Succubus Blues
Richelle Mead
Kensington, Mar 2007, $15.00
ISBN: 0758216416

Georgina Kincaid has seen the profiling statistics that mortals sell their souls for one of prime reasons: sex, money, power, revenge and love. Being a succubus whose expertise is to pleasure men, she understands the part about selling sex. However, Georgina wonders how low a shape-shifting demon can go as she has no social life though she works the Seattle circuit.

The problem is finding a date in which she does not steal a soul or at least a piece of a person’s life. After an admonishment from her superior Jerome the lazy demon over a cat fight with a vampire and the afterglow of a session with Martin, she just wants to lie in bed. Thus when her peer at the Emerald City Books & Café demands she comes in to help as everyone else is sick, she reluctantly agrees though it is her day off from her day job as an assistant manager. The good part of coming in today besides the norm of reading books for free and drinking white chocolate mochas also gratis is that her favorite author Seth Mortensen is doing a signing. However her fantasy lover will have to wait because someone is killing the local demons starting with Duane and Georgina is the prime suspect.

Modernizing the tale of Thetis and Pelus from Greek mythology, but placing it in a combo chick make that succubus (not sure if a demon can be classified a chick) lit amateur sleuth fantasy realm, Richelle Mead provides a fabulous one sitting story. Georgina is a terrific lead character, who investigates the serial killings of demons and other supernatural creatures while falling in love with the mortal writer. Readers will enjoy this sexy soul-sucking siren seeking out the Seattle slayer before she is convicted by a jury of her peers just because of her sarcastic sharp yet so sensual tongue.

Harriet Klausner

Sheer Pleasure
Maggie Shayne
Berkeley, Feb 2007, $14.00
ISBN: 0425214583

“Leather and Lace”. Kayla pleads with her prim and proper roommate Martha Jane Biswell to model their latest Leather and Lace lingerie; reluctantly as a favor she agrees because she needs the money and hopes her former boss Clark make that Richard Gable of Gable Brothers Department Stores would not be there. She wanted him, but he fired her replacing her with his bimbo niece. Due to illness and the stupidity of his sibling Richard attends the show and is captivated by the new model Valentine.

“Awaiting Moonrise”. Following up on a rumor of werewolves in the Bayou though she expects to find a previously undiscovered animal species, Dunkirk University Cryptozoology Professor Jenny offers herself as human bait to lure the creature into a trap. However, though animal magnetism ignites her and her prey, Samuel is no ordinary animal or human.

“Daydream Believer”. In Pinedale, Celestial Bakery owner Megan Rose has a vision of the missing woman Sarah Dresden so she calls Police Chief Skinner. When she is proven right he sends Detective Sam Sheridan to investigate Megan.

These three well written fun novellas are reprints from previous anthologies in which Maggie Shayne was one of the contributors. Though two are supernatural romances and the other a traditional contemporary, the entries are fun to read as each one stars an interesting female protagonist and the hunk salivating over them.

Harriet Klausner

The Scent of Shadows
Vicki Petterson
Avon March 2007, $6.99, 528 pp.
ISBN 0060898915

A blind date almost leads to socialite Joanna Archer’s death as her companion explains they have been hunting her for years. She is able to escape him but tragedy strikes when someone breaks into her sex kitten looking sister Olivia’s apartment to kill Joanna. However it is Olivia who winds up dead while Joanna is rescued by Warren, a man who masquerades as a homeless but is really the leader of Zodiac Troop 175.

Each troop consists of twelve members representing a sign of the zodiac and is the next step up in human evolution. Since Joanna survived she is now a member of the troop as the Archer and these super being, warriors of the light, protect Las Vegas from their shadowy counterparts led by a Tulpa, a created man who happens to be Joanna’s father. The zodiac troop makes it look like Joanne was the one who died and she now looks like her sister Olivia. She needs training in her new powers, but when they arrive at their destination in another dimension Joanna finds that members of the troop don’t trust her because she is the mixture of shadow and light. When Warren’s life is in danger, she risks everything including her life to save him.

