Fantasy Romance Reviews

Reviews about Fantasy Romance Books

Enslave me sweetly by Gena Showalter

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Gena’s Alien huntress series is a futuristic story where aliens have come to earth and are considered second class-citizens, which always makes people act crazy, whether they are the oppressed or the oppressors.

Enslave me sweetly follows Eden Black, a trained assassin, and a Raka alien who was raised by a human after her parents were killed when she was young. Raka’s are a race of aliens, coveted and nearly driven to extinction for their golden skin and hair. After sitting on the sidelines for some time Eden is given a new mission that comes with an unwanted partner, Lucius. Eden works alone, and Lucius, though handsome, is in her way. His opinion of her is that she is spoiled and uses her beauty to get what she wants. There’s a fun struggle through the story as Eden and Lucius learn to work together.

Their mission, is to uncover and eliminate a slaving operation, so, of course, the best course of action is for Eden to get herself captured by the slavers. Well, how else do you find them?

Throughout the book, the dynamic between Lucius and Eden gets pretty steamy and I liked it. Eden is a strong independent female and Lucius is a badass.

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Lover Unbound – BDB 5 by J. R. Ward

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The first hundred pages are boring as hell. Besides a huge revelation about V’s origins not much happens. The book jumps from character to character, where you read about stuff you already know, and I’m just thinking when is something going to happen. Phury is still in love with Bella, and there’s more about what’s happening with John, but all I really want is V’s story because I know the other two will eventually have a whole book unto themselves. I’m afraid much skipping is happening here.

I was a little put off by V’s homosexual feelings for Butch. Not that I’m against that sort of thing, I’m just not into it when it comes to my romance books. That being said, I love the dynamic between V and Jane. Jane is a tough chick, and relief after the previous books low self-esteemed heroine. The BDSM I could have done without, but at least it was only one scene.

V and Jane fall for each other fast, which I liked because there were less false assumptions and self-doubt as there was with the other books. Of course they had to fall fast because much of the book was dedicated to other characters. The sex was hot, and much more intense than previous books. Same goes for the breakup, most emotionally real parting of the characters yet.

I’m sorry for then end though. Although V and Jane get to be together, it’s not the happily-ever-after that satisfies me. Though this issue doesn’t get addressed in the book V can never live off Jane’s blood, so he will need to take the vein of another female forever, and he and Jane can never have children together. It was just not the right kind of ending.
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Eternity Embraced by Larissa Ione

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Be aware that this is not a full-length novel. This is a very shortened story that coincides between the third and fourth books in the Demonica series. I did enjoy the dynamic between these two main characters and believe that the story would have made for a really great full-length novel. I was a little sad that there was so little to the story, but as I understand, it was part of The Mammoth Book of Vampire Romance 2.

Short stories aren’t my cup of tea. There is usually no room for strong character development, and a believable connection between the main characters. But Ione is able to bypass this problem by creating two characters who are already in love and now have the challenge of getting past the fat that one of them has been turned into their worst enemy.

I really enjoyed this story, and could only wish for more of it.
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Lover Revealed – BDB 4 by J. R. Ward

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Butch was always comedy relief, and I was eager for his book to find out how he and Marissa would finally come together. However, the story didn’t live up to my expectations. I expected Butch to be more persistent, and fight for his woman, but he had some major self-esteem issues that were a bit of a turnoff. Marissa’s self-esteem wasn’t much better. By the end, both of them were borderline pathetic. I just kept thinking how can these two be a good couple with all the combined self-doubt.

There were a few hot love scenes, one was voyeuristic involving Butch’s best friend V. Interesting twist there, we find that Marissa may have some competition. The constant pushing away, and coming back together with the main couple got pretty old quick, and sadly I got a little board with the dialogue. I just wanted these two to show a little confidence.

The sexual innuendo between Butch and V is brought to light in this book and adds another dimension to the story. Is V in love with Butch, or is Butch his Frodo to V’s Sam. Either way we get some inside to the dynamic of their relationship.

In the end Marissa finally found her grove and had herself a you-go-girl moment, regarding her peers, that redeemed her for me. Butch also goes through something (I won’t mention what, and spoil it) so he can be the man Marissa needs.
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Dark Lover (BDB Book 1) by J R Ward

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You may be a vampire and not even know it. In Ward’s world of the Black Dagger Brotherhood, a vampire is born as any other human, goes through life without any special cravings, and doesn’t change into a vampire until around age 25. It’s an interesting concept and has the potential for appealing story lines.

The black dagger brother hood is a special group of warrior vampires who defend the vampire community against—ahem—undead humans. There’s a twist. Humans who despise vampires trade their souls to join the lessers, and who’s only goal is to kill vampires.

There were a few things I couldn’t stand that I should mention now. The horrible names for one! I don’t know if I’ve said this before but I hate ridiculous descriptive names like Rhage, Vishous, or Phury, and this series has them all. So if you can get past that, here’s the second thing I had trouble with; the bad ghetto talk. Every time the ghetto talk starts up all I can picture is an outrageously dressed pimp with a feather in his cap, instead of the leather bound vampire warriors they are supposed to be. Those two things aside, I enjoyed the book.

Beth is the illegitimate daughter of Darius, a member of the black dagger brotherhood and good friend of Wrath, the rightful kind of the vampires. Beth doesn’t know she’s a vampire or the daughter of one. She’s lived as a human all her life. Just before his death Darius makes Wrath promise to help his daughter through the change, meaning she must feed from a strong male vampire as she makes the transition.

Before Beth meets her dark warrior, she has a particularly nasty encounter with a human who later becomes a lesser and Wrath fines he need to help Beth through more than just her transmission.

The romance was good, Wraith was, of course, resistant, and Beth was the typical damsel in distress with backbone.
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