Intimate Knowledge

Intimate Knowledge
Julie Miller
Mass Market Paperback, 250 pages
Published July 1st 2002 by Harlequin
ISBN: 9780373790494


Grace Lockhart: Behind-the-scenes FBI agent. Shy, naive...and a sex kitten waiting to happen.

Logan Pierce: FBI field agent and the best of the best. Confident, cocky...and incapable of saying no to a beautiful woman.

The case:

Agent Grace Lockhart has spent months developing a computer program that will put the city's biggest crime lord behind bars. And now that it's ready, all the FBI needs is somebody to smuggle it in to Harrison Mitchell's estate. Only, because Mitchell is notorious for surrounding himself with a harem of beauties, that somebody has to be a woman....

Grace Lockhart wants to be that woman, but she's anything but a femme fatale. But not for long. Because she's heard that her new partner, sexy superagent Logan Pierce, is an expert at "hands-on" training.

I'm not always certain how to relate to a female character who wants me to feel sorry for her and her DD cup size. But pair that with a ridiculous amount of naivete, innocence, and enough determination to justifiably be called a fool and I folded quickly to one Grace Lockhart.

Completing the duo is Logan, a self confident FBI agent laden with guilt and known to work alone. Truthfully, he couldn't have been better for me unless it was Agent Fox Mulder himself hunting down the truth behind the X-Files. Everything about Logan got a reaction, especially his honesty. He's also very self aware. He knows what he likes in a woman which it makes it all too easy to play teacher to the sexually ignorant Grace.

Now, had this been anything but a fictional creation there's no way in hell she and Logan would have succeeded in this mission. The task was laughable and their success, much due to a self-involved sexual deviant's error was too farfetched even for me. The smut, though, is worth nibbling on and the romance is actually quite believable. All in all, this was most definitely a good read. 4 out of 5 stars.

Thank you, Redd from The Wyld Hollow, for passing along this book to little ol' me.

Reunion: Warriors for the Light #4

❝ I know he will love me because I do chase blue butterflies! ❞

Reunion
Lindsay McKenna
Warriors for the Light, book four
Mass Market Paperback, 288 pages
Published April 1st 2010 by Silhouette
ISBN 9780373618323

He claims it was a brutal test of his Jaguar powers that divided their fates for centuries. All Aella knows is that a familiar joy courses through her body when she arrives on an archaeological assignment at the Great Serpent Mound. Who is this godlike stranger who comes to her in her dreams? She should be terrified. Instead, Fox's protective presence awakens in Aella memories of torrid love making and a yearning she can't deny. If she believes her visions, Aella is Fox's lost Incan bride; and he is her soul flame. But Fox is competing with a Dark Lord who is determined to keep them apart, hovering on the brink of temptation, eternally separated from the Light.

Atok "Fox" fell in love with Chaska the moment he first saw her. He was ten years old at the time and training to become a warrior. Chaska was eight and the spirited child in a noble family. When he became of age, and has accomplished the tasks set for him, Fox was given Chaska to wed and for three years they shared a loving, happy marriage. Then, upon the delivery of their first child, Chaska died. And their son never took his first breath. All that Fox had cherished the most was suddenly gone.

For years he continued with his training, praying and yearning for the time when he would die only to be reincarnated and hopefully, he would find Chaska again. Finally the moment comes but Chaska's soul has already crossed the dimensions and the chances of reunion are too slim. He is convinced once more to continue his training and eventually becomes a guardian to a sacred site. It is there they find one another at last.

As we're introduced to the reincarnated Chaska, now called Aella, we find her interested in her assigned partner, Robert, who is equally attracted to her. So... Am I the only one who finds these things irritating in romance books? My aggravation was multiplied by the knowledge of Fox's pining and heartache all these years. Granted, Aella has no memory of her time with Fox and therefore has no reason to be 'faithful' but that kind of thing just rubs the skin, ya know?

Aside from that, I really loved the heart of this story. You get two souls destined to be together who upon discovering one another, even at such a young age, manage to experience that 'he's the one'/'she's the one' moment. Sadly, though, you don't get much else. Despite the glimpses into the lifetime Fox and Chaska shared, the main story is rather focused. There's one very strict-very narrow-path that doesn't give up much room for surprise or even a lot of action. It's all very simple and perhaps, as a whole, rather dull. 3 out of 5 stars.

Heart of the Winter Wolf

Heart of the Winter Wolf
Dani Harper
ebook
Published 2007
ISBN 9781603940122

Was it only coincidence that the white wolf Jillian had depended upon for years in times of need to comfort her came back into her life at the same time that she met James Macleod, the giant of a man with the pale blond hair and the look of a Viking?

James Macleod was a Changeling who'd lost everything dear to him in a single night of blood and fire. Devastated by guilt and driven by grief, he became a great white wolf and vowed never to walk as a man again - until a small blonde veterinarian shook his resolve and his world. Now James must remember how to be human and walk in his human skin again in order to solve a frightening riddle: Who is this beautiful woman and why is his wolfen side hunting her?