In only a few months Joanna runs the gamut of wonders from discovering the man see thought was her father was really a mortal her biological father used to work his evil on Earth in this roller coaster supernatural fantasy ride of unexpected twists and turns. Good people die, evil sometimes triumphs and the heroine has become a superhero protecting her world from the shadow zodiac. Vicki Petterson can hold her own with the greats in this genre including Kim Harrison and Kelly Armstrong as she makes the villains as interesting as the heroes.

Harriet Klausner

The Chick and the Dead
Casey Daniels
Avon, March 2007, $6.99, 336 pp.
ISBN 0060821477

Pepper had a comfortable lifestyle until her doctor father was sent away to prison for medicare fraud. Needing to pay bills she took a job as a tour guide at the Garden View Cemetery. While leading a tour, she tripped and got knocked out when she hit her head on the marble steps of a mausoleum. Now she can see and talk with the dead as she did with Mafia Gus whose murder she solved.

Now she sees the ghost of Didi Bowman who died in the 1950’s and claims she wrote the mega bestseller, So Far the Dawn, that her sister took credit for authoring. Merilee is coming to Cleveland for the digitally recorded movie premier and to dedicate a museum devoted to memorabilia of the book and move. Didi wants Pepper to prove that she wrote the book so her grand-daughter in foster care will get the royalties and have a chance for a good life. Dangerous happenings begin when Merilee gets to town including a mugging of a photographer and the theft of his pictures, the murder of Merilee’s assistant and attempts on Pepper’s life. Pepper thinks all these events are linked but she doesn’t realize that a killer is watching her every move.

Casey Daniels writes an exciting paranormal mystery showcasing a heroine who manages to talk with and work for ghosts as if it was an everyday occurrence. One of her most endearing traits is that she knows she isn’t a detective which is why she needs a little ghostly help to move the investigation along. Readers will care and feel sorry for Didi who had a heart of gold and died before she had a chance to live. Ms. Daniels’ has a hit series on her hands.

Harriet Klausner

Glint
Anne Coburn
Eos, Jan 2007, $16.99
ISBN: 0060847247

Ellie and her younger brother Danny used to play together making up adventure stories about a heroic girl in a fantasy realm filled dragons, shapeshifters, and other more dangerous creatures. Five years later the siblings remain close as his friends come for his eleventh birthday party. Only one problem, Danny fails to show up. The police make no progress into his disappearance and begin to assume foul play. When her friends ask Ellie if she and Danny were close to one another, she realizes only she knows him well enough to find him. She starts at the nearby cave where they shared tales of a courageous girl their age.

At the same time that Ellie begins her quest, on the world that she and Danny imagined, their heroine Argent begins a dangerous quest to regain a stolen dragon hatchling. The danger mounts as adversaries ready to pick on a little girl seems to leap up from behind every rock on the road she travels. Yet though she risks her life, Argent refuses to go home without achieving her objective.

This terrific fantasy targets the 9-12 years old crowd, but readers of all ages will appreciate the two young, strong and caring females as each starts a separate quest to save an individual they love. The subplots showcase the courage and determination of the heroines as the charming story line rotates worlds before cleverly merging into a climax where reality and fantasy tie together. GLINT is a winning fantasy for the middle school crowd.

Harriet Klausner

Dangerous Games
Keri Arthur
Dell, March 2007, $6.99, 356 pp.
ISBN 0440336783

Dhampire Riley Jenson, half human, half vampire is now a guardian in the Directorate of Other Races. As a guardian she is judge, jury, and executioner when one of the non-human races breaks the laws. She is working two cases now, one in which nine people died from what looks like the bites of newly risen vampires. Her other case concerns the death of three women who has scars on their back, a missing pinkie on their left hands and their organs removed.

