Vixenwriter

(Just a note - I’ve loved Alison’s writing from the first Blaze of hers I picked up - The Sweetest Taboo (in the Men to Do series where I discovered other favorites like Jo Leigh), then I found her Girl Gear and she did the first SG-5 book, The Bane Affair which remains a favorite to this day and I could go on but then I’d probably scare her with my squealy fangirlishness at the fearless way she writes. That’s the key for why I come back to her books over and over - she just puts the story out there and she’s always pushing the boundaries.)

LD: One thing about you as an author that always appeals to me is that even when you’re writing category you’re taking risks. Risks with characters and storylines and my favorite of all, risks with sex. Is it just me or do you push the envelope on purpose?

AK: I don’t push in that I think about doing it. It’s just the way I write, and I do take a lot of hits from romance readers who don’t want to go where I’m going but still want to read what I write. I understand that because I have authors whose stories compel me, but with twists and turns that make me uncomfortable, even as they work for the book.

I wrote my first published novel in 1993, and during the editing stage had one scene cut completely because it was too raw – and this was fourteen years ago, so this isn’t something I’ve done for a market or to sell books. It’s just how I write. I never liked closed bedroom doors in the books I was reading. I wanted a detailed a look at the intimate moments between the characters as everything else. So that’s what I set out to write.

LD: Tell me about The Perfect Stranger:

AK: I started THE PERFECT STRANGER years ago, 1994 maybe? It was before I made a sell to Harlequin, but after my first sale to Meteor. I had read AMAZON LILY and loved it so much that I wanted to write my own story of “jungle love.” I still have the coolest rejection letter from Carrie Feron of Avon that she loved my writing but couldn’t do anything with a book set in the jungle. Then Denise Little wanted to buy it for her “Denise Little Presents” imprint at Kensington, but was on a buying freeze at the time.

I put the book away, used tidbits of it (Hank Smithson) when I started the Smithson Group series for Brava, and then finally had the chance to tell Jackson Briggs’ story. He’s the SG-5 chopper pilot, but he’s not one of the group’s operatives, so his is a personal story when he meets Jillian Endicott during a humanitarian work project on a Caribbean island. Though . . . meets isn’t really the right word since she drugs him and kidnaps him for reasons of her own.

LD: What makes a hero compelling? And a heroine?

AK: For me, any character needs intelligence to be compelling. I don’t mean education or experience, but common sense and what my husband calls “snap.” As a reader (or an author) I need a character to be pro-active, never passive, and part of that requires the intelligence to reason their way through a situation – even if they make bad choices. I don’t care about characters who allow a plot to happen to them. They have to belong to it and shape it logically, and that requires a good head on their shoulders. I don’t have to like what they do. I don’t have to agree with it or think it’s the best thing under the circumstances. But I do have to understand it.

LD: How many books do you usually write in a year and is there a process for what you decide to write and when?

AK: Lately, too many, and so I’m cutting back a bit. I’m probably comfortable writing three, with at least one of those being a shorter project, whether a novella or a category book. And the process consists of looking at how far out the deadline is and whether or not it’s time to start the next book. I have new ideas popping up constantly, so sticking with what needs to be written first isn’t always easy.

LD: I know you didn’t start writing until you were 30 – what made you decide to do it?

AK: I picked up a book and said, “I can do this.” I might even have been one of those horrible people who said, “I can do better than this.” I remember the book, and no I’m not going to mention the title or the author because it’s humiliating enough that I ever thought writing a successful book couldn’t be all that hard! But what I said above about closed bedroom doors. I wanted more of that physical relationship in the books I was reading, and so set out to write just that.

LD: What’s the best thing about writing?

AK: The end. And hearing from readers. It can be what they liked, or what they didn’t like. It’s interesting to hear both sides, and I’ve had some great “a-ha” moments after hearing from a reader that she didn’t like a choice I’d made, or how I’d constructed a scene.

I’m not a natural storyteller, so the process of writing is excruciatingly painful for me. The ideal writing situation would be complete solitude from page one to page last while I *am* the book – but who can live like that?

LD: Anything you want to add?

AK: Just a big fat thank you for having me visit and for sharing THE PERFECT STRANGER with your readers!