Jillian gets offered the dream of... well, somebody's lifetime, and with her temporary job coming to an end and no other promises of income, she's left with little choice but to accept the offer, packing up and moving to Alberta, Canada, on the dime of Connor MacKleod who's in need of help with his livestock.

Thirty years ago, James lost his wife and unborn child to murder. In his anguish, he willed himself to die. But the wolf half of him, being the wild creature it was, took control and fought to survive. Since that moment, James has shut away the human side of himself. He doesn't shift. He barely communicates, save for mindspeech with his brother and packmate, Connor. He lives, day after day, year after year, as the wolf.

Then, one afternoon, he catches the scent of a new female at the clinic where Connor works and in an instant, reality hits him-he is not a wolf. And so, awakened at last, James begins the journey back to himself.

I'm on a whole other level of satisfied when I can step back from a book and can honestly say that it was a beautiful story. That moment when James realized he wanted to experience Jillian-her smell, her feel, her taste-while in human form was so eloquently well done. Connor's flood of emotions was just as touching. Mmm. Loved me some Connor.

The romance was so refreshing. It's not some collision of hormones but rather a casual attraction between two (seemingly) strangers. Don't misunderstand-there's epic amounts of passion once they do touch but the lead up is so very near to courting it'll make any romantic swoon in delight. And having Connor and Berky sticking their noses in with the appropriate nudging is too wickedly good. But what made the book for me, aside from Connor's awesomeness, was James. His inner battle, despair, and ever present fear that he was losing his sanity to a multiple personality disorder. Finally I understood what that last part of that last sentence in the blurb meant.

Had to wonder though... if Roderick pegged James as a Changeling over thirty years ago, why the hell did it take so long to figure Conner out? And omigod, why, oh why, would breaking up with a woman via flowers *ever* be a good idea!?

Enjoyed the book immensely, and honestly couldn't find anything I would have liked done differently. Hmmm... yays! 5 out of 5 stars.

Before The Storm: Eden Trilogy #1

❝  "See?" he said. "It wasn't just 'anything', it was something, except I'd never have found the damn thing if you hadn't pointed it out." ❞

Before The Storm
Marian Perera
Eden Trilogy, book one
Kindle Edition
Published April 6th 2010 by Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
ASIN B003AT11MY

Whore-gift-and unexpected ally.

In Dagran society, Alex is the lowest of the low- a mare-, an object to be used by the nobility. When her owner, Stephen Garnath, gifts her to his greatest rival, she begins plotting her path to freedom. Nothing and no one will ever control her again. Not her degrading past, and certainly not her growing attraction to a man reputed to be an even crueler master than Garnath.

Robert Demeresna is instantly suspicious of such a generous gift. Yet she comes to him armed with only her sharp mind-a potent weapon he can use to defend his people from the enemy. And underneath, an unbreakable spirit that besieges the walls of his heart.

Slowly, Robert chips away at Alex's defenses, striking sparks that make her begin to believe even a lowly whore like her could be worthy of him. Until Garnath springs a trap so cleverly hidden, war is unleashed before either of them sees it coming. A new kind of war fought with steam engines, explosives-and magic with a killing edge.

Warning: Contains violence, steam engines, steamier sex and multiple explosions of the unstable chemical variety.

Out of the pan and into the fire- or so Alex is led to believe. When her lord and master gifts her to his enemy, Robert Demeresna, a noted sadist renowned as the Bloody Baron, her freedom from Stephen is only bittersweet.

Fitting that I would pick this up now, having just completed watching Firefly where the most popular not-couple was Captain Malcolm Reynolds and the Companion Inara. (Companion being a glorified, and choosy, whore) Never did see the allure there. Had no desire whatsoever to see those two together. Now, Simon and Kaylee on the other hand...

Back to topic- Robert is nothing special to look at. Plain brown hair. Plain brown eyes. And yet, he treats Alex proper much to her own confusion and eventually his smile and kindness comes to soften her guarded nature and she comes to want his attention. The focus of this book, however, is not the romance. It's not even the relationship between Alex and Robert. It's about war.

Action comes flying much sooner than I had ever expected. Not even at midpoint yet and woah, big things start happening. Perera definitely isn't going to let you get bored. The dialogue alone is captivating. The creativity and strategy behind the clashing forces will fill in any gaps if you're of the little-less-talk-and-alot-more-action crowd.

I'm one of those that likes it when the male protagonist isn't some cocksure ladies' man. Innocence is sexy. But Robert isn't perfect and even though he knows how to convey gentility and the like, he slips from the pedestal quite often. While I completely understood his wants and needs in life-a noble woman who could bear him children being one- he said a lot of things that never should have made it past his teeth. Mean things. Things I would stab a man for even daring to think let alone speaking aloud.

It ends well. There's little heroics and paranoia and rumor fuel just about everything the enemy does. Definitely not a smut book. You get one such event. And it doesn't even fill two pages. The book itself has been called a Steam-punk which although I'm rather unfamiliar with the genre, I felt the classification was a stretch. Granted, I could be wrong. 4 out of 5 stars.