My Devilish Scotsman
Jen Holling
Pocket, Jul 2005, $6.99, 384 pp.
ISBN: 0743471075

Only for the dying Alan MacDonell would the Earl of Kincreag Nicholas Lyon heed a summoning as earls do not jump when a chieftain asks. However, Alan is his best friend and the letter says he will die before the night is over. He rushes to the deathbed, but though ailing Alan is clearly going to survive another day though not many afterward. Sitting by Alan’s side is his daughter Gillian, who he accuses of the phony note; Gillian denies she sent for him. Alan wants Nicholas to marry Gillian so he sent the message.

Gillian is the handicapped of the three MacDonell witches as she has no powers unlike her magical sisters. Her sire orders her to wed Nicholas; she wants to refuse him because she fears he allegedly murdered his first wife. However, she will do anything for her beloved daddy so reluctantly accepts her fate; Nicholas does likewise as he owes Alan, but hates anything connected to witchery. When she enters his castle, Gillian has horrid visions of death and soon someone tries to kill her. Initially she wonders if the cold hearted Nicholas is a killer, but soon falls in love with him even as she ponders whether her heart belongs to someone wanting her dead.

MY DEVILISH SCOTSMAN, the second MacDonell Brides’ tale (see MY WICKED HIGHLANDER), is a fabulous fantasy romantic suspense starring two wonderful seemingly star-crossed lovers. She is a witch though her powers do not surface until she enters the home of her husband; he detests witches due to what happened to his first wife. A clever third party manipulates their doubts and misconceptions so that the audience obtains a marvelous paranormal historical romance.

Harriet Klausner

How to Marry a Millionaire Vampire
Kerrelyn Sparks
Avon, Aug 2005, $5.99, 384 pp.
ISBN: 0060751967

Though he has been a vampire for several centuries, Roman Draganesti, CEO chemist of Romatech Industries, hates being God’s abomination in spite of doing great things for humanity and his species like inventing synthetic blood and blood cuisines. However, his success has made it a safer world for vampires, but a splinter group the Malcontents believe that biting humans is the only way to dine for a superior species. Roman tests a new device, but his fang falls out. He must get it replanted tonight or his vampiric healing prowess will close the gap permanently.

Dentist Shanna Whelan works night at a clinic though she fears blood since someone killed her friend in front of her. Roman arrives holding a wolf’s tooth, but she refuses to place an animal’s fang in his mouth. However, he rescues her from Russians and vampire Ivan Petrovsky, who want her dead since her testimony incarcerated one of them. Instead of gratitude she knees him in his testicles, which hurts severely. Still he takes her with him; soon they fall in love, but relationships between vampires and mortals have lifespan issues although Ivan plans to bite both of them out of existence.

Mindful of MaryJanice Davidson’s works, the key to this satirical supernatural romance is that the species vampire comes across as genuine within a modern age context. The lead couple is a likable star-crossed duo while the strong support cast augments the belief that vampires live. Though the climax seems rushed and the large vampire population contains many lacking discipline making it impossible to accept that most humans remain unaware they exist, sub-genre readers will enjoy this biting tale and look forward to an upcoming sequel.

Harriet Klausner

End In Fire
Syne Mitchell
Roc, June 2005, $6.99, 325 pp.
ISBN 0451460332

In the year 2027, oil resources are nearly depleted and the Digboi oil field which borders the Himalayas is claimed by India but the Chinese want it for their people. It starts off as a conventional, localized war but China uses a high atmosphere nuclear device before sending in troop. India retaliates using its nuclear arsenal and the United States is on a war alert ready to help India.

The America Reliance space station carrying five astronauts is getting ready to launch a satellite that will deploy solar reflectors to use as a cheap energy source. They are witnesses to the nuclear war that broke out between India and China and are desperate to find a way to get home. The Chinese space station whose commander isy Zhang is willing to help them in return for a ride home but people in both stations fear that war on earth will influence discussions in space.

END IN FIRE is a story about the courage of two crews in Chinese and American space stations trying to overcome the distrust that led to war back home. In both crews, there are hostiles unwillingly to trust or work together and it is only through the leadership of Claire Logan that the remaining men and women have a chance of surviving. The premise for the war on Earth is plausible and all the more frightening because oil reserves are depleting now and it is conceivable that nations will go to war sometime in the future to gain control of the oil fields. Syne Mitchell is a fantastic storyteller who uses hard science that can be found in a Ben Bova novel and place it in an outer space thriller.

Harriet Klausner

Monroe’s Redemption
Elijah Bruce
Boolana Collective Press, May 2005, $9.99, 144 pp.
ISBN: 1411621913

In Manhattan, Monroe Goolynabura is a confident rookie with only one formal year of chef experience at a top restaurant Café Pacifica. Heeding the words of his mother, his culinary school teacher, the media dubbing him a future superstar and encouraged by his wife, Monroe enters the annual Union Square Fair cook-out expecting to win the “Best Chef of the Entire World” award. However, the wild boar kebab he prepared included contaminated meat with over two-hundred participants suffering food poisoning and nine dying.

