Book: Menáge

Series: Single novel. Not Part of a series

Author: Emma Holly

Pages: 256

Publisher: Virgin Cheek

Year: 2004

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Mythology: None, all 100% humans and proud of it!

Style:

Emma Holly is a delight to read. She is very skilled in creating strong and compelling characters who take you to an amazing world.

This book is an open place to fall in love. Her writing style is down to earth, detailed and her approach to erotica goes beyond the narration of pure sex. Her novel is set in contemporary society and she uses the freedom women conquered over the years to create believable characters to which you can relate in different levels and join them on an amazing journey.

Her books differ from regular romance books only over the amount of sex scenes in it. In some ways it is better written and has a full story with believable characters. Her thoughtfulness when writing the smutty bits shows on every touch, look and thought the characters exchange. She has a keen sense to bring the action to life. And boy... what action!!!

The book’s plot is well estabilished and she manages to keep a cohesive story from first to last page.

Story:

The book is about Kate, Joe and Sean. The couple, Joe and Sean, is Kate’s roommates and to her surprise, Joe feels more than friendship towards her.

Characters:

Kate is the proud owner of a bookstore and landlady to Joe and Sean. Joe is a composer/musician/singer on his way to fame and Sean is busyness broker with an attitude.

What I loved:

The interaction between characters, the sense of companionship and complicity between them.

What I hated:

There wasn’t anything remarkable to note here.

Impressions:

This book opened my horizons.

I must confess that even tho I’m not prejudiced against the homosexual community, one thing is to have a gay friend; another is to take interest on his sex life to a point where you could become part of it. I never considered that a possibility.

In the past, I honestly never have considered the possibility of having two men at the same time. The logistics of that seemed impossible (yeah, I was a bit obtuse on that matter) I used to think that it would either make me the proverbial slut or I would end up simply becoming a third wheel and being used by my partners, nothing more. I have never considered the possibility of a scenario like the one in the book.

I recommend this book to any woman who wants to think outside the box but not too far out. There is a lot of Female anal sex in it and Male/Male sex. So, if you are open to consider such things go ahead and I’m sure you’ll have a wonderful time. If not, do not hate it, just don’t read it.

Story Rating: ☺☺☺☺☺ (yes, I’ve read this book a number of times already!!)

Steam Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Book: Dark Prince
Series: The Carpathians
Author: Christine Feehan
Pages: 464
Publisher: Leisure Books
Year: 2005
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Mythology: A nice twist on vampires

Style:
Christine Feehan’s writing is………… interesting – pause – WAIT! … This is not a bad thing, this pause... It is really interesting but in a suffocating, twisted trippy way. She makes nice characters, the world she created is open and natural and if you don’t think about the macho vamps roaming around, you can almost smell the freedom.

Since I won’t be doing an overall review of the series, here’s the sum of it:
After centuries of solitude, the race of the Carpathian race is on the brink of a collapse. There are no more female vampires, and, in their culture, there is only one for every male. There are no more lifemates and for reasons unknown (I’ll shut my lips here ‘cos I have a pretty good idea why, and it wasn’t necessary to read the 2nd book to think that) the females that are already mated can’t produce female offspring. The males of the species lose their ability to feel and see colors after the first couple of centuries of life and some of them slowly degenerate into twisted monsters: Vampires. Only a number of them are able to resist the urge to feel again, even if it is through the lens of a vicious killer.

Story:
It’s the story of Mikhail and Raven. There are vampire killers around and they are targeting the wrong people.

Characters:
Mikhail is the prince of the Carpathians, their lord and protector. Raven is a telepath who helps different law enforcement agencies to catch murderers. They have a good chemistry.

What I loved:
There wasn’t anything remarkable to note here.

What I hated:
See impressions… *sigh*

Impressions:
It is a SUFFOCATING book. The prospect of being the object of desire of an extremely hot, devoted, sensory starved alpha male vampire sounds alluring at the first glance, but they are domineering, overbearing, overprotective, patronizing and with a perverted idea of what a gentleman is. The Carpathian (not vamp b/c they don’t kill when they feed) suffocates and bends you to his will not only with actions but with orders both verbal and psychic, YUP! he can send compulsion commands straight to your mind and persuade/guilt (GUILT for Christ cakes!!!!) for you to force you to comply to his wishes and the result is, at least the female characters in the book who falls for them, are forever trapped in a love where they have to “clip their freedom” to be with the love of their lives.

All the good things on this romance are overshadowed by this. There are good things like how their all-consuming desire inebriates and seduces you, they live to make you safe and happy but in order to do that you have to obey them blindly and even if that protection is necessary, they don’t tell you why and don’t even consider in taking your help. The macho act is taken to such an extreme.

This book could have been a hit, as addictive as the Cynster’s and cherished as the Black Dagger Brotherhood, but it fails in a way that in my opinion is a disservice to women. Just like Twilight was criticized over the “stalker” feel of it, and for suggesting that is OK to have a bf that invades your house just to watch you sleep without you knowing, this book makes it okay to become a hostage of a authoritarian man (who falls to his urgent desires and takes AND sire you WITHOUT your permission) and later on staying due to some serious Stockholm Syndrome/love. Women rights really are a product of modern times and if a medieval “Carpathian” can’t understand and respect it, I WON’T have anything to do with him.

I’m at the 4th book, Gregori’s, and I will give it a chance to sell me on the idea. I’ve never had a problem in changing my mind and recognizing I might be wrong. I seriously doubt this is the case, buuuut I’ll give it a chance.


Story Rating: ☺
Steam Rating: ♥ ♥

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Hello!

Okay, I know I’ve been away too long and I have tons of reviews to make. I promise the 2nd and 3rd BDB book review soon and the 1st Dark Series review too.

Lately I’ve been listening (yup as in Audiobook) to the Cynster series. It is a “regency era” romance series and they are very good. I’ve been a paranormal junkie for a while and I’ve never thought I would like period pieces. True I also have been a diehard fan of Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, The Age of Innocence and several others but they are movies and sometimes, especially b/c English isn’t my first language, reading those sometimes is a bit of a challenge. Not that I’m elevating the series to a Jane Austen status, but I did have a wrong pre-conception about it.

I confess I’m enthralled by them and they are taking way too much of my PC time. The narrator is very talented and almost as good as Stephen Fry.

See you all next week with new reviews!!