Category: 5 star Rating

A MelanieM Review: Skim Blood and Savage Verse (Offbeat Crimes #3) by Angel Martinez

Rating: 5 stars out of 5

Words damage more than just feelings as Carrington hunts feral books menacing the city.

When a ferocious book attacks Carrington at his own birthday party, he believes it’s an isolated incident. But similar books soon pop up all over town, menacing innocent people with harsh bits of poetry and blank verse that deliver damaging physical blows. It’s a frustrating case with too many variables and not enough answers, and the stakes go up with each attack.

With the help of his misfit squad mates at the 77th and the public library’s Rare Books Department, the missing pieces decrease but not Carrington’s vexations. His commanding officer rakes him over the coals at the beginning of every shift. His police partner has lost patience with what she sees as his delusional relationship choices and his inability to pick the right man in a vast field of two. City Hall demands that the books be stopped immediately. It’s enough to put a nutritionally challenged vampire off his skim blood.

The book rattled violently on the table in an imitation of a step dance and printed words leaped out of the pages at frightening speed. Just before they slammed into Carrington’s head, the flying words shrieked at him.
“You starveling, you eel-skin, you dried neat’s tongue, you bull’s pizzle!”
He had time for a split second of horror before the words rammed into him with the force of several fists.

                                                  from Skim Blood and Savage Verse (Offbeat Crimes #3) by Angel Martinez

Yes, feral books are rampaging about the city slinging deadly poetry at people’s heads!  Angel Martinez, you might as well drop the mike and leave the building! This is why I love to read, to come across passages and indeed an entire story full of such paragraphs and plot threads so imaginative and lively that I burst into giggles still at the very thought of them.  And that’s just one element here.

Yes its poor Carrington, that vampire who needs to exist on skim blood with the worst taste in men who is the focus here (well one of them at any rate).  His feral book attack launches an investigation and soon his squad realizes there have been attacks all over the city.  The librarian in the Rare Books Department at the Public Library is just the sort to set him, well not straight, but on the path to HEA, if Carrington can get past his own proclivities for picking up the most shallow, mean-spirited men around.  That’s a terrific storyline going on while in pursuit of the rampaging feral books (I can never get enough of those). The author gets us into Carr’s head and heart here.  While we are often frustrated with him, its also easy to understand why Carr is why he is.

But there’s another romance here.  One I rate just  as highly.  LJ, also known as Leather Jacket. Yes, an animated object of clothing who’s a member of the squad (loosely) gets a lover. I won’t go into the details because they are too wonderful and should be explored within the story itself.  This romance turned out to be so adorable, so charming and mysterious (and on-going probably into the next story) that I was just as equally invested in them as well as in Carrington and Erasmus, the librarian.   I will, however, mention that for those who  like a quick romance, that doesn’t happen.  Carr has plenty of issues and those have to be dealt with first.   But we get a closer look at Carr’s family, his partner Amanda (who I also adore) and other respective members of 77th Precinct.

There’s a dangling bit of mystery left here at the end, a rather large bit that I hope leads into the next story.  The 77th Precinct and all its members are downright addictive! You never know what wildly scary case will come their way with love tromping along too.  Or maybe being propelled by fairies or blasted by fire.  Probably not.  All too mundane.  Which is why I cannot wait for the next book in the series to arrive.  Pill bugs from space and now deadly poetry spitting flying feral books!  What will Angel Martinez come up with next?  I’ve got the popcorn and am patiently waiting to find out.

Cover art by Posh Gosh is very pretty and includes that flying book.

Sales Links

Pride Publishing | Amazon

 

Book Details:

ebook, 137 pages
Published April 4th 2017 by Pride Publishing
ISBN139781786515520
Edition LanguageEnglish

Series Offbeat Crimes 

A VVivacious Review: An Officer’s Submission (Cuffs, Collars, and Love #3) by Christa Tomlinson

Rating: 5 stars out of 5
 
Logan and Clay have finally found their places in their relationship.
 
But while things at home are better than good their life at work undergoes an upheaval. This serves to bring old doubts to the forefront of Clay’s mind but when an incident at work destroys his bubble of happiness, he is lost. As he works out how to deal with things while simultaneously keeping Logan in the dark things start going bad fast. Can their relationship survive these troubled waters and at what cost?
 
This book is amazing. It is a fabulous addition to a series that was already brilliant. I love this series so much and this book is my favourite one in this series.
 
Though I have to confess that, when I started reading this book I wasn’t feeling so good about it. This is because of three reasons. Firstly because I really thought that Logan and Clay would be much further along in their relationship. Secondly the beginning of this book is just a lot of sex scenes which don’t do much for story progression or so I thought. Thirdly this book features the alternating POVs of Logan and Clay and early on in the book the POVs where changing quite frequently often in the middle of a scene which was quite disconcerting. For all the above reasons I stopped reading this book around the 20% mark.
 
But luckily for me, from that point on the book is a treasure and when I started reading the book from this point on I couldn’t stop, I read the rest of it in a single setting without any breaks. Oh My God! This book is amazing, it was just so good and believe me my entire opinion on this book took a one eighty twist. Urgh! This book is just so good.
 