Though legally, Monroe got off relatively soft, his reputation was destroyed. His boss blames him for the restaurant’s decline and radically reduces his salary. His wife blames him for their lifestyle’s decline starting with the forced move from Soho to Astoria accompanied by their sweet daughter. Monroe blames his failure on those who sell bad meat and knows his chef status died with those who ate his dish. However Monroe gets a second chance at the Union Square Fair, but seeks the perfect lamb for his dish which he finds when he hears her say “Mr. Goolynabura”.

MONROE’S REDEMPTIONS is an extremely dark tale that showcases how obsession can destroy a shining light and take others down too. The key support cast is purposely flat, allegorically antagonistic and avaricious at a time when Monroe needs help to stop his free fall into hell’s kitchen. Surprisingly Monroe is a sympathetic character whose obsession makes Lady Macbeth seems as if she had no ambition. Elijah Bruce paints a world that constantly beats the message of success using any means is all that matters because the victors rewrite the methods they employed to succeed.

Harriet Klausner

Dragonquest
Donita K. Paul
WaterBrook, Jun 2005, $13.99, 352 pp.
ISBN: 1400071291

Kale was once a slave, but was freed by her village elders when she found a dragon’s egg; they sent her to study at Hall, but on her trek there she found more eggs and battled an evil wizard (see DRAGONSPELL). Eventually she made it to the Hall where she expected to be in service, but instead is a student, a difficult adjustment for one who has always been in servitude.

The Wizard Fenworth learns of the exploits of the dragonkeeper of Paladin as Kale is known; he sends for her to come to The Bogs as his apprentice and to nurture his youngling a recently hatched meech dragon-infant. Her teachers at the Hall send swordsman and fellow student Bardon to accompany her. Kale dislikes Bardon, but the journey is long and dangerous and he seems to always be there when she needs him until the evil Wizard Risto makes his latest move. He has attained a new meech dragon that makes him nearly invincible; he plots vengeance on the slave girl who defeated him recently before conquering Amara.

This spectacular sequel stars a delightful young heroine still struggling to understand the change in her circumstances from servitude to student. Bardon is a fabulous sidekick as he irritates and fascinates Kale, whose just discovering the attractive non-mischievous side of boys. The evil villain Risto is the perfect adversary in DRAGONQUEST as he obsessively needs to defeat the little girl who humiliatingly defeated him before and then conquer the world. Donita K. Paul provides a delightful fantasy that both the Potter and Tolkien crowds will treasure.

Harriet Klausner

Highland Magic
Tess Mallory
Love Spell, Jul 2005, $6.99
ISBN: 0505526247

Houston based Dr. Samantha Riley visiting her dad at his Wimberly, Texas ranch notices he has aged rapidly recently and worries about his health though they argue over her love life. Her beloved father, Air Force Colonel (R) Patrick Riley wants her to wed a real man, his friend Highlander Duncan Campbell. Though she remembers their one night of ardor, she insists she will continue to see Luke Carter III over her dad’s objections that the man is a spoiled rich brat not worthy of her.

When Patrick falls into a coma, Duncan and Sam share a truce as both are depressed. Meanwhile lightning charges up the crystals at nearby Jacob’s Well sending Duncan and Sam back to ancient Scotland where the men seem modern hitting on her. That stops partially because of the ferocious Duncan at her side, but also everyone concludes she is Maeve, Queen of the Fairies. Though she misses her time and her father; Sam appreciates the compensation of ordering Duncan around; that is until she jealously learns the Scot that she now loves has traveled time before and is there to rescue Princess Talamar from an evil conspiracy.

The Queen of Highlander time travel romance, Tess Mallory writes a delightful tale that her fans will cherish. The stars are a delightful duo as experienced time traveler Duncan returns with his latest fling into the past accompanied by the woman who haunts his dreams. HIGHLAND MAGIC is romantic fantasy at its magical best as the audience will find amusing Sam’s conversion into bossy fairy queen inside of a well written dangerous court intrigue plot. Ms Mallory enchants her audience once again.

Harriet Klausner

Origins in Death
J.D. Robb
Putnam, Jul 2005, $24.95, 352 pp.
ISBN: 039915289X

In 2059 New York City someone murders reconstructive and cosmetic surgeon, Dr. Wilfred Icove. The victim was found in his office with one stab wound to his heart and no other evidence of a struggle.

NYPD Detective Eve Dallas leads the investigation into the murder of “Dr. Perfect” with pressure to find the killer from residents and the media because the victim was a kindhearted family man who gave so much to the city. Besides no apparent struggle as the crime scene is so clean one could eat off the floor, the security disks display a woman leisurely entering and later leaving the building, who apparently was Icove’s final appointment of the day. Eve investigates the patients, staff and family, but finds Icove lived a sterilized life without one slight blemish. The case turns bizarre when Wilfred’s son dies in the same manner. In both cases they seem to have trusted their killer. Frustrated the great detective believes that a hidden dark secret shared by the compassionate dead duo is the motive, but even with her beloved Roarke, the wealthiest man in the universe, helping her dig for information, Eve finds an imperfect case going nowhere as the ORIGINS OF DEATH remain elusive.

