Super Zero by Rhonda Stapleton

Title: Super Zero
Author: Rhonda Stapleton
Genre: Superhero/Science Fiction Romance
Publisher: Rhonda Stapleton
Available: $3.12 at Amazon.com
Rating: 4.5 stars
Rater: Pippa








PLOT SUMMARY:

Working for superheroes isn't all it's cracked up to be...

When Jenna’s superhero boss The Machine gives her the opportunity to safeguard the changing crystal (a jewel that grants, changes or removes superpowers) she jumps at the chance, eager to do this so-called "cake" job and earn street cred with the Midwest League of Superheroes. To help her mission, the League assigns her a partner, the mysterious and super-sexy Vigilante. Too bad he's also super-grouchy--what a tragic waste of hotness.

Soon, Jenna learns the threat to the changing crystal is all too real, and her list of trustworthy people grows shorter by the minute. But when she discovers something even more sinister afoot, involving Vigilante's sexy arch nemesis Dementrix, it'll take all her skills to keep the mad villainess from executing her plan to unmask and decommission the world's superheroes...especially when Jenna accidentally becomes one herself.

Super Zero is a 64,000-word novel.

THE GOOD:
This is a humorous and romantic read that throws you straight into the story without any info dumping, with believeable and consistent characters, no sections that drag and some great snarky one-liners. My favourite had to be the reference to the posturing of a couple of supervillains as having gone through 'Captain Kirk's Superhero School for Overactors'. It was so compelling and entertaining that I had to read it from start to finish in one sitting - luckily at 64K words it's a fairly quick read, but it still felt a complete and complex story. It's written in first person which I normally dislike, but that didn't stop me enjoying it thoroughly.

THE BAD:
There were one too many references to the main character's belief that she was a strong, independant woman - usually just before she melted in a puddle. I felt it was a little tell-y in places too.

IN SUM:
This is a sweet and warmingly romantic superhero story with no explicit bedroom scenes, some nice twists, some great humour, and all wound up nicely in just 64, 000 words. I f you've enjoyed films like Mystery Men and The Specials, then this is definitely a book for you.

Out of the Ashes by Lori Dillon

Title: Out of the Ashes
Author: Lori Dillon
Genre: Fantasy Romance
Publisher: Amari Press
Available: $3.99 at Barnes and Noble
Rating: 5 stars
Rater: Dihanna

Theirs was a love destined to be -- torn apart by the wrath of Vesuvius.

Warning: spoilers!


After many tries to get male 2028 and female 5923 together, Marsha and Hershel – Guardian Angels – are called into the office of Mr. Smithers – the King of Heaven – to explain why they have not succeeded to get them together before they died – killed in the eruption of Vesuvius.  Smithers decides to send these two to Earth to help them personally, but without their Heavenly powers. 


It’s now June 1943 in Pompeii, Italy. Here Serafina and David meet again, and although attracted, do not pursue each other. Serafina is an archaeologist and David has been thrust on her to help her with her digs. She has found other artifacts but the glory was stolen from her and now has found another site. Things happen, and little by little they get to know each other.  


As an aside, many things go wrong, and have to think that if I had Marsha and Hershel as My guardian angels I would have thought perhaps they could have done a better job.  They do eventually fall in love but of course something is always standing in the way, so Mr. Smithers finally as to come down and set things straight.  Serafina does make a great discovery not knowing that in the last previous life with David that they both died together and were forever entombed together.  They do end up together and having 2 children together and living a long happy life. 


I can honestly tell you that I cried while I read this book!  I highly recommend it, and give it the highest score possible. 

A Word From Julie Anne Lindsey

Thank you so much Lauri for allowing me to be a part of your blog today. It’s fun being here. I’ve been looking forward to it. Meeting other voracious readers has been the best part of writing for me so far. I fancy myself a reader – who happens to like writing. You’ll find me with my nose in a book more often than typing up a story. Reading fuels my brain and often gets me feeling creative, but let’s face it, there are so many incredible books and amazing authors to read…it’s hard to find the time to cook or clean let alone write novels LOL. One thing I make time for every day is laughter. That’s how Death by Chocolate came to be. 


