heroine-centric behavior. Okay, 7' tall hottie, especially in China, is going to attract some attention, but it seems everyone always has eyes locked on Dela and Hari. They get a little PDA in a dumpling shop and decide to quickly leave because everyone's gone silent, staring at them. Dela suggestively sucks Hari finger at an airport, and all the men in a 20' radius have their eyes glued to her as she saunters off. No. People are not that interested in you, or even your freakishly tall boyfriend. I already mentioned the disgusting suite moment...

4. The Relationship. okay, I know this is the genre, but Hari and Dela are pledging each other eternity within days of meeting. Dela even ponders, what if she can't stand living with him? Giving up her solitude? Which is never mentioned again, even though she also has 4 other guys crashing her place to guard her. That was a good concern! Never to actually be used or mentioned, or explored. At some point, after declarations of undying love and loyalty, the two of you have to pick wall colors and cabinet knobs, too, or decide what kind of culture you're going to raise tiger cubs in. Oh, and they move off to some mountainside wilderness somewhere. Dela, for all her "much loner, very solitude, wow" attitude, liked to get her restaurant on, apparently...have fun with that.

4b. The sex. I misinterpreted the meaning of "shifted" and thought it meant Hari transformed during sex. Haha, oh no, silly me.

And then a page later Dela is literally blowing a tiger.

Eeeww. No, you know what, she is the specialest person to ever special, because while I think these days more random people than not would be compassionate towards Hari, most would probably not exchange oral sex with him while he's an Actual Literal Tiger.

(It's supposed to be emphasizing how Special Dela is for always seeing him as the man he is and not a piece of meat or a monster, but uh...)

In other news, there were a lot of Laurell K. Hamilton-ish aspects to this book, which came out in 2005. I wonder whether Hamilton or Liu got were-bestiality first... Hamilton definitely got the Stupidly Tall Hottie all women, everywhere, yes even you, will assault just to have a chance to touch, while ignoring or glaring at the obvious girlfriend. So...yay?

If I need hyper-fluff again and can't find anything else, I may see if the library has more of these. Otherwise, meh. show less

The further on this book progressed, the wonkier the plot became, it has several First Novel problems, and Liu has a couple of stylistic tics that make me twitch, but overall this was an enjoyable piece of trashy fluff. Dela, the female lead, was entirely lacking in common sense at times, but I liked that she was able to defend herself most of the time, and that she was the one who held the power balance (at least initially) in her relationship with Hari. My favourite part of it, and what will get me to check out the next few novels at least in the series, is that the cast wasn't entirely white. The heroine was a blue-eyed blonde, yes, but many—if not most—of the others are characters of colour, and I hold out hope that their focus show more books will get to present non-white men as romantic leads without exoticising them. I know! Shocking!

(The cover is, of course, dire. Why is it that romance and fantasy novels tend to have such awful covers? I'd be much more likely to try some of them if I weren't embarrassed to be seen with them in public.) show less

This was an entertaining paranormal romance. It introduces an agency - Dirk & Steele - which provides a haven for people who have psychic talents. The agency was apparently formed by Dela Reese's grandparents who are formidable people. Dela is an artist and a weapon maker. Her skills let her interact with metals. She also has the power to block her mind from outside influences.

The story begins with Dela in China and at the Dirt Market looking for interesting things. After bargaining with an old woman for some textiles, she is offered a strange box and is convinced to buy it for a very small amount of money.

After her purchase, she is importuned by a handsome man who gives her the creeps. She manages to escape from him by causing a scene show more and returns to her hotel. There she examines the box and discovers the way to open it. Much to her surprise, the box contains a tiger shifter who has spent the last 2000 years as a slave to whoever opens the box.

Hari was cursed by someone he calls the Magi and has spent the last 2000 years at the command of whoever opens the box. And he hasn't been owned by nice people. He has killed and been tortured and sexually abused. He has long since learned not to trust anyone who controls him.

But Dela is different. She has no desire to have a slave and becomes the only friend Hari has had since his imprisonment. But the Magi wants to recover Hari's box and Dela has attracted the attention of someone else who wants her dead too.

I liked the story and the cast of characters who are Dela's friends. I liked the romance that developed between Hari and Dela and even liked the love scenes which were not overly graphic. The story was fast-paced.

Further books in this series apparently follow the romances and adventures of many of the characters introduced in this first book. show less

Delilah Reese is in China on buisness when a mysterious old woman sells her a puzzel box whose riddle turns out to be more than what she bargained for. Hari is a centuries old shapeshifter cursed by the wizard who stole his skin to be enslaved to anyone who opens his box.

Although this states that it is the first Dirk and Steele book, it doesn't read like a first story. However, this didn't really detract from my enjoyment of the book. The only other story I've read so far in the universe was a the short story in the "Dark Dreamer" antholgy and so far I like the way this author writes and her characters (particularly her side characters for some reason). I'm certainly happy to read more of these stories in the future.

I have read a few things about this series and I started reading I think book number six a long time ago when I didn't even realize it was part of a series and I didn't finish it because I was so confused. Now I know why, lol. (Yes, I just LOL in my review) I really am glad I found this book at my PX and was able to grab it because I love this book. It is well written, strongly charactered, and it really made me think of the Psy-chageling series by Nalini Singh, which I adore.

Let's jump in shall we? I like Dela (love her name too), she is strong, she has weaknesses and strengths and she isn't afraid to be herself, these are all wonderful heroine characteristics. I heart Hari (hate his name) he is strong, masculine, and just hot. I think show more he was a bit too lenient on the trust after everything he has been through, but I don't know Dela as well as he does, so what do I know. I do also want to say that nothing scares Ms. Lui...the way she set up the plot and some of the disturbing things mentioned here and there....creepy, disturbing, and totally appropriate for the book. Some authors might have shied away.

I will continue to devour this series. show less