I think the initial series of sex scenes is basically a parameter to measure how off base Logan and Clay’s relationship had gotten following the events of this book. Also this book shows Logan and Clay’s relationship visibly move forward, which I loved because I wanted these two characters together since they are amazing together.
 
There are so many scenes in this book which were just amazing, just because there was such a wealth of emotion suffused in some of the dialogue that I had to read those parts of the book again just to get my fill. The Shibari scene early on in the book is where things changed for me in this book. But personally my all-time favourite part of this book was the scene featuring Logan and Clay during therapy, that scene was epic on so many levels. It saw their relationship mature and that scene is just crucial in getting all the events in this book into perspective. The punishment scene is hot, I mean there are no other words for it except maybe ingenious and innovative and Logan is a genius for figuring out the perfect way to mete out punishment, amazing. Also I love the scene in the bathroom following the altercation. This book has so many good things happening for it. This book just gave me so many feels that it took me over a day to get myself into a place where I could finally try to turn those feelings into words.
 
Personally I already loved the characters and their relationship from “The Sergeant” but this time around I got to love these characters even more. The plot is so amazingly written and it is so engrossing, it was a whole new twist on everything. What I loved about the plot was that it was something so troubling but it was presented and dealt with really well given the circumstances and moreover what I loved was how well the plot was used to make us see these characters in a new light.
 
In short, loved the book, loved the plot and adored Logan & Clay. It was simply amazing and it was a fantabulous addition to an already pretty great series.
 
Cover Art by Melody Simmons of eBook Indie Covers. The cover is amazing.
Sales Links
Book Details:
Kindle Edition
Published March 15th 2017 by Torlina Publishing
ASINB06XNTLCXZ
Edition LanguageEnglish
SeriesCuffs, Collars, and Love #3

A MelanieM Recent Release Review: The Case of the Guilty Ghost (End Street Detective Agency #6) by R.J. Scott and Amber Kell

Rating: 4.75 stars out of 5

Bob is lost in grief, Sam is fighting for his life, and there is no middle ground. Can their love survive?

Bob is grieving over his brother’s sacrifice. Guilt-ridden and devastated, he buries himself in vampire mourning and pulls away from Sam.

Magic tears Sam from the vampire castle and he has to face new adversaries alone, when all he wants is Bob at his side.

Ettore is in the Aset Ka waiting room, next in line for the ceremony for his soul to be torn from his body. Aset Ka has other plans, and Ettore finds himself reunited with a lost love and fighting alongside his brother.

A forgotten past binds Theodore ‘Teddy’ McCurray Constantine III to Ettore, and with the curse tied to Ettore broken by his death, Teddy’s past returns to him with a vengeance.

A royal family in denial, a battle between gods, and long forgotten love leaves no time for Sam and Bob to take a breath. Is it too late to save the supernatural world?

The last book in a series always has an enormous job to do.  It can’t simply tell its story, no it has to wrap all up the loose ends and dangling plot threads from multiple couples and books that came before it.  How it does all that and tell its story will leave the reader either feeling really good about the series and couple/couples or feeling that they’ve missed something and that it all fell rather flat. Or even, quelle horror, a waste of their time! What a burden placed on that last novel!

I’m so happy to report that The Case of the Guilty Ghost wraps things up quite nicely for everyone at the  End Street Detective Agency and even gave us a look at the future that left me all aglow as they say.  Nothing so wonderful as bringing a series full circle as the authors did here.  I’ll say right at the beginning that it doesn’t get the full 5 stars because someone coming into the story without reading all the previous books would be quite lost.  You need to have read all the others to have a firm foundation and fix on the characters and situations already established at page 1, starting with the  grieving Bob.  Yes, I still love a vampire called Bob.

I also thought this was the weakest link here.  There’s no real reason for Bob to separate himself from his family during this time of mourning.  Everyone seems to be telling Bob to buckup and bring at least Sam there to help him through this.  But of course, Sam’s presence is needed elsewhere and Bob won’t soon be mourning.  So begins an action packed supernatural adventure that brings so many characters together one last time.  We learn who and what Sam truly is, a mystery that ran throughout the series.  How that bracelet Sam wears comes into play and a outstanding fight to end all fights at the end.   And our Terry, the resident ghost of End Street Detective Agency? Well, he figures into this in a huge way as well. Oh and did I mention there’s sex too? That too, lots of that.

If a plot is tied up too neatly, well, ok.  I thought that banishment was quick and pretty handy.  But the rest of the story was so good and answered so many of my questions, that I’m willing to overlook something so expedient as that.  Plus it worked within the narrative, so I’m happy even if I wanted something a little more complicated.  Sam, Bob and daughter Mal have their HEA as do our other favorite characters.  That’s what I wanted here and what I got with a lot of suspense and acton along the way.

Then Amber Kell and RJ Scott threw in the marvelous Epilogue and brought things full circle.  That was just delightful and left me smiling even more.  I could walk away from the End Street Detective Agency happy and content.

Cover design by Meredith Russell is perfect for the characters and storyline.

Sales Links

Amazon US: http://amzn.to/2mYNrYY

Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/2nDMEK6

Book Details:

ebook, 164 pages
Published March 15th 2017 by Love Lane Books Limited
ISBN139781785640759
SeriesEnd Street Detective Agency #6