I’m a dedicated member of our local Baptist church. A shocker to most, but true none-the-less. I don’t fit into the mold with the same accuracy as some, but I’m happy there, and can thank a fund raiser for starting the tired little hamster I call a brain back on the wheel. I sat watching my kids dive and crawl under tables while a ginormous line of people came by for chicken noodle soup. The church ladies were raising money for a missionary, I think, or it was a celebration dinner? That part is fuzzy. What I remember with clarity is watching them smile and ladle soup into white Styrofoam bowls. All I could think of was how much damage those sweet ladies could do before anyone ever suspected them. They could cause a great upheaval and be long gone before we knew what hit us. I found this thought exciting. What if they dosed the chicken soup? Roofied us? YouTubed us and ruined the whole church as payback for a perceived wrong? Or what if they were the kid of nuts that think “The end is near so let’s take out all our loved ones with this cyanide and chicken soup.” What if? What if? What if? 


Soon the poor little hamster was going rocket speed. I started making notes on my napkin. The rest they say is history – for me it’s the present – potato – potato. Because I love irony, like talking babies on commercials, the idea made me smile. It still does. If you get the chance to read Death by Chocolate, I hope it makes you smile too ; )


Death by Chocolate
Ruby Russell has reached her limit. When she discovers her hipster husband has a dirty little secret, she whips him up a Viagra-infused-chocolate mousse punishment, but in the morning, her husband's a stiff. Armed with a lifetime of crime show reruns and Arsenic and Old Lace on DVD, Ruby and her best friend Charlotte try to lay low until after Ruby's son's wedding, but a nosy therapist, meddling minister and local news reporter are making it very difficult to get away with murder.
Video trailer here


About Julie:
I am a mother of three, wife to a sane person and Ring Master at the Lindsey Circus. Most days you'll find me online, amped up on caffeine & wielding a book.


You can find my blogging about the writer life at Musings from the Slush Pile


Tweeting my crazy at @JulieALindsey


Reading to soothe my obsession on GoodReads


And other books by me on Amazon

Unacceptable Risk by Jeanette Grey

Title: Unacceptable Risk
Author: Jeanette Grey
Genre: Science Fiction Romance/Cyberpunk
Publisher: Samhain Publishing
Available: $3.50 at Samhain Publishing
Rating: 5 stars
Rater: Pippa








Plot Summary:

She may learn to live for love…if vengeance doesn’t kill her first.

Plix spends her lonely, gritty life trying to solve the mysteries her father left behind. Armed with a variety of cybernetic enhancements and a talent for getting into places she shouldn’t be, she searches for clues to his murder—and who’s responsible for poisoning her city.

Waking up on a street corner with her brain wiring fried to a crisp, she figures she must have gotten close this time. There’s only one man she trusts to pull her back from the brink: a tuner who can retrieve the evidence hidden deep in the recesses of her mind. A man she dares not let too close to her heart.

When Edison downloads a secret SynDate schematic from Plix’s burnt-out circuitry, he knows with dreadful finality that nothing—not even the fiery kiss he’s been holding back for years—will stop her from pursuing her quest past the point of insanity.

All he can do, as he helps her plan her final mission, is ease her pain, watch her back…and hope one of them doesn’t pay with their lives.

---

Product Warnings

Contains a heroine intent on kicking ass and taking names, a high-tech dystopia, cybernetic body modifications, and emotionally charged, sensual romance. 

The Good:

This is a sad but sweet story, with a dark, gritty edge, that made my heart ache for the two central characters. Plix isn't the usual kick-ass heroine - she's quietly but irrepressibly determined, tolerating huge amounts of pain and grief to fulfil a goal, denying herself anything remotely like a normal life. Edison is geeky but strong, and while Plix's blind stubborness drives him to despair, he still does his best to help her even as it carves out his heart every time. Their struggle to repress their obvious feelings for one another had me in tears.