Riley’s personal life is in chaos because the vampire Quinn wants a monogamous relationship with her while she wants to play the field until she meets her werewolf soulmate who can give her children (vampires can’t). She also has to worry about a former guardian who has gone rogue and is determined to pull her. Quinn is involved in a personal matter concerning hunting down demons which intersects with Riley’s cases but he refuses to share information with her and as a result she almost dies by fiends not of this world.

Australian Keri Arthur is one of the best writers of paranormal romantic suspense novels. Her world building is believable and readers really like her heroic protagonists because they feel as if they know them. Riley’s vampire and werewolf want a commitment from her, which “humanizes” her while also serves as a tension reliever from the fast paced, action-packed sometimes gory storyline.

Harriet Klausner

Warrior Angels
Margaret and Lizz Weis
Avon, March 2007, $6.99, 384 pp.
ISBN 0060833254

Once he was a Knights Templar tortured by the Inquisition who wanted to break him and have him tell lies about his order. He never broke so when he died he went to Purgatory waiting for Heaven’s judgment. When he arrived at Heaven’s Gate he was angry at God who he believes forsake him and his pride returned to let him open his heart to enter Paradise. Instead, he became a warrior angel in Purgatory battling Satan’s minions.

Now the demons are moving to Earth with a rumored new tactic so Derek de Molay is sent to watch over commodities trader Rachel Duncan who lost her guardian angel. Derek is the doorman at her building where he meets the man she involved with Andreas Zanus who is actually a demon in human form. He convinces her to do some shady deals for him. Derek knows that Zanus is high up in the legions of hell and also is torn between following Heaven’s orders and his need to protect Rachel the woman he loves. Rachel must decide what to do about Zanus blackmailing her into doing what he wants, knowing it is illegal and will cause harm to millions. Derek must find a way to save Rachel and stop Zanus, two goals that seem impossible with the heavenly limitations placed on him.

Margaret Weis has long been known to fantasy fans for her epic novels. Now she takes her writing in a new direction, collaborating with her daughter Lizz to provide an enthralling paranormal romance that concentrates on the battle between the angels and demons over human souls. Readers will like this entry because the angels and the demons have some human qualities that make them easier to understand. The romance between Derek and Rachel is glorious as a man who doesn’t trust God and a woman seduced by a demon’s glamour feel for each other something that can only be heaven sent.

Harriet Klausner

Best New Paranormal Romance
Edited by Paula Guran
Juno, Jan 2007, $12.95
ISBN: 0809556537
Wildside Press, 9710 Traville Gateway Dr #234, Rockville, MD 20850

“The Shadowed Heart” by Catherine Asaro. He is the last empathic starfighter, but his soul has been devastated with all he felt as his comrades died; she is the native who healed his body, but can she restore his heart.

“The Hard Stuff” by Paul Barnett. Disabled in combat, he takes out his feelings of inadequacy on his loving wife until he learns how much she gave up out of love for him.

“Follow Me Light” by Elizabeth Bear. The public defender loved the crippled attorney, but she married someone else as he was disinterested in a relationship until he realized how much he lost.

“Magic in a Certain Slant of Light” by Deborah Coates. The scientist lives her life to a precise cosmic order until she loses her beloved Jeff and turns to magic.

“Calypso in Berlin” by Elizabeth Hand. Nymphs know men love and leave them, but she plans to be with her mortal forever.

“Fir Na Tine” by Sandra McDonald. They were college lovers who went different ways in life after graduation, but neither forgot how their love was hotter than the sun.

“A Maze of Trees” by Claudia O’Keefe. To know one will never go home while adjusting to totally alien environs seems too harsh, but for the bathrobe that provides memories and subsequently solace.

“A Treatise on Fewmets” by Sarah Prineas. The College of Magic professor arrives to rid the garden of the monsters, but neither she nor the owner’s nephew yet understand a different form of magic is needed to send the pests packing.

“Single White Farmhouse” by Heather Shaw The rural cuddly farmhouse and the hunk San Franciscan building meet and fall in love over the Internet.

“Walpurgis Afternoon” by Delia Sherman. In the middle class urban neighborhood, a Victorian house is now owned by two resident witches who plan to bring the magic of love to the locals.