The twenty-first “In Death” science fiction police procedural is a fabulous entry in the wonderful series as Eve even with her Ace in the hole Roarke finds her investigation into the homicides of the sanitized clean father and son making no progress. This makes for a fine investigative tale that displays that even Roarke has limitations. Eve is at her best sleuthing on the mean streets of futuristic Manhattan seeking the ORIGINS OF DEATH of two seemingly outstanding conscientious citizens.

Harriet Klausner

Undead and Unappreciated
MaryJanice Davidson
Berkley, Jul 2005, $21.95
ISBN: 0425204332

Betsy, Queen of the vampires, detests everything about her new life except the midnight sales. The worst part of being an undead is she desires the king her alleged spouse Eric Sinclair, but on the other hand wants nothing to do with him or his minion.

Her dad arrives to inform Betsy that she is not to come to her evil stepmother’s baby shower, which is why the event is being held during the day; Sinclair offers to go in her place. Her flustered dad lets slip that his spouse had a child when Betsy was thirteen and her father was still married to her biological mother. Apparently, the child is her stepsister.

They visit step-mom and Eric hypnotizes her into revealing a little more information about Betsy’s half-sister starting with abandoning the infant on the floor of a hospital lobby. As Betsy investigates with the unwanted help of Eric, her gay roommate and two other vampires, they begin to find a devilish trail towards the long lost half blood relative.

The third “Un” and “Un” contains all the wacky fun from the previous two tales (see UNDEAD AND UNWED. and UNDEAD AND UNEMPLOYED), but retains a brisk sparkle due to the delightful amateur sleuth investigation. Betsy is her usual irreverent self still wondering how she became queen and why she cannot escape Eric’s lure though a late shoe sale still solaces the soul (that is if she has one). MaryJanice Davidson is at her humorous biting best with this devilish tale of our favorite vampiress since Vampirella started seeking a blood relation.

Harriet Klausner

Sins of the Night
Sherrilyn Kenyon
St. Martin’s Jul 2005, $6.99, 384 pp.
ISBN: 0312934327

At night the innocent coed left the library when the Daimons attacked her, but just when she appeared to be their feast, a Dark-Hunter appeared. However, instead of saving the human as their code demands, he feasts on her blood leaving her soul to the Daimons.

The Alexion, hunter of rogue Dark Hunters, knows he must deal with his friend Marco’s breaking the code of not harming humans. Though he knows he needs to put Marco to death, the Alexion hopes to save the “soul” of his pal. However, he finds himself distracted by that rarest of Dark Hunters, a huntress Dangereuse “Danger” St. Richard, who tried to kill him as she knows he is the executioner of her kind. In spite of their auspicious first encounter, The Alexion and Danger fall in love, but duty calls, which means killing more than just his friend; he must kill the Dark Huntress he loves as she is controlled by one of the nastier Goddesses.

This is a super entry in one of the best romantic fantasy series on the market today. The story line is action-packed but Alexion’s dilemma of choosing between his beloved and his duty make for quite a tale as fans will wonder which way he will go. Either way he knows his “resurrected” heart beating with love will turn to ashes. Sherrilyn Kenyon provides a fabulous thriller with a strong cast supporting two star-crossed lovers whose relationship seems tragically doomed from the start.

Harriet Klausner

Chill of Fear
Kay Hooper
Bantam, August 2005, $25.00 352 pp.
ISBN 0553803174

FBI agent Quentin Hayes belongs to the Special Crime Unit where all the members have at lease one psychic skill used as an additional tool in their arsenal against criminals. Quentin has been haunted for twenty years by the death of Missy, his playmate at the Lodge, a secluded resort that caters to clients who want their privacy. Every so often, Quentin returns to try to solve Missy’s murder; this time he has a real chance of doing so because Diana Brisco is there too.

Diana has believed all her life she is insane because she hears voices, suffers blackouts and sees things that aren’t there. When Quentin meets her he knows immediately that she is a medium and her years in a drug stupor to cure her condition were a waste of time. Gradually Diana begins to believe and trust Quentin especially when the ghost of a child that disappeared at the Lodge leads her to his bones allowing him to pass on. Missy and others prepare Diana to fight the evil that has lived on at The Lodge for over a century and to send it to a place where it can’t come back.

In Kay Hooper’s universe evil is a tangible force that can be reincarnated or if it is strong enough possess the living being who has a medium psychic ability. Recurring characters from previous books gives readers a sense of continuity while treating them to an exciting paranormal police procedural that gives new meaning to the word dead. The author draws the reader into the storyline and once there they can’t leave because they want to see what happens next in this thrill a minute chilling fantastic reading experience

Harriet Klausner