To Sin with a Viking by Michelle Willingham

I adore Michelle Willingham’s Viking and Irish historical romances! They’re sweet, sexy, intriguing, and I love being swept away to those ancient places in time. Her latest book, To Sin with a Viking gave me more of what I’ve come to love about her stories, but was disappointing in a major way.

In her introduction to the story the author says:

Author Note

Sometimes arranged marriages in historical romance end in happily-ever-after. And sometimes two good people are never meant to be together. I wanted to explore the idea of a marriage between a husband and a wife who want to make it work but are unable to connect. And what will happen to them when they meet their true soul mates?

This duet of books, beginning with To Sin with a Viking, explores that theme without trespassing into the realm of adultery. Both Styr and Elena Hardrata deserve a happy ending…but it will not be with each other...

The thing about this statement is that infidelity is not just a sexual betrayal of vows, infidelity can also be manifested through the heart and mind. Such is definitely the case with this story. While sexual intercourse doesn’t occur until after Styr is divorced, there are other physical, sexual, and emotional infidelities taking place between he and Caragh, and so I was horribly disappointed in them as people.

This is so out of the norm for this author, so by no stretch of the imagination am I thinking of giving up on Ms. Willingham’s stories. I have every intention of reading the next book, but I’d be lying if I said I enjoyed this one. In fact, it broke my heart. As brilliant as the characters are, as poignant as the story is, dishonoring ones vows, however it’s done, is as unacceptable to me in my romance reads as it is in real life.

Had there been zero infidelity, this would have easily been a 4 read, but I cannot, in good conscience, overlook what took place between Styr and Caragh and rate it more than 2 stars. That said, other reviewers have given this story 4 stars and higher, so please, if infidelity isn't an issue for you, read To Sin with a Viking. There's much to love about the story, so you'll probably enjoy it!

My thanks to Harlequin and Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this story in exchange for an honest review.   

The Mad Earl's Bride by Loretta Chase

The Mad Earl’s Bride is such a treat! Funny, heartbreaking, sexy, inspiring… this novella delivers it all, and is an absolute delight to read.

The Story:

Dorian, the Earl of Rawnsley, knows he’s dying, and he also knows he’s going insane. His own mother suffered from the same headaches that have begun plaguing him, and she had to be institutionalized just before dying a tragic, painful death. Dorian hasn’t yet begun experiencing the hallucinations that his mother had, but he knows it’s only a matter of time, and he wants to meet his end peacefully and privately.

Much to his consternation, however, his relatives have other ideas.

Gwendolyn Adams is a nurse, and good one at that. And with her family’s reputation for producing hearty, healthy male children, she’s not surprised when the dying Earl of Rawnsley’s relatives ask her to marry the poor man in order to provide him with an heir. She knows life with a lunatic won’t be easy, but that doesn’t scare her off. Gwen’s a woman with a mission and will let nothing stand in the way of seeing her dream come true.

My Thoughts:

Loretta Chase is such a gifted author! There’s just something in the way she tells a story that draws readers in and keeps us coming back for more. She knows how to get right to the heart and soul of her characters and make them more than just words on the page. They are people we connect with, people we feel for, and people we love.

This story was originally published in the Three Weddings and a Kiss anthology in 1995, and while it might be short on pages, it’s not short on feeling. Do I wish we had been able to spend more time with Dorian and Gwen, and even cousin Bertie? Absolutely! But for me, this story lacked nothing.

The Bottom Line:

What more can I say than The Mad Earl’s Bride is such a beautiful love story. And the icing on this already delectable little cake? Spending a few minutes with Sebastian Ballister, the notorious Marquess of Dain from Lord of Scoundrels.

My thanks to Avon Books for providing me with a copy of this story in exchange for an honest review.

A Kiss of Blood by Pamela Palmer

A Kiss of Blood is the second book in Pamela Palmer’s Vamp City series, and while this too is dark, provocative, and sexy, as is the first book, we see a more compassionate side to both Arturo and Quinn. I became more invested in the beings who live in Washington, VC, and wanted to see them set free from the nightmare that was becoming their lives. Without a doubt, this world Ms. Palmer has created is unique, the characters complex, and once I started, I couldn’t put it down.