You can see my review of The Perfect Stranger here and read an excerpt here.

I’m a techno dumbass, Alison has a fabulous trailer for the book, she sent me the code but it won’t work so I’ll link you.

This last week I read Nalini Singh’s Slave to Sensation and I absolutely loved it.

She’s created a paranormal universe that is fresh and interesting, her characters are three dimensional. I love the chemistry between the hero and heroine. The sex was extraordinarly well written and integral, the storyline was clever - Slave to Sensation was definitely worth the hype. Absolutely fabulous book (and so of course I had to grab Visions of Heat from amazon and I hope it gets here today)

I also finished Lucy Monroe’s Ready

I’d been told by several people that I should check her Bravas out so I grabbed Ready, Willing and Able.

Ready was an entertaining contemporary thriller. The suspense plot wasn’t overly heavy but it was interesting and I liked how Monroe used the elements in Lise’s past to create the stalker.

The mercenary stuff - well here’s the thing, big tough men are sexy. They are! So take the thug out, give em an air of mystery, some money, and make them good guys but shadowy instead of criminals and it’s a winning formula. That’s what Monroe does and it works.

It did make me think a lot about use of language in sex scenes and how my own perceptions have changed over the last few years. I may write about that later…

I’m about 3/4 through Jackie Frank’s Jacob and I’m finding it hard not to want to put away the laptop so I can sneak off to read it. I’ll write more about this one next week after I finish but it’s another really unique take on paranormal romance.

So yesterday was aggrivating during the early part of the day. First my webhost’s servers went down for several hours so I couldn’t get to my email, messageboard or any other part of my website including the blog. But we had a sitter coming and four hours to ourselves (happy sigh) so that wasn’t going to stop me - even after the espresso machine went wonky and died.

On the trip out, my dude and I went to Waldenbooks at the Southcenter mall. There aren’t enough words to express my joy in a bookstore that’s welcoming to local authors and authors of all genres in general. They went out of their way with me, their manager, Beth, went above and beyond the call in working to help me set up signings there and was just really wonderful. Contrasted with the comment that my books and readers weren’t consistent with “shared community values” of a certain other manager and chain, this experience was really heartening and I left with several books I’d been looking for and a spring in my step and tentative plans for two signings - one this summer and one in November.

I also got two new dresses, one for RT (which I need to get shoes for) They’re going to be perfect for summer - or April in Houston. We also got a new espresso machine with a coffeemaker along side. It’s ginormous but really cool.

We wanted to get out and see The 300 but the lines were so long we wouldn’t have been able to see the showing during the time we had a sitter. Next time though! Still, we came home, had dinner, got the kids ready for bed, I wrote and later in the evening we watched Dresden and BSG - all in all, yesterday was a very good day!

I’m working on figuring out what I’m going to read for tomorrow’s reading at Babeland. I’m not sure just yet.

Got a review of Chased from Talia at Joyfully Reviewed! It’s totally wonderful so thanks to JR and Talia both. She says in part: Chased is extraordinary. Completely different from the previous two installments of Ms. Dane’s, Chase Brothers series, I found myself enthralled with Marc. A total ladies’ man to the core, I was at first as unsure of him as Olivia. Charming to the core, his wooing of Liv was exquisite.

Happy Monday all! Don’t forget you’re all invited to my reading tomorrow night at Babeland!

Last month I won an ARC of this book, which I’d been looking forward to for some time because I’m a fan of the SG-5 series. I gotta say I wasn’t disappointed.

What I like about Alison Kent’s writing is that you’re never sure just what she’s going to throw your way. She takes romance into some bold territory, thank god.

This is a book that keeps moving from page one until the end. Not a whole lot of romantic suspense novels are set in a third world country ruled by an evil dictator but this one is and it works.

Perhaps it’s the nature of a series that focuses on men instead of women, but I did find myself identifying with Jack more for most of the book. There were places - generally toward the last 20% of the book, where I did begin to see Jillian’s character more clearly and found myself liking her more.

I absolutely loved how much she dug sex. Can I say how sick I am of heroines who hate sex? Jillian’s not a slut or a skank but she likes pleasure and she has no shame taking or giving it. It makes the sex scenes in this book very raw and sharp. Oh and hot.

