Category Archives: Dnf

Passionate Thirst
Candace Steele Vampire Killer #1
Author: Cameron Dean
Source: Personal Purchase
Genre: Adult Paranormal/Romance
Publisher: Ballantine Books
 (October 31, 2006)
ISBN-13: 978-0345492531

JUST ANOTHER NIGHT IN SIN CITY


Candace Steele is as tough as she is alluring. For her, killing vampires isn’t just a job–it’s personal: She’s still haunted by erotic memories of an all-consuming affair with Ash, a seductive vampire who thrilled her–and then nearly destroyed her. Now, working undercover in a Las Vegas casino, she seduces the most powerful undead–right before she drives a stake through their unbeating hearts.


When hot-ticket singer Temptation McCoy sweeps into town for a major concert, Candace is tapped for security. But after meeting Temptation, Candace feels the cold, tingling sensation that can mean only one thing: There’s a vampire in the diva’s entourage. To complicate matters, Ash suddenly appears in Sin City, vowing to do anything and everything to draw Candace back into his arms. Overwhelmed by desire and suspicion, she lets down her guard . . . a move that could cost Candace her life.

I purchased this series a few years ago in the hopes of adding a new author to my favorites list.  For one reason or another,  they kept getting pushed to the back of the bookshelf.  So I finally caved and decided to give them a try despite the upset and mysterious pen name involved with this series.

No one truly knows if Cameron Dean is a real person or if it is a pen name.  No author website can be found, and no other works have been published by this author.  So don’t expect to find much information on the web about this author in the hopes of adding the author as a favorite.  That being said, I still wanted to give the author a chance and dive into the dark vampire world again.

What you get is not what you expect.  I found this book so juvenile and unbelievable that I must have rolled my eyes on every chapter.  The character of Candace is suppose to be tough and is dubbed Nerves of Steele.  This is the complete opposite of what you will get when reading about her.  She is one of the weakest — if not worst — heroine I have read about in a long time.  She can’t make up her mind if she loves the hero Ash or if she wants to kill him.  Yes he is a vampire and had a slip up and bit her neck.  Come on!  You knew you were dating a vampire!  Then she is suppose to come out of his small slip up as a fearless vampire killer now.  She has no skills in her background but she works in security at a casino.

Are you keeping track of the plot yet?  Well, lets throw in the fact that she is also suppose to be heading security for a very important client at the casino, try and solve some murders of vampires around town (even though she kills them on the side anyway), has a boyfriend cop that is more friends with benefits than a boyfriend, a best friend who is sleeping with her married boss, and many more characters that spiral out of control and make you lose count.  I seriously couldn’t keep track of everyone.

At about 3/4 of the way through the book, I gave up.  I just couldn’t do it. This is one series that I wish I had never spent the money on and I could have found better things to do with my time.  On the plus side, I did free up room on my bookshelf to add a series more deserving than this one.

GRACE
Author: Elizabeth Scott
Source: Around the World Tours

• Reading level: Young Adult
• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Dutton Juvenile (September 16, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0525422064
• ISBN-13: 978-0525422068

SYNOPSIS:

Grace was raised to be an Angel, a herald of death by suicide bomb. But she refuses to die for the cause, and now Grace is on the run, daring to dream of freedom. In search of a border she may never reach, she travels among malevolent soldiers on a decrepit train crawling through the desert. Accompanied by the mysterious Kerr, Grace struggles to be invisible, but the fear of discovery looms large as she recalls the history and events that delivered her uncertain fate.

MY THOUGHTS:

I stepped out of my comfort zone again and chose a book with the dystopian theme.  I am not a big fan of this, but I thought I would give it a go.

I don’t know how to quite put into words how I feel about this book.  It had the good points, but it also had some bad points as well.  While I see Grace as a brave person who decides to choose her own path, I don’t like the idea of the women being weak basically and chosen to be used basically as suicide statements.  Since Grace was little, she knew she would be ordered to die. The One who is in charge has ordered it to benefit The People. I for one, hated this part of the story, but not because of the writing or the theme of it. I hated it more for the idea that it is decided by one person only who will die and who will live. No judge or jury decides, just one person.

Grace finds herself on the run choosing life instead of death.  She has decided to choose her own path and flee.  She meets up with Kerr, who is all about himself and no one else.  If Grace gets caught with him, he basically would throw her to the wolves so to say. Once I reached the middle of this book, I just couldn’t read much more.  Even though I wanted to know more about Kerr, and find out if Grace makes it, I just couldn’t bring myself to completely finish it.

The majority of the book that I read was so depressing and I just couldn’t bring myself to continue on in Grace’s journey.  This is not to say others will feel the same way. I just felt like this book was not going to have anything to look forward to at the end.  What I did read left me feeling sad yet thankful that we don’t live like this here right now. 

MY RATING:

SEXY
Author: Joyce Carol Oates
Source: Library Sale

• Reading level: Young Adult
• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: HarperTeen (February 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060541490
• ISBN-13: 978-0060541491

SYNOPSIS:

It was in November, a Thursday after swim practice. The thing with Mr. Tracy, Darren’s English teacher.
The thing was how Darren would think of it, afterward.
The thing that was vague and not-named.
The thing that hadn’t happened, anyway.
Darren Flynn has the perfect life — until that day in November.
After that day, after what happened (did it happen?), life is different. Darren is different. Nothing is as it was –– before. His friends, his family, even the people who are supposed to be in charge are no longer who Darren thought they were. Who can he trust, now? 

MY THOUGHTS:

I had such high hopes for this book. When I first saw it in the young adult section at the library sale, I thought with that cover, shouldn’t it be in the adult section?  Then I looked at the blurb, and realized it was a book for young adults basically about sexual abuse.

When you first start reading it, you realize it is in fragment chapters. Short little chapters that don’t go too much into detail.  I was going nuts with it! The writing was too choppy and it went all over the place. I couldn’t tell which day it was, who was suppose to be in the conversation, and what the hell was going on.  I kept going thinking that it would get better.  I finally made it halfway through the book and just couldn’t take it anymore.

I couldn’t finish this book. It was boring and full of holes and it didn’t flow right to me. Not much detail in the chapters makes it hard to keep track of what is going on. 

MY RATING:

I LIKE IT LIKE THAT True Stories of Gay Male Desire
Edited by Richard Labonte and Lawrence Schimel
Source: Arsenal Pulp Press
* I received this book free of charge in exchange for an honest review*

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Arsenal Pulp Press (October 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1551522594
• ISBN-13: 978-1551522593

SYNOPSIS:

From the editors of the Lambda Award–winning First Person Queer: intelligent, sexy, true-life tales of gay men’s desire. The stories push at the parameters of queer erotic life, featuring contributors both novice and well-known; subject matter ranges from single, significant encounters to the ephemera of emotional desire that never lead to physical pleasure. Throughout, the book deals with the essential erotics of queer male life, to be used as a launching point for exploring the queer male condition: essays that delve into the diverse manifestations of desire between and among men.

MY THOUGHTS:

When the publisher asked me to review this book, I thought this would fit in my out-of-my-normal-box reading. I had heard great things about reading M/M romance and it would not be what I expected. Well, this is not what I expected.

I just couldn’t get into this book. The stories are from the writers experiences and desires. They aren’t written as a M/M romance that you would normally expect. I couldn’t even finish this book because it was just not my cup of tea. I will keep trying this genre, because I feel like that this just the book that people are talking about when being excited over a M/M romance.

Some people might enjoy this book, so don’t take my rating as a bad thing. If it sounds like a read you still want to try, then by all means just read it. This was just my experience with the book.

MY RATING: