Blade Dance by D.L. McDermott
Urban Fantasy
Rating: B+

The fourth book in McDermott’s dark and gritty Cold Iron series picks up a few months after book three-Stone Song-and continues to evolve the arc and world while creating an intriguing and sexy romance. The series most antagonistic anti hero finds his manipulations have catastrophic effects and now he must put aside his animosity and ally with his enemies to save a young boy’s life. While I wasn’t a fan of book one, the last 3 books have certainly changed my mind about the series. Built upon the mythology of the Fae and Druids, McDermott builds a fantasy series that incorporates the world at large with magic and mayhem. Action packed and sensuous, McDermott doesn’t take the easy routes, choosing instead to keep readers on their toes as the players in this convoluted tale struggle to keep their world from succumbing to the whims of a fae queen and prince who are determined to rule again.

Code Black by Tina Moss
Paranormal Romance-Series
Rating: D

Code Black is a new PNR series that draws on a wide variety of supernatural entities to create an interesting world based on religious mythology. While the beginning certainly intrigued me, I found my attention weaning gradually as more and more characters are introduced and the complicated mythology continued to reveal. Often the first book of a fantasy series will consist mainly of world building and character set up but I found myself growing more rather than less confused as the story progressed. There was literally too much being introduced at once and once you added in the insta lust romance and the, in my honest opinion, weak personal conflict for heroine based on her past, I was ready to just walk away. I don’t believe this is a series for me though I could change my mind if the author can settle the storyline down.

A Moment Of Weakness by Brooklyn Skye
Romance Suspense
Rating: D

The premise of this story looked exciting-an enforcer for the mob and single father meets and falls for an elementary school teacher he hires to watch his little girl for the summer. WHAAAA? *grabby hands* If only the story itself had proved as exciting. The story isn’t bad, it just doesn’t offer anything fresh to the bad boy falls for good girl trope. Predictable and trite at some points, we watch as the hero blows hot and cold towards the heroine till the very end. A majority of the book is the heavy sexual tension that permeates the story and  some very sexy foreplay but I could never get over just how much of a jerk the hero was. His only redeeming qualities was his love for his little girl and the fact that much of his attitude stemmed from his need to keep her safe from his extracurricular activities. Also, the heroine’s pollyanna routine wasn’t much more endearing. The ending was a complete left down after the build up. SPOILER!! NO ONE leaves the mob by just finding new friends, ignoring any summons, and moving away. NO ONE. It just isn’t done. I’m not even in the mob and I know this. It was in a sense a cop-out to get to the HEA and was left me disappointed and annoyed.

The Unfortunate Decisions of Dahlia Moss by Max Wirestone
Contemporary Fiction-Mystery/Thriller
Rating: DNF

First off let me say that I found nothing wrong with the book…it just wasn’t for me. I didn’t expect the MMO gaming aspect to play such a large part of it. The outline is super cute-a snarky trouble making magnet is hired to find an item stolen in an MMO game only to discover the guy who hired her was killed with a real life replica of the item. Now she has to discover who killed him, why, and why she was even hired in the first place. My issue was MMO games don’t interest me. At all. So my interest plummeted rather quickly as my confusion rose. Though not for me, readers who enjoy cosplay, MMOs, and nerdy geeks galore will definitely enjoy this book.