The ending made sense, it wasn’t one where I felt the author turned herself into a pretzel to achieve, the characters act the way they’re supposed to. The suspense is suspenseful and the romance isn’t safe or fast or even easy. The Perfect Stranger takes some risks but in the end, they work.

I also read High Stakes by Erin McCarthy and I enjoyed it. McCarthy is one of those authors I discovered via novella and I’ve loved her ever since. I think she does snappy, funny dialog well and her sex is usually hot too. There were moments where I thought it tested credulity but overall, I was entertained. Bit the Jackpot - not so much.

I’ve got a very big TBR pile so next week’s entry should be long! Have a great weekend and don’t forget to enter the contest to win an advance copy of The Perfect Stranger. I’m drawing a winner tomorrow!

Lacy Danes’ What She Craves is now out! For some reason, Amazon is dinking around and hasn’t sent me a copy but as luck would have it (and I need to say this in the interests of disclosure anyway), I know Lacy and she sent me a copy via pdf some months ago so I’ve read it, neener neener (and get moving Amazon, I want my copy!)

WSC is a collection of three novellas - all historical erotica, each has a slightly otherworldly feel but the last one, Night of the Taking, is the only one that’s a paranormal.

Lacy’s writing has a lovely, erotic tone with a modern edge. My favorite story of the three, Checkmate, takes a character from Lust’s Vow (story one) and makes him the hero. The game of sexual chess with human pieces is echoed in the subtle back and forth between Cora and Rupert.

There’s no denying WSC is a sensual collection that’ll leave you hoping Lacy’s next contribution comes out from Aphrodisia very soon (as it happens, she’s got a story in Sexy Beast III with Kate Douglas and Morgan Hawke that releases in September!)

You can check out an excerpt and other info at her website!

And I finished Mistral’s Kiss last night while finishing up my time on the exercise bike. Straight away, I liked it. I thought the sex was necessary as we’ve known since book one Merry possesses fertility/sex magic. I look at all the kerfuffle over LKH and shrug, folks, if you don’t like the books or the sex, why do you keep buying them?

Anyway - the one chief complaint I’ve got is that these books are too short. The last two or three books should have been one book. It’s not just that it’s a lot to pay for a hardback, it’s that the story arc should be all part of the same book or it’s too jerky and doesn’t flow well.

I was entertained. I’ll continue with the series. I felt bad for Mistral at the end but I was overjoyed to see the emotional connection between Merry, Doyle and at the end, Frost. I’m a huge Doyle for king girl and while I was disappointed to see not a single Doyle/Merry sex scene, I was very happy to see Merry admitting her feelings for him.

Was it as breathtakingly unique and original as Blood Lines? Well, no. But not much can be.

Hey folks, I’m guest blogging today at the Samhain Blog about Redeeming Bad Hero Behavior. Stop on over and lend me your opinion!

A bit about one of the books I talk about in the entry - Innocent in Death arrived yesterday afternoon. Happy sigh (how I love Amazon prime!). I finished it last night by 10 because i had to know. I had to force myself not to look at the end to be sure Eve and Roarke were all right.

I really loved Innocent in Death. JD Robb books are some of the few I don’t blink twice at in hardback. I love Eve and Roarke, and in fact, I’ll go out on a limb and say Roarke is the best romance hero ever. I simply love him.

But oh I did not love him last night as I read Innocent in Death. Grr. Oh Nora, you have to make him suffer next book, okay? Because he did not suffer even a tenth of what Eve went through, scared, insecure, feeling like no one believed her most of all this man who is her everything.

Not to scare you - there’s not a single moment in this book where Roarke is even thinking of cheating. I want to say that up front because I was worried. But I don’t think he’s nearly quick enough off the mark with this evil woman who comes to town set on getting him back. He lets her push too far and worst of all, he does not back Eve’s feelings up. That’s what I hated the most.

Innocent in Death was fabulous with emotional tension and drama. When Eve wept I did too and man did I want to kick the crap out of Roarke in at least four different places. I suppose in a way, it was necessary to humanize Roarke a bit, but there’d better be more scraping than pizza for dinner to make up for his actions in this book in the next one that I will so be rushing out to grab, because, as always I’m left wanting more more more.

