Last Chance by Viki Lyn

On sale now from Loose-Id for $5.99!

Aric Christian is walking across campus, on his way to the science lab when he’s hit in the head with a wayward football.  He finds himself blinking up at Stu Hamilton, the school’s star football player, and that’s when things get interesting…

What I liked:  I liked the jock/nerd dynamic.  It never fails to get me every time.  Who doesn’t want to see the nerdy guy finish first?  Still, this novel is not the typcial nerd-meets-jock-and-they-fall-in-love story.  Viki intertwined the paranormal genre with the athletic one in this story.  Aric is battling a rare blood disorder of the paranormal variety and is using his consideral brain power (he’s a PhD student) to cure himself.  I loved the extra dose of mystery that the novel provided and the background characters, who almost take center stage a few times.

What I didn’t like:  I could have spent a lot more time in the build up and subsequent romance between Aric + Stu rather than on some of the back story, no that it wasn’t interesting.  I think a sequel following these characters could do nicely.

Overall: A great paranormal romance with an athletic twist.

Jaya Grade: B+

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Bonding With Graven by Amber Kell

On sale now from Literary Road for $1.50!

Steerl, an Emperor’s son, is escorting his sister Delilah to a mating ceremony for Prince Graven, the vampire prince soon to be king.  Graven has been searching for his mate for 400 years and when Larel, the family seer, tells Steerl’s family that the youngest born will be the prince’s mate, Steerl’s family sends him along to protect Delilah as she meets the prince.  Graven meets Steerl and that’s when things get interesting.

What I liked:  This is a shorty, but goody.  There was a ton of angst and uke/seme vibes throughout the story, but I loved the fact that Steerl had a backbone and wasn’t simply a hero in distress because Graven was extremely demanding.  Amber does a good job of weaving a lot of story into a tight piece.  I like it when authors take the time to let us know about their characters and show us conflicts that they face in their lives even when it is a short story and everything can’t be resolved neatly by the end.

This is also a tremendously sexy story as in it’s short 16 pages, perhaps 6-8 of those is taken up with the initial physical encounter between Steerl and Graven – lots of emphasis on mating and claiming, which is always fun!

What I didn’t like:  I am far from the grammar police, but I noticed some glaring errors in this one.  For example, there’s one part where I don’t know if the character was speaking or thinking because there were no quotation marks and no italics, but the words weren’t narration.  It was a bit of a distraction.

Overall:  Even with the grammatical issues, this one is a very good, quick and fun read.  I really like Amber Kell.

Jaya Grade: B+

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Awakening by D.J. Manly

On sale now from Extasy Books for $4.99

I expected to like this one much more than I actually did.

There are a host of characters here, but, essentially our hero is Lucian Prescott, a detective in the city of Thunderbay.  He returns to Mapleton, his hometown, for the funeral of one of his best friends Charlie Hamilton.

When he arrives, he immediately reconnects with the third in his friendship trio, Landon.  Landon has a new guest at the bed and breakfast he runs, Julian Danone, one of the most beautiful men that Lucian has ever seen and that’s when things get interesting.

What I liked: In the beginning, I liked Landon.  He was a new vampire who had committed a grave wrong.  DJ wrote Landon’s vulnerability very well and I connected with him.  When I found out that Lucian was coming back to town, I immediately made the connection that he and Landon were going to be together.  This, I think, is where I went wrong.

What I didn’t like: A lot.  Landon was not the hero in this story and he’s the central focus in the beginning and we delve into his background, so the reader thinks that he is.  Then, we find out that it’s actually Julian and Lucian who are the heroes.  Except, they don’t behave in very heroic ways.  I found Lucian to be a little bit annoyingly unaware of himself and the feelings of the people around him and very much unworthy of the love being bestowed on him.

I tried to like Julian, but by the end of the novel when the full scope of his actions were revealed, I didn’t like him very much.  I mean, he basically uses Landon for a meal, turns him into a vampire, becomes his protector but only out of obligation and never a sense of true emotion (at least not one that I felt), falls in love with the man Landon has spent his whole life loving and leaves a thoroughly used and depraved Landon alone while he runs off with his new love in the end.

Yeah.  So, this one didn’t do it for me, which surprised me because I normally enjoy DJ’s work.  There were several points where I wanted to put the book down, but I forced myself to continue.

Overall: Well written, but not for me.

Jaya Grade: C+

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