From the cover:

One of the few humans who managed to escape the deadly twilight world of Vamp City, Quinn Lennox vows to never return. But the vampires want her back, for only she has the power to renew the magic of their crumbling world and free the vampires trapped within.

When the dangerous and all-too-seductive Arturo Mazza comes for her, Quinn knows she can never trust him after the betrayal she suffered at his hands. But with her beloved brother's fate hanging in the balance, and her own power beginning to emerge, she chooses to risk all on yet another perilous journey back to Vamp City. And though she tries to deny it, her heart begins to hold hope that even a ruthless vampire can learn the meaning of true love.

The truth is, Quinn Lennox only cares about one thing; her brother, Zack, who’s dying as a result of magic poisoning. Unless Quinn can renew the magic that allows Vamp City to exist, the city will die, along with all who reside in it – including Zack. Quinn doesn’t care about the barbaric and bloodthirsty beings who live there, but to save Zack, she must save them as well. And so it continues…

I truly enjoyed this exciting installment of the Vamp City series! Talk about a riveting story! In my review of book #1, A Blood Seduction, I said that I wasn’t sure if Arturo could be redeemed because he was a selfish, self serving, bastard! A gamma hero, through and through. Willing to send Quinn to her death to get what he wanted… for him, the end always justified the means. But in this book, he really is coming around and that makes me very happy.

Will Quinn save Vamp City? Will she and Arturo ever work out their issues? What the heck is happening to Zack?? I’ll have to wait until the next book to find out. Talk about a cliff hanger!!!

My thanks to Avon Books for providing me with a copy of this story in exchange for an honest review!

A Blood Seduction by Pamela Palmer

“Another person has been reported missing in downtown D.C. in a string of disappearances that has police baffled. This brings the total number reported missing in the past six weeks to twelve. This last incident is believed to have occurred near George Washington University.”

And so it begins....

The Story:

Vampires live only for lust and pleasure in the eternal twilight of Vamp City. But the city's magic is dying. The only person who can restore it? A beautiful woman from the mortal world...one who knows nothing of the power she wields.

Washington, V.C. is the backdrop of Pamela Palmer’s latest series, Vamp City. It’s a world on a different plane than ours, a duplicate of Civil War era Washington, D.C., supposedly created as a place where vampires, werewolves, and other immortals, could live in their version of peace. No sunlight, no laws but their own, able to hunt, enslave, torture and kill humans without fear of retribution. A true Vampire Utopia.

But even utopias have a dark side, and Phineas Blackstone, the powerful wizard the vampires had paid to create their dark city, had engineered a brilliant one—a death trap finally sprung two years ago. The moment the magic began to fail, all vampires within the city’s boundaries had become instantly caught, unable to escape. Soon, the sunbeams from the real world had begun to break through—slowly, at first, then more and more frequently until it became clear that their world was dying. And with it, every soul trapped within—vampire, werewolf, and immortal human alike.

Only by renewing Vamp City’s magic would they be saved.

Quinn and her brother Zack accidentally land in Vamp City, and it doesn’t take long for the Vampires residing there to figure out that there's much more to Quinn than meets the eye. In fact, unbeknownst to her, she’s a powerful sorceress who might just be Vamp City’s final hope for survival. But as the days go on and Quinn, who's being held as a slave, sees the world for the barbaric place it is, she starts to wonder if maybe it wouldn’t be better if Vamp City died, after all. The only problem is that Zack is also being held prisoner, and Quinn knows if V.C. dies, so will he.

My Thoughts:

Pamela Palmer is a name I frequently see running through my friends’ feeds on Goodreads, and always with high praise and impressive ratings. I actually own several books in her Feral Warriors series, but haven’t gotten around to reading them, yet. Well, after reading A Blood Seduction  and getting a taste of her writing, that’s going to change, and change soon.

This world Ms. Palmer has created has a decidedly Urban Fantasy feel about it, but the actions of the characters living in there make it a dark paranormal story. It's brutal, edgy, barbaric, and there are scenes of sexual violence, so anyone sensitive to things of this nature should consider themselves forewarned.