Natural Born Charmer by Susan Elizabeth Phillips - I ordered this from Amazon on Tuesday, it got here Wednesday and I read it in one sitting that night.

I’m a ginormous SEP fangirl. I’ve loved all her books but one. I think she’s got an amazing gift with creating flawed characters that just appeal to me on so many levels.

So I’m not surprised to say I thought NCB was a fabulous book. I absolutely loved Blue. I thought as a heroine she was wonderfully messed up but filled with heart and fight and strength. I wasn’t baffled by her behavior at all, I really connected with her.

I loved the secondary characters - April, Dean’s mother, Jack, his father and Riley, his sister. As usual, SEP takes characters you would find unredeemable in the hands of other authors and makes you root for them.

And I liked Dean a lot. In fact, I loved him for 98% of the book. However, here’s the quibble that took it from 5 stars to 4 1/2 for me - he was a total dick at the end of the book. I won’t say what he did and give spoilers but I didn’t think he suffered enough for it and I don’t think he redeemed himself enough.

Otherwise, I was cheering for them to end up together, I loved their chemistry. This was a very sexy book and it had loads of great tension and eroticicism in it.

Lots of funny moments and bright, vivid characters, including the town and Dean’s house. This is one I’ll definitely read again.

Books in my TBR pile added this week:

Innocent in Death by JD Robb - this is on the way from Amazon and I’m all angsty about reading it. I keep seeing all this stuff about trouble between Eve and Roarke and it makes me nervous.

Unforgettable by Shelley Munro

Carinian’s Seeker by TJ Michaels

Taliff’s Cure by Bonnie Rose Leigh

So I read several books last week but couldn’t talk about them all last Friday so I held a few over for today as I didn’t get much reading done this week with all the edits I needed to finish.

Snap by Shelley Munro

As usual, Shelley Munro produces a story that sucked me in from the first sentence. I think this is actually my favorite Shelley book (which is saying a lot!). I loved the storyline which is filled with interesting twists, Shelley’s signature humor and scorching hot love scenes. This is no chain of sex scenes peppered with some story, it’s a great book with some very hot sex!

In Alice, she gives us a heroine in unusual circumstances – she finds herself the owner of a condom company! A self described “almost-virgin” she’s confronted by the very sexy James who’s my favorite kind of hero – the bad boy who really isn’t so bad after all.

I loved the set up, wacky cult figures shouting “bad bad birth control,” hilarious and snotty family members and ex-fiancés and the need for one-on-one condom testing. What else can I say, Snapped is a winner.

You can read an excerpt at her website

Furthering my Eileen Wilks binge - Tempting Danger

This is the start of Lily and Rule and I loved it. I said before with Blood Lines that I think Wilks’ worldbuilding and Lupi culture is unique and fresh and fascinating and I’ll say it again.

Lily is a homicide cop, a woman and she’s got a secret - she’s a sensitive. Rule Turner is a skirt chasing werewolf prince. When they meet it’s instant attraction but I loved that Wilks makes us wait for the eventual consummation and didn’t have Lily just accept her chosen status immediately.

The mystery, which unfolds further through the next two books, is intriguing and well done as is the action and the chemistry is incredible.

I loved it.

This has been a really good book week for me! In fact I’m saving some to write about next week too because I wont’ be reading as much because I just got edits for Chased. I don’t generally do plot recaps in my reviews - you can read the links to the book pages for that, FYI.

First up - Eileen Wilks’ Blood Lines:

I loved Blood Lines from beginning to end. I think Eileen Wilks is one of the freshest and most interesting voices out there writing paranormals and reading her books is a pleasure.

I won’t waste time with a plot recap, you can read the blurb above for that. But I will say I think Rule Turner ranks up with Roarke on the best hero ever list.

Lily is strong but not so strong she doesn’t have room in her life for help but she needs to be strong to keep Rule from taking over her life. I like the balance they’ve achieved and I love the emotional tension as they recover from what they endured as they were separated in the last book.

The action is all well written and fun and I can’t say I found the book confusing as a standalone at all. Frankly, I quite liked the multiple storylines at once and the two sets of hero/heroine - it kept me interested and as I love Rule and Lily, I was quite happy that they featured strongly in the book.

