Review: great value
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 22, 2014
I've read lots of Entangled romances so this collection is great value. I've read two from the bundle, and loved them so to get all these for such a bargain price is excellent value for money and a great way to stock up your kindle and get a taste of some new sereis.The first is Undying Destiny Jessica Lee.Vampires - tick, romance - tick, OK time to get lost into a novel hopefully. And yes, I did get lost in this book - in a good way of course.Emily - works in a hospital, is on her way to a night shift when she finds an injured man. She stops to help him, calls for ambulance and carries on to work. At the end of her shift she checks on him, near to death everyone had thought...but its Kenric, and his vampire body has almost healed, but he needs blood..right now and Emily unwittingly provides it. He takes a bit too much and she faints so he calls in his team to help cover everything up.He takes her back to where he and his fellow vampires live. There's an ongoing battle between them, the few who want to live among humans but unnoticed, and others who create vampires that are just addicted to blood and kill needlessly. (BTW I hate twee stuff and to me that DEAD acronym was just cringing and didn't suit the style of the novel...personal peculiarity though I know.) This time is his maker, a female who killed the woman he loved and is out to get him. In between convincing Emily everything is OK ( what a world shaker for her ) he faces a vicious battle against Marguerite. She wants him, and will use Emily to get to him knowing he's come to care for her.The set up - warrior group of "good" vampires warring against the "bad" ones reminds me of Lara Adrian's novels. Its a very similar world, secrets to keep from humans, trained and morally good vampires and always a threat to the way of life they lead and want to protect. Betrayals by someone close leave Emily and Kenric in serious danger. Its a real action story, along with some spicy sensual romance.It was a pretty easy work to get into, much of the conventional vampire lore applies so it seems a bit like returning to a familiar world. The characters were very well drawn and it was easy to empathise with them, and root for them to come out in top. As regular readers of my reviews will know I just love a good bitch and Marguerite was certainly that - all the drama you'd expect from a woman scorned!! If anything the story was a little light on drama. There was action but it wasn't to any great depth and quickly over, but for those who like an easy read that's fine, for me I like a little more thoroughness and drama, for things to get quite heavy. But we all want something different and its certainly a world I'd happily venture into again.Its well edited and constructed, everything ties up properly and there's a way left for more books. I hope that happens as this was a thoroughly enjoyable read. I can see this being the start of a series, certainly the ending leaves an opening for a follow up novel finding out what will happen to the one who unwillingly betrayed Kenric and the Warriors.Stars: well, if it was just that bit "heavier"? Not quite sure how to put it ..it would be a five but as it is its a definite four from me.the second is the wonderful Bittersweet Blood. Nina Croft:Vampires and Romance, love those books so I was eager to crack on with this one. Since Twilight however, it seems every other book has vampires of some description and some are really trite stories so I'm quite picky about which ones I pick. The sample on this was good so I wanted to see if the rest lived up to the early promise - the quick answer is yes!Anyway the description covers outline pretty well so I'll concentrate on how I felt about the book. Firstly the storyline - it was clear that however much Tara wanted to be normal she wasn't going to turn out that way but I didn't work out what she was til; the storyline opened it up. Its good to have things that keep you guessing in a book, unpredictability is what keeps us reading and interested. Jamie came as a total shock! Didn't see that one coming. Christian - and Piers- Vamp hotties, true Alpha males and I enjoyed the testosterone conflicts between them and also the werewolf Carl. Tara makes a good lead too - not easily knocked back despite her upbringing and able to stand up to Christian and Co.I didn't work out the ending - that's good as often its just so obvious, and it didn't involve the cop out of Tara suddenly developing new powers as so many fantasy books do when its all coming to a head and there's no clear way out. Its a solidly plotted book, with characters that are realistic (well, as realistic as fantasy characters can be!) there's sex scenes but its done well and sensual rather than vividly in your face erotic - and who wouldn't want an encounter with Christian and all that he promises!The book has a variety of warring creatures among them vampires, demons, werewolves, witches and fae and in order to protect Tara Christian needs to find out who is after her and exactly what she is. She's come to him in his work capacity as a PI but they quickly develop feelings for each other even when she discovers he's a 500 year old vampire. If you like romance with a decent plot to back it up and stop it being a sickly love story then this book delivers. I really enjoyed it - will add it to my keepers list for re reading and look out for further books from Nina. The characters in this book and the ethics surrounding Order - the organisation ruling the supernaturals, have plenty of potential for further books and I hope Nina develops this into a series.Stars - A well deserved four and a half stars from me, almost a five but not quite.