The Bad:

I struggled to find anything to criticise. There is a slight element of repetition in Plix's two forays for information that made me wonder if the opening was a flashback and now I was seeing the events in real time, but the fact that she gained something new told me it wasn't.

In Sum:

This book absolutely tore my heart out. None of the technology is overdone if that's something you struggle with in reading scifi, and yet it's comprehensive and believeable. There's an equal balance between the romance and the science fiction elements. Loved it and want more.

Romance Stories by Christina T. Crooks

Title: Romance Stories - An Interactive Fiction Collection
Author: Christina T. Crooks
Genre/Subgenre: Romance/Gamebook
Word count: Approx. 50 pages
Publication Date: 10/2011
Publisher: Self (October 2011)
Available: $1.49 at Amazon
Format available: .mobi or .epub
Rating: 4 stars
Reviewer: Elle Hill



Synopsis:
According to the author, “Be the star of six fun and twisted little romance stories. Explore the playfulness, action, and sudden mortal danger of these adventures with built-in hyperlinks where you choose the direction the stories take. Thirty-five possible endings, but only a few will be a happily ever after. Can you find them?”


The good:
I read this gamebook on an otherwise-miserable airplane trip. It made me giggle several times, particularly as I tried to get inside the author’s head and figure out which choices would lead me to the promised happily-ever-afters with the story’s Hunky Guy™. Of course, this said, I felt it was my choice to explore every single option, which meant I alternately died tragically, lived a life of ennui, and found my soul mate, all in one very short story.

These amusing and well-written stories vary from post-apocalyptic science fiction to uncomfortably realistic romance. The one thing they all have in common is a shero written in the second person (“you” are the lead character). Every few pages – sometimes every few paragraphs or even sentences – the reader faces the option of how to respond to certain circumstance. This very fast-paced book defies readers’ attentions to stray.


The “bad”:
In a world saturated by reality TV and omnipresent, slick visual media imagery, we’ve become a culture of citizens with tiny attention spans and a lust for ever-new stimulations. This gamebook fits perfectly into this perceptual noise. It works beautifully as a text of its kind – as I said, it is quite well-written – but in terms of stories, the scenes are too short and too frequently interrupted to provide any kind of compelling, relatable narrative.


In sum:
Reading this book, I kept thinking this method of narrative delivery is perfect for folks with ADD; it is choppy, fragmented, and relies on clichés to provide structure and storyline. In short, if you’re looking for symbolism and multi-dimensional characters, read Jane Eyre; for a well-written, light-hearted distraction from the annoyances of flying or watching your kid’s Little League game, this gamebook may well be your next best friend.

A Hint of Frost by Hailey Edwards

Title: A Hint of Frost
Author: Hailey Edwards
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Samhain Publishing (April 17, 2012)
Available: $3.85 at Samhain Publishing
Rating: 4 stars
Rater: Elle Hill


For a novel with such a chill throughout, the author’s lush writing provides an especially warm and welcome counterpoint. I found myself lulled by her rhythmic use of sentences, some long and textured and other short and sparse. Readers who enjoy minimalist writing with few descriptors would do better looking elsewhere for a fantasy fix; Edwards is a devout sensualist.

Like any good romance writer, Edwards puts the romance front and center and spins everything in the world around its primacy. That said, her story is smart and realistic, introducing characters and situations that she clearly intends to develop further over the course of several books. In this one, Lourdes, the main character, finds her parents poisoned and herself thrust into the role of leading her people during a time of war. Her first act as “maven”? Marrying herself to a clan that will protect hers.

The novel moves forward and derives its narrative tension from the defection/abduction of Lourdes’ sister, Pascale, and Lourdes’ determination to bring her home safely. She and her new consort embark on a journey to distant lands, all the while learning more about one another, a plague spreading across the lands, and the scope of their feelings for one another.