In a sea of books that sometimes bleed into each other plotwise, Wilks rises above the pack (no pun intended) and gives readers something to really sink their teeth into (okay so that one was, LOL) I highly recommend Blood Lines and I can’t wait for the next installment.

And - Hells Belles by Jackie Kessler

Again, another refreshing take on a paranormal. Told in first person and with a really unusual heroine, a demon succubus. She’s not virtuous and I loved that about her. It’s tough as a writer to take a character like Jessie (Jezebel) and make readers like her despite the fact she’s a soul sucking demon who steals credit cards and considers prostitution to pay the rent.

But there’s a level of honesty with Jessie that makes you like her despite her faults.

The use of the mytho-religious structure of hell, archangels and demons was quite clever and fresh.

Hells Belles is sexy and really funny and I totally enjoyed it.

And lastly for today, Colleen Gleason’s The Rest Falls Away.

It took me a bit to get started on this one. I’d just read several paranormal contemporaries in a row and it was hard to get into the historical set language. But, IMO, that’s a good thing because Gleason did it right.

Anyway, after my initial stumble in the first fifty or so pages, I fell into the story. This is a historical, yes, but it’s got a decidedly modern feel - and it’s done well. Gleason treads the line between historical accuracy and modern vampire hunter novel with skill. I liked Victoria a great deal even though I often have a hard time identifying with characters in regency romances who are so very young. But Victoria, while wanting a normal life, didn’t storm off and cry about her fate, although she did challenge it and yes, with some tragic results.

The meta story of the Venators was really well done and interesting and I want to know more. I loved the backstory about Victoria’s great aunt and I hope to hear more in the next book. The vampires are baddies, which was delicious and most of the characters were not so much virtuous or evil but flawed, as humans can be. The secondary characters were memorable and not so many you lost count.

I loved this book. I loved the spin Gleason gave the vampire genre, keeping it alive and interesting. I will definitely be back for more!

One thing - the spine says it’s a paranormal romance and if you’ve read this blog for any length of time you’ll know I’m one of the least sticky people about genre boxes. I do however, want to say that as a standalone, this book isn’t what I’d term a romance. There is a wonderful romantic subplot and a lot of great emotional tension, but the end is not an HEA. It’s a series, so I’m expecting it to lead more along the lines of a romance as we go and like I said, the book is really good and I’m willing to wait. I just wanted to point that issue out.

I didn’t do this last week because I was ill.

Over the last few weeks I’ve read (and I bought):

Surviving Demon Island by Jaci Burton.

I talked about this one a little bit when I finished it. It was my first book of 2007 and it’s nice to start the year off with something as good as this.

It’s a paranormal romance with lots of action and adventure in it but I’m also glad to say it’s got Jaci’s great chemistry in it. Gina is a kick ass heroine who’s actually kickass (instead of the more usual case where we’re told the heroine is kickass and alas, that proves untrue). The hero is protective and alpha but not an ass and her worldbuilding and the mythological structure around the demons is clever and unique.

I’m not surprised SDI is a good book, but I’m pleased it was even better than I’d expected and I can’t wait until the next installment.

She’s No Faerie Princess by Christine Warren

I’ve been a fan of Christine’s books since I read her Fixed series at Ellora’s Cave a few years back and I was so pleased when I heard she’d sold to NY. I was also happy to see some characters from her Fixed series featured. HOWEVER, even if I hadn’t read the prior books, it wouldn’t have mattered, she gave enough backstory and didn’t feature them in a way that would have confused you if you haven’t read her Fixed books (although you should really read Fur Fixed with Graham and Missy - my favorite of the series at EC)

Fiona is a total pain in the ass but she’s likeable too. I enjoyed reading about her character and I really loved the scenes with her pixie and imp.

And Tobias - well, one of the reasons I love to read about werewolves (done right) is how very alpha and protective they can be. I thought warren hit the right balance here. He’s sexy and strong and smart and you know he’s going to fall for Fiona in a big way but I thought the way they came together was believable (it is paranormal romance).

I liked the magic and the world she’s built and the chemistry was HOT! I wish there were more books about the Fae out there but in the mean time, check this one out.