Wicked Gentlemen by Ginn Hale
Blind Eye Books
This is not really my genre, steampunk fantasy religion, all big no-nos for me as a rule. The results. Absolutely amazing. Yeah yeah, never say never. Belimai is a drug addicted Prodigal (demons no longer live in hell and are "people") and Harper is a priest, aka cop. The cops use torture in the name of religion to generally get confessions from people, often Prodigals. However Harper and Belimai end up teaming up to catch some serial killers who are preying on Prodigals, Belimai nearly getting killed in the process. This is a two part book and in the second, Harper stumbles across a murder that is being covered up by his boss and soon he's a wanted man himself, and he and Belimai are trying to find evidence to convict the bad guy, escape from the police and Balimai is trying to get off drugs. You also get to find out more about Harper and what makes him tick. It's hard to put it all here but it's gritty, graphic, sad, sweet in it's way. It's kind of like a super gritty crime drama on TV with a romance thrown in. All I can say is read it. It's not that graphic either and I'm trying to convince my teen she should read it. Apparently in exchange I have to help her with math. Umm, I doubt she'll read it if that's the deal.
Rinse and Repeat by Amberly Smith (188 pages)
Dreamspinner Press
Peat is a repeater. He is sent to various places around the country to stop a crime or catch a criminal and until that happens, the day keeps happening over and over again. He is sent to Idaho to save Jake who keeps getting shot at a skate park. Everyday he tries to figure out who is killing Jake, and soon he starts trying to throw himself in front of the bullet and it's up to about day 60 and he still can't figure it out, but there's a problem, he's falling for Jake even though every day, to Jake, Peat is a total stranger. However Jake seems to start remembering things, not clearly but he knows something is up and soon Peat's boss of sorts, shows up to help out and catch the bad guy. Jake and Peat are both in college and Peat has no idea why or how he's a repeater, it just started happening when he hit 19. It was kind of sad, because anything that happens while he's in a loop is forgotten. The first guy he had sex with didn't even remember it and it starts to happen with Jake and he hates it, but he has to save him. If you need to know exactly why he's a repeater and how it works this will make you crazy, because even Peat and his boss don't know. It just happens. I did start to suspect the killer and it was kind of a creeptastic ending, but Jake was a nice guy with nice granola parents and the story really sucked me in as Peat kept adapting and gathering information to try and solve the puzzle. So definitely a different premise as I've not come across it in romance before. Worth a read I think.
Last Call Europe: Black Wolf by Belinda McBride (110 pages)
Changeling Press
Brutus is a wolf shifter on an around the world chase of a brutal serial killer. (Lordy, I seem to have a crime theme going here too). He decides to hop ahead to London and get ahead of the killer, and ends up at a paranormal bar. A pack of huskies come in and they are celebrating Jasper's birthday. Huskies are annoying, but Brutus finds Jasper attractive. At some point there is a type of game at the bar where a patron chooses a drink at random and someone in the audience takes up the offer and they retire for sex in the back. When Jasper picks a "black wolf" Brutus "volunteers". It's not quite what he thought when he falls asleep and wakes up to find Jasper is a Dom at heart and he seems to be a sub. After some hot smexin', Jasper admits he knows about the crimes and he works for a mysterious demon. Despite Brutus' better judgment, when Jasper is nearly killed by a demon he teams up with Jasper's boss and his two tiger shifter mates to try and solve the mystery. This is a follow-on to the story of Jasper's boss and his two mates (m/m/f - Last Call Europe: Devil's Advocate), you don't really need to read it first although any questions I had were about the three others so I suppose that would solve my curiosity if I wanted to. I liked the D/s element with Brutus being big and strong yet admitting that sometimes he liked to let go and also his resistance to being bonded to Jasper. He was a lone wolf in all ways and it was hard for him to admit, and Jasper to accept that he wouldn't just take off. So if you like crime stories with shifters and demons and intrigue it's a good choice and I like the author's style.