Even without the world-building Edwards does in this book, the story and characters are compelling; it’s comfortingly familiar, as romance novels should be, while introducing enough twists to keep the readers intrigued. Edwards’ strength, however, lies in her world-building. Edwards’ Araneae Nation features several clans, each of which specializes, not only occupationally but physiologically, in producing certain goods or services. The clans are separate but interdependent, each important but hierarchically situated. For examples, Lourdes’ clan, the Araneidae, weave silks and make clothing, while Rhys, her “partisan,” belongs to the cannibalistic warrior clan known as the Mimetidae. This interdependent clan arrangement might fall into a Hunger Games-esque patterns were it not for the very real physiological and cultural differences characterizing clan members. For example, depending on their clan heritage, characters in Edwards’ world may spin silk from their very own bodies or use their bites to inject venom into their prey. Edwards notes in her acknowledgements she researched various Native American tribes for inspiration, and it is most apparent in her choices of names, skills, and relationships among her clansfolk. As a sociologist, I found myself intrigued and impressed by the various traditions (thread-binding, for example) that Edwards constructed as growing organically from the structure of clan relationships.

My concerns with the book are somewhat small since overall, I found myself quite delighted. Edwards’ prose is effusive and her characters bold and vibrant. I was somewhat disappointed when she lapsed into the occasional modern American idioms and clichés. Of course, English is likely her first language, as it is mine, but clichés, colloquialisms, and idioms are verbal shortcuts and should be avoided in most literature; in fantasy realms, they become even more awkwardly visible. Words like “potshots,” “look a gift animal in the mouth,” and so on pulled me from the richness of the words and the story they built. They’re small concerns overall, but I found myself annoyed several times to have my attention yanked from the lushness of her prose.

My rating: Four out of five stars. This is a smartly written novel in the best tradition of romances that also includes enough fantasy staples and uniqueness to keep just about any reader spellbound.


===================


(Note from Lauri: Yes; two of our reviewers read and reviewed this book - and both obviously loved it!)

Refugees on Urloon by Melisse Aires

Title: Refugees on Urloon
Author: Melisse Aires
Genre: Science Fiction Romance
Publisher: Lyrical Press Inc
Available: $3.99 at Lyrical Press Inc
Rating: 4 stars
Rater: Pippa












Plot Summary:

Two weary refugees, two moons and a life-changing fertility festival. Watch out for a whole lot of sensuality.

Under normal circumstances, Svana, non-military maintenance crew, and Captain Liam Ringel, a highly respected military instructor, would never have crossed paths. A sudden anomaly, however, thrusts them into deep space where they are rescued by the inhabitants of an exotic and isolated waterworld, Urloon. 

With no rescue forthcoming, the refugees can choose between adapting to the sea or farming the land. Svana is saddened when her budding friendship with Liam changes due to their different choices. However, when they are invited to an alien fertility festival, the Moonfest, they are given the opportunity to create a memory that will impact and intertwine both their futures. 

WARNING: Alien fertility festival, aurora lights, dancing alien beasts, body paints and hot pheromones. M/F Sensual.

The Good:

The story doesn't waste any time throwing you into the action and there are several threads running through it to keep up the tension. It made a nice change to read a romance story where the couple are an older generation than a lot of those I've read lately, and the uncertainty between them throughout the story despite - or perhaps because of - their experiences in life made their relationship poignant. The idea of alien pheremones invoking a fertility festival and of humans adapted for aquatic life hooked me from the start. The adaptation process is especially intriguing. For 37K words, there's a lot packed into this story.

The Bad:

I felt the stories of the two main groups of antagonists in this was slightly underplayed overall. I feel the Wilders especially should have been a little more significant in their threat earlier in the story.

In Sum:
This is a sweet and sensual romance, skillfully woven into a human society adapted to an alien world. Easy to read and compelling.