“A Knot of Toads” by Jane Yolen. Upon the death of her father the scholar returns home to learn what killed him, but finds no allies as no one, even her former lover, is quite like her memories of them.

“A Hero’s Welcome” by Rebecca York. They were the best of friends until the war made them the worst of enemies, but the hostilities are over with each needing the other yet distrusting one another.

These twelve short stories live up to the title as each is an enchanting romantic fantasy. Fun to follow though the format does not allow the paranormal elements to feel believable, readers will appreciate the acute yet quirky tales of mystical love.

Harriet Klausner

Games of Command
Linnea Sinclair
Bantam, March 2007, $6.99, 564 pp.
ISBN 0553589636

The war between the United Coalition and the Triad is over and the two former enemies now make up the Alliance guarding against the llithians who want more inhabited worlds to conquer. Former Coalition Captain Tasha “Sass” Sebastian is now assigned to captain the Vaxxar. Admiral Branden Kel-Paten, a biocybe who is more machine than human, and the captain have played cat and mouse with each other during the war and now that Tasha is in his space, the feelings he isn’t supposed to have for her begun to geow much stronger.

During a flight, they travel into the middle of a vortex to pick up Triad rebel Jace Serafino. He lapses into a coma and is able to take Eden the medical officer into a private dimension, a creation of his race. There he tells her he has an implant in his head put there by Psy-Serv so he can’t use his telepathic abilities for more than ten minutes of time. The implant needs to be removed because he has information about Psy-Serv that could tear the Alliance apart if he can get his memories straight so that Kel-Paten believes him. On the way to a space station, Jace, Eden, the admiral and Tasha are all caught by their enemies and sent to a dimension nobody knows exists; inhabited by an enemy that controls the people who thought to use it. The foursome must escape in order to warn the inhabited galaxy.

Every book Linnea Sinclair writes is better than the one before it, which says a lot because all are great. Readers will fall in love with Eden’s pet furzel Reilly and Tasha’s pet fidget (a baby furzel). Their antics and protectiveness to their humans and their play in trying to save the galaxy is so entertaining that the audience will want to adopt a fidget of their own. The developing romance between the two heroes and heroines in between galactic crises adds realism to a tense and thrilling science fiction saga.

Harriet Klausner

Midnight Lover
Rosemary Laurey
Zebra, March 2007, $6.99, 352 pp.
ISBN 082177929X

Vampire Toby Wise, a runaway slave who escaped to England and was turned when he was twenty-six, is now living in Oregon trying to solve a multitude of problems. As a favor to the ghoul Elizabeth, he is watching over her father whose mind was destroyed when a vampire held him in thrall. He is also watching over Lizzie’s company Connor Inc. which the FBI are investigating for money laundering because the vampire Lizzie destroyed took control of her of father’s business as well.

Lizzie’s step-mother Adela calls Toby for help and when he arrives in Dark Falls, he finds a deputy who wants to arrest her for being a witch. She also tells him that a chupacabra, a monster thought to be a myth, is running loose and the townsfolk think it is Adela’s familiar. He takes Adele back to his home where he finds his employee Laura Fox rifling through his files. She is doing it for her father after begging her to get some information on Connor Inc. He is in thrall to Axel who is kin to the vampire Lizzie destroyed. Axel wants to know what happened to him and he doesn’t care who has to use or kill to get the information he wants. Toby and Laura, who are falling in love with each other, are in the middle of the action and she is in the most danger because she is mortal and everyone going after theis a vampire, ghoul or a witch.

Toby has been a minor character in Rosemary Laurey’s previous vampire books but in MIDNIGHT LOVER he gets to play center stage as he deals with a myriad of supernatural predators yet is not afraid to fall in love with a mortal. His beloved human is believable (adding a sense of authenticity to the plot) as she slowly accepts the existence of creatures of the night. This is a thoroughly delicious and bitingly good vampire romantic thriller.

Harriet Klausner