18 comments:
I liked the McBride. Haven't read the others, but I do have the both. :) I can think of three different things that have had a variant of the "repeater" thing in Rinse & Repeat: an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, an episode of The X-Files, and the movie Run, Lola, Run.
Ugh - that does make for a long week...
I'm so glad you read and enjoyed Wicked Gentlemen. It made a big impression on me, too. The Repeater thing makes me think of the movie Groundhog Day. I'm going to have to look into that one, even though I'm afraid I'm the type that will chafe about not getting an explanation as to why the repeating thing happens (but I won't hold it against the book).
You really should read Wicked Gentlemen Chris. I think you'll enjoy it. So well done. As Val noted of course there is the class Ground Hog Day, which is appropriate for this week, but this book is definitely not a comedy, some smiles but it's more of a drama and crime solving book.
WG was such a creative world and very vivid Val.
I suppose the repeater is a bit like wondering why do some people suddenly get certain diseases when you grow up? It's just something genetic maybe? And Peat is only 22 so he's only been dealing with it a short time and his "boss" was young as well. I noticed when I added it to Good Reads that another reader made a comment about waiting for what sounds like a sequel so perhaps Peat will find out more about why it happens and what does it mean that Jake doesn't forget now?
Anybody who hasn't read WG is really cheating him/herself. And this is coming from one fussy-ass reader.
(Yikes, Tam, your account of that conference really took me back to my corporate-whore days. AAACK! You must have the patience of a saint!)
I agree KZ, it's a real treat.
*shrug* I'm pretty go with the flow and thankful for a phone that distracted me from time to time. I enjoy meeting my colleagues I usually only get to talk to on the phone or via e-mail so that's always fun, even if you have to tolerate some other stuff to get the good parts.
I loved Wicked Gentlemen. Haven't read the others, though. I also thought that Repeat was in the Groundhog Day subgenre.
It's great that you can be patient with those kinds of meetings, Tam. Argh!
That's a subgenre Wren? Who knew. LOL It was different though which is always a nice change.
Well, I may mutter and complain during the meetings but on the whole it sometimes beats being stuck in my office.
I've had Wicked Gentlemen in my TBR for months. I think I need to move it up. Sounds great!
The other two sound interesting. More for the endless to buy/wishlist. I loved Groundhog Day and probably saw it more times than I care to mention. :D
It's really worth a read and not TERRIBLY long Lily.
I enjoyed Goundhog Day too. I have to tell you, nothing is funnier than a groundhog driving a truck. :-) Off a cliff.
Sure. The Groundhog Day subgenre. Everybody knows that.
Okay. I made it up. But it could be!
Meeting people you've only known by phone and email would make the experience more enjoyable. But I repeatedly got stuck in home-office conferences with the same upper-management types and department heads -- except for an equally boring road trip I once had to take with a married ho-dog. Blech.
Wicked Gentlemen is a fabulous book.
I put Black Wolf on my TBR pile after Chris recommended it and....yes it's still there *sigh*. I will read it, just not yet :).
Your conference sounds dreadful! I thought day teacher training was dull but three days of it - urgh!
Ugh. I have to say I've never traveled with a jerk from work, or they've hidden it well KZ.
I know the feeling Jen. So many books, so little time. I guess I'm used to long meetings like that, maybe it's a government specialty. :-)
Tam, that is one suh-WEET photo you got up there in the corner!
Thank you, thank you very much!
HUGS...
I knew you could be counted on to help a boy out hon. ;-)
I have heard so much good thing about the first book..
second one have very familiar lines to groundhog day - at least the whole repeat thing..
Definately reading the last one, I actually have the first book in the series...
I love meeting people who I have only known thorough email.. most times they are nothing like I expect..
Happy week hon..
:)
Ginn's book is definitely very high quality. The second one was a Ground Hog day type, but with more blood and death. :-)
Yeah, it's always hard to imagine someone. Some were as I imagined, some not so much. :-)
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