Arturo, the so called "hero" in this book, is one nasty, backstabbing, unfeeling ass. He reminds me of Anne Stuart's Ice heroes in his uncaring, selfish machinations. Truth be told, I'm not sure he's redeemable, but only time will tell.

I truly enjoyed Quinn. She's strong, smart, independent, devoted, caring... she really is a great heroine. I'm excited to see how things with her play out in the next book, A Kiss of Blood.

Fans of dark fantasy and paranormal romance will definitely enjoy this series, but be aware - this has an unresolved HEA.

The Bottom Line:

I love Paranormal Romance, especially vampires and shifters, but let's be honest here - the genre has been done to death. It's not often I run across a world as unique and compelling as Ms. Palmer's Vamp City is, so you can bet this is a series I'll keep following. It's fast paced, gritty, sexy, and downright disturbing at times, and I am thrilled to have found these books!

Note: The descriptions and quotes I used are taken from both A Blood Seduction and A Kiss of Blood.

Books in the Vamp City series, so far:

The Fireman Who Loved Me by Jennifer Bernard

Fearless, smoking hot, and single: meet the Bachelor Firemen of San Gabriel. These firemen might be heroes, but it's their bad luck in love that makes them legendary.

The Fireman Who Loved Me is the first book in Jennifer Bernard’s The Bachelor Firemen of San Gabriel series, as well as her debut novel. It’s fun, it’s sexy, it’s poignant… it’s a thoroughly entertaining story!

The Curse:

In my review of the prequel, One Fine Fireman, I explained a bit about the curse:

First, a little background to the series title: Due to an event over 150 years ago, the firefighters assigned to this firehouse are cursed to never find love. The curse surrounds the true (supposedly) story of mail order bride Constancia B. Sidwell and says that one of the first volunteer firemen in the area, Virgil Rush, had been corresponding with Constancia B. Sidwell who was eager to start a new life in the West. Like many women of the time were doing, she hopped on a mail coach to travel across the country to meet her future husband, but before she could reach him, a gang of robbers attacked. The story goes on that she fell in love with the leader of the gang and never thought about poor Virgil again, and Virgil, subjected to the unrelenting teasing of his fellow firefighters, vowed that from that day forward, San Gabriel firefighters would suffer the same rocky road to romance that he did.

As I said then, this really has little to do with the actual storyline of this book, but it’s a fun “backdrop” to the entire series, so I wanted to share that with you.

The Story:

News producer Melissa McGuire has been burned - and not by fire. Thanks to the dog-eat-dog environment of television news, she lost her job and got her heart broken in one fell swoop. Leaving the glitz and prestige of Los Angeles behind, Melissa now finds herself living and working in not-so-glitzy San Gabriel, California, and taking care of her ailing grandmother. A grandmother with a secret whose made is her mission to match Melissa with one of the hot, legendary, “Firemen of San Gabriel.”

Melissa and Fire Captain Harry Brody couldn’t be more different but sometimes, as the saying goes, opposites attract. And in the case of this matchmaking endeavor, they match, and match big. But that doesn’t mean everything goes smoothly, though, because…

Sparks fly. Passion flares. Heat rises. (You get the picture.)

Add a curse, a conniving nightly news anchor, a stunningly handsome daredevil fireman, a brave little boy, a couple of exes, and one giant fire to the mix, and Melissa and Brody's love may not be the only thing that burns.

My Thoughts:

All I can say is Wow! What a great story this is. Lots of excitement, action, romance, humor, and sexy goodness, and even some moments that found me fighting back the tears. There was so much packed into this story that I honestly can’t think of a thing it lacked.

If you’re a fan of contemporary romance, and if you love firefighters, then you definitely need to give this series a try. Ms. Bernard is a talented writer, giving us awesome characters, great stories, and happily ever afters we can believe in and cheer for!

Less Than a Gentleman by Kerrelyn Sparks

Playful, passionate, exciting… regardless of the genre, Kerrelyn Sparks sure can tell a story!

This is such a great historical romance! I love the Colonial America, Revolutionary War backdrop, and the mystery, the intrigue, the battles… everything about this drew me in and kept me turning the pages until the wee hours of the morning.

The story:

The British are gaining ground in South Carolina, and in their bloody attempt to win the war, burning everything in sight. Captain Matthais Murray Thomas is doing everything in his power to stop them, as well as protect the innocent colonists who find themselves at the mercy of the British. Clearly, Matthais has better things to worry about than taking a bride, much to his mother’s frustration, and since he won’t take the need to marry seriously, Jane does everything and anything she can to “help” him in along. And much to Matthais’s annoyance, she’s even stooped to inviting “suitable” women to stay at their plantation, and sleep in Matthais’s bed.


After the British burned down her home, Caroline Munro is a woman with a mission: get her very pregnant sister, and her niece and nephew to safety. Fortunately they find their way to the Loblolly Plantation where they have a safe place to rest awhile. Knowing that Captain Matthais Thomas was away fighting, Caroline didn’t think it was a problem to masquerade as his fiancée, but when Matthais arrives home unexpectedly and realizes that Caroline is not the woman she claims to be, he makes it his mission to learn all he can about this imposter while hiding his own identity from her.

My thoughts:

Kerrelyn Sparks writes exciting, funny, sexy, paranormal romances with her Love at Stake vampire series, and I’m here to tell you that this non-paranormal historical romance is just as exciting, just as funny, and just as sexy! And when I say funny, I mean I snickered, giggled, and even laughed out loud at some of the banter between characters. Matthais’s growing frustration with Caroline’s supposed deceptions and innocent double entendre references to “A small knob? A tiny twig, a wee button, a small prick?” made for some seriously funny reading.

But best of all? With Less Than a Gentleman, Ms. Sparks has proven herself to be one of the rare historical romance authors who can write outside of the same-old, same-old genre offerings - and do it well! There are others in this book who need their stories told, and I hope Ms. Sparks gives them their chance to speak, too. That would make me a very happy lady!

Note: I was excited to learn that this is the sequel to The Forbidden Lady, originally published as For Love or Country. As soon as I found that out, I bought it. That's how much I enjoyed Less Than a Gentleman!

My thanks to Avon Books and Edelweiss for providing me with a copy of this truly awesome story!

Playing the Field by Jennifer Seasons

Playing the Field  is the second book in the Diamonds and Dugouts series, and once again Jennifer Seasons has delivered a fun, romantic, sexy story.

JP Trudeau is the shortstop for the Denver Rush, Colorado's Major League Baseball team. He's an unrepentant cocky, sexy, chick magnet who enjoys the "perks" of being a celebrity. He loves his job, loves his community, and is pretty well grounded for a guy in his twenties, so when his team sponsors a charity event for diabetic kids, JP's all in. It's a gorgeous day, he's about to play ball with some great kids and he thinks that life can't get better than this... until he spots "one seriously luscious beauty..." headed his way, and life as he knows it is about to change.

Sonny Miller is happy with her life as an organic cheese maker, living on the ranch she grew up on, and then inherited from the grandmother who had raised her. As a child, she had been abandoned by her parents, and then as an adult abandoned by her boyfriend when she became pregnant. Needless to say, Sonny has trust issues. She's devoted to her son, Charlie, and will do anything she has to do to protect him, so she's decided she'll never get involved with a man again, and so far she's been successful. With Charlie's diabetes, she's made sure their life is planned out, well constructed, and safe. Safe, that is, until JP Trudeau swaggers into it. From then on, all bets are off.

This really is a great story! The close knit, unstoppable duo of Sonny and her ten year old son, Charlie, are awesome, and then with the 'knows what he wants and stops at nothing to get it' hunky shortstop, JP, what we have is a winning lineup of characters I couldn't help but adore.

If you love contemporary romance as much as I do, be sure and give this series a try! You won’t be disappointed!!

Many thanks to Avon Books and Edelweiss for providing me with a copy of this story in exchange for an honest review. As always, it was such a pleasure!

Books in the Diamonds